BYOD or Bring Your Own Device (to work), is happening all around us. If you use an iPhone, iPad, Android phone (like Samsung Galaxy 3 or similar device) you can receive and send emails, text messages, see and update Calendars, Contacts, use a program like LogMeIn to access your desktop computer as well as a number of other really useful things. As people bring these devices into the work environment, they want to use them for instant access, and these devices, with their fast boot up times and “always on” availability are a great choice. Even though the business may own the device, many times the devices (especially smart phones) are owned by the user. BYOD has a lot of implications for businesses, (more on that in another post). The really POSITIVE benefit of these devices is that they allow workers to increase productivity, especially people who spend a good deal of time out of the office, and away from their main computer or computer server. BYOD is taking the business world by storm, because it is has become so easy to access your work anytime, anywhere. We encourage our StrategicFusion http://www.SF-IT.com clients to leverage BYOD to increase productivity and increase profitability. Our live Help Desk provides the best IT Support Alpharetta and the best IT Support Roswell, we can help you set up iPhones, Androids, tablets, iPads, almost any device that talks to your network, call us today 678-353-3222 Option 2, and ask for Mike!

To avoid becoming infected with a computer virus there are a few guidlines you can follow to avoid the nastiness of computer infection from a virus, trojan or spyware…
1) A computer virus is just like a real Virus, they tend to spread among congregated groups, the congregating is usually somewhere on the internet or in an email you open. Live in the woods and you are safe (and lonely), live in the city and you need to be vaccinated.
2) Antivirus software is like a Flu shot, it helps prevent you from getting the Flu but doesn’t guarantee it. Going to the wrong websites opens you up to infection, opening email chain letters does too.
3) Use good anti-virus and anti-malware programs and keep them up to date.
4) keep your computer updated and patched.
There are no guarentee’s in life, but working with StrategicFusion http://www.sf-it.com helps ensure you’ll avoid becoming infected.

These guys do amazing Hard Drive recovery, and offer Discounts for using our special SF-IT discount code located here: http://ow.ly/crgbY click on the Red Discounts button! StrategicFusion offers the best IT Support Atlanta

If you are a Life Long Learner, this article from the NYT and the info it contains are going to make your day! http://nyti.ms/Kgadg1 StrategicFusion offers the best IT Support Atlanta

Today in the New York Times there was an excellent article on Internet attacks and it is worth a read. The implications are for any business that is using cloud services for any transaction based application (app). http://nyti.ms/HaUsKC

11 years ago this month we founded StrategicFusion for IT Support.

We believed at the time, that we could deliver superior technology solutions to small and medium sized businesses in Atlanta and that dream is being realized every day!

Heartfelt thanks go out to our clients who have trusted us, our team who has delivered for us and to our partners who have supported us. Thanks to all who helped make StrategicFusion a truly different kind of IT Support provider!

Sincerely,
Mike Gonsalves
President
StrategicFusion, Inc.

http://www.SF-IT.com

Mikego@sf-it.com

This is worth checking out. Microsoft has put Office in the cloud via its public BETA of Office365. This is in addition to Exchange email and SharePoint file sharing that are currently available! (Remember, BETA’s are fun to play with but please don’t use them to run your business!) Check out the public BETA of Office365 here: http://bit.ly/hJFyyE

In my business is not uncommon to come upon computers that display a Blue Screen with a somewhat cryptic error message written in white on it. These are usually a bad sign and need to be addressed by a qualified computer technician when they occur.

A little history, I believe the Blue Screen error first appeared with Windows NT back in the roaring 90′s. The Blue Screen error came to affectionately be called The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) by the people running Microsoft Servers across the world.  It got this name because once it appeared; you could do very little but hard reboot (shut off all power to you computer) and restart the server.

BSOD’s occurred mostly on servers until Microsoft merged their Home & Business operating system platforms with Windows XP (yes they still have Home and Professional editions of these, but they share the same underlying code). So the computer code for Windows 98 was no longer the underlying code, but the NT code was. The Blue Screen error came along with this underlying operating system. It is sort of like genetically passing a trait from one generation to the next.

In the early days of the BSOD, if you were really lucky, the BSOD was related to some arcane issue that came up, but most of the time it meant you had a really bad problem and needed to fix it to get the Server restarted.

Today, the BSOD is still a very serious error. It also occurs much more frequently because of its presence inside of every XP, Vista and System 7 computer. The good news is that Microsoft has built in a number of really great functions that help you work around what might cause a Blue Screen error.

For example, when restarting your computer after a blue screen error, if you repeatedly hit the F8 key you will get a boot menu (it differs slightly from XP to Vista to System 7) but you can use the up and down arrow buttons to get to an entry title “Last Known Good Configuration” this will usually unload any software, patch or driver that may have caused the Blue Screen error.

In any event the Blue Screen errors are serious and should be addressed by a certified computer technician as soon as possible.

When you are having issues like this give us a call at 687-353-3222 Option 1. We’ll do our best to get you back on your feet.

With this month’s newsletter, we usher in a new era; we are now using a new format for our monthly newsletter that more closely ties our website content and our enewsletter content. All small business owners, whether Professionals, B2B or B2C need to think really hard about how the web and new media (think social networking) are going to drive their business in the future. Fading fast are old ideas about print media. (Have you noticed the size of your favorite newspapers and magazines?)
In January 2010 when we look at search engine market share, we see Google at ~65% , BING! continues to gain share at ~11% and yahoo slips to ~17%, ASK and AOL make up another ~7% (for more details see http://bit.ly/acNZF7 ). For a more jaw dropping impact, Google had ~2.7 Billion searches per month in the US in March 2006 and ~6.8 Billion in January 2010. Total searches in the U.S. alone, in January 2010 were over 10 Billion (see it here: http://bit.ly/as8xYq ) that is about 33 queries per month for every man women and child in the US.
What this tells us is that more and more people are using the web (search engines) to find things. Flights, Painters, Lawyers, Doctors, you name it; people use the web, search engines, to find it. It was once said that you couldn’t eat anything produced on the web, but you can bet that many people are looking at a restaurant’s menu online, and deciding on dinner before leaving the house. Decisions are being made based on your website and how well you present yourself. And it’s not just about looking good to the human eye; you need to look good to the Search Engines as well.
You may have heard the term Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Search Engine Optimization (SEO), these are terms that relate to how your website ranks for organic search. Organic search results are what appear in the body of the page. Organic results are considered much better than paid advertisements as they carry more weight. Pay Per Click (PPC), think Adwords by Google, is used to increase your rankings in Paid search, or advertisements. These usually show up to the right of the body, sometimes on top and/or on the bottom of the page. These are not prized as highly as organic search results. It is said if you are not in the top 4 or 5 organic results or paid results you might as well throw in the towel as no one will see you.
The question every small business owner needs to be asking him or herself is “am I mapping out our plan to for the company’s future on the web”? You can bet your competitors are. The flip side to that coin, might be “can I get to the internet when I need to”? We can help on either issue.
For more information go to our website http://www.sf-it.com or call us at 678-353-3222, x105.
Thank You,
Mike
Mike Gonsalves
President
StrategicFusion, Inc.
Your Dedicated IT Department

Support: 678-353-3222 Option 1
Direct: 678-990-8595
Mobile: 678-644-4453
Email: Mikego@SF-IT.com
Web: www.SF-IT.com
Computer issues? Please send email to: HELP@sf-it.com