Each month our team reviews a number of important performance metrics to ensure that we are surpassing our customer’s expectations. We also use these numbers to establish our monthly goals.

One of these reports is based on all survey results received from our customers the previous month. It’s called a “Service Delivery Benchmarks” report. It compares our survey results against approximately 4,000 other I.T. service providers nationwide in the areas of on-site support, remote support, and general performance.

Last month, we were specifically tracking our remote support performance and I’m pleased to report that we beat the industry benchmarks in ALL areas! Thank you very much to the CSG team, and of course to all our customers who took their time to complete our surveys. If you have a moment, take a look at the report which I’ve provided for your viewing pleasure!

As many of our readers know, Computer Solutions Group, Inc. is a leading provider of outsourced IT solutions in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Orange County. To help our clients take advantage of more powerful IT solutions, reduce overall IT expenditures and mobilize their workforce, we are extremely pleased to announce we are now offering our new PowerCloud virtual network solutions.

OK, So What Exactly is Cloud Computing?

Simply put, Cloud Computing is the next stage of the Internet’s evolution. It provides the means through which everything — from computing power to computing infrastructure, applications, business processes to personal collaboration — can be delivered to you as a service whenever and wherever you need it.

Today cloud computing is being heralded by the media as a latest technology trend. However, in the future, cloud computing will no longer be a trend, it will simply be the way IT is done.

Why You Ask?

The many business benefits of cloud computing which include:

• Significantly reducing IT costs and IT related capital expenditures
• Ability to use more advanced computing power without having to own the infrastructure
• Paying ONLY for computing resources you use on a set monthly fee
• Access to your desktop, data and applications anytime, anywhere, from any device
• Instant scalability, up or down
• Adoption of “greener” IT

Complimentary Cloud Assessment

To help you understand the impact of moving your IT to the cloud, we are offering a complimentary Cloud Assessment. During the assessment, we will review your current hardware, licenses, data and applications. We will also look at your network including your security and backup. After the assessment, we will show you exactly how your business could benefit from moving your IT to the cloud. Please contact us at 310-641-3274 to schedule your complimentary assessment. We will also be scheduling some seminars and “lunch and learns” in the near future.

I never met Steve Jobs. But I walked by him once. Last September, while visiting my buddy who works at the Apple Campus, Steve Jobs happened to be walking to lunch with Johnny Ives. “Just be cool” my friend said. I wanted to say hello to Steve; or at least shake his hand. But I had promised not to do anything to put my friend’s job in jeopardy so I just stayed the course and kept a poker face. Do I have regrets of speaking to him? Maybe. But what would I have told him? Where do I start??

Back in in the mid 80s, my parents bought me my first computer. An Apple //e. That machine changed my life. I learned a lot from that early computer. Of course, I learned the typical stuff: how to program in BASIC, how to win at Kareteka, Microwave, Sneakers, Swashbuckler, Sea Dragon, and every Sierra Online game you can think of. I learned how to be humble, (after returning from a family vacation I found that my previous BBS system that I ran off of two floppy drives had been hacked and wiped away while I had been gone) and how to socialize with other computer users.

Later, when the Macintosh was released, I drove my 1977 Buick Electra from Irvine to Pasadena to buy a Macintosh Plus, courtesy of my dad who supported my goal of learning how to use MOTU’s Performer to write music. My first experience with the Macintosh provides an excellent example of how Steve and his team thought computers should interact with humans. When I setup the Mac Plus I couldn’t figure out how to format the cool new “floppy disks” (of course they weren’t floppy anymore). I was looking for a command line to type “Init Hello” but couldn’t find it. I searched and searched. Finally, I just inserted the disk and a pop up box came onto the screen asking me “Would you like to format this disk?” I couldn’t believe it! This computer was friendly and intelligent. It seemed to anticipate my needs! This was like nothing I had seen before. Certainly, no other computer company had built anything like this machine. I knew this computer would be (or at least should be) wildly successful. Of course, Apple came upon hard times. The Mac didn’t sell as well as Windows machines. I didn’t care. I loved this machine just like I loved my Mac SE, LE, Performa, Newton models, Powerbook 100 and 145, and the list goes on.

Steve Jobs knew he was the under dog back then and didn’t care. His vision for Apple and their products was to make them the best that they could be. There were no compromises. Sure, sometimes certain features were left out that the competition might have utilized. But it wasn’t always about how many bells and whistles the products flaunted; it was about the experience. This is why Apple customers are so passionate about Apple. This is why I see so many senior citizens purchasing iPads. Steve put the personal computer within the reach of everyone, and not just us computer geeks. He made Apple a part of our lives- our digital life. This was a new vision.

Tonight, I visited the Santa Monica Apple Store. Normally I am here on behalf of Computer Solutions Group, or to peruse the latest Apple gear for my own projects. I didn’t particularly need to buy anything this evening. I just felt like I had to go. I’m glad I did. It was the only place I could think of where I could pay my respects. I small memorial of flowers and candles had already been placed at the store.

There are many talented people who work at Apple. I am sure they will carry on Steve’s vision.  If I had indeed spoken to him last year when our paths literally crossed on the same sidewalk, I would have said thank you. Thank you Steve for giving me so much joy. Thank you for believing in your vision and designing products that push everyone else in the industry to the next level. Thank you for making the world a better place.

Candles and Flowers for Steve.

Please tell me your thoughts about Steve Jobs below.

Although I wouldn’t call myself a frequent business traveller, people seem to think otherwise. It’s just not so, although I do have a few trips lined up each quarter. Typically, my technology rig on these trips consists of the following equipment and corresponding uses:

1. Macbook Pro 13″, 8GB RAM, running OSX Lion and Parallels 7: Outlook E-mail (Parallels/Windows), Notes, Blogging, Social Media, iChat Video, Skype.

2. iPhone with shared data capabilities: phone use, quick email, games.

3. iPad 2: 64GB: email, web browsing, FaceTime, productivity, notes.

I’m not sure about you, but I’ve always strived to minimize the amount of equipment needed when traveling. After looking over the list above, I decided to try an experiment: could I accomplish the majority of my business work using the iPad instead of the Macbook Pro? Could I reverse the majority of tasks from item #1 in the list to #3? I had a hunch that I could make it happen. And to put it all on the line, I left my laptop at the office on a recent 3 day business trip.

On a Plane

Once on a plane, I can get a decent amount of work done; even if there’s no wi-fi. For example, I can clean out my Outlook inbox and reorganize. Once I land, everything will sync. Unfortunately, this won’t work so well on the iPad. You can only use Apple’s built in mail app (which lacks some key features), the system won’t let you move e-mails around and do other housekeeping tasks without annoying messages telling you the operation has failed. That being said, more and more flights do have in-flight internet available. And luckily for me, I did have internet access during my “test flight”. Here’s what I was able to accomplish on the flight with the iPad, and the corresponding App that I used:

1. Create new blog drafts with Blogsy and WordPress.

2. Work on multiple documents using Pages.

3. Login to my work computer for Outlook work using Logmein Ignition.

4. Work on company tickets using Autotask Live Mobile and Safari.

5. Listen to audio programs and take notes using OmniOutliner.

6. Review, update, and create tasks and projects using the splendid OmniFocus for iPad.

7. FaceTime video conference with my office to keep up-to-date during the 5 hour journey.

8. Work on e-mail.

9. Catch up on a few books using iBooks and the Kindle app for iPad.

10. Watch Tron Legacy in HD.

11. See how my daughter’s day is going using Baby Connect.

12. Confirm and update password settings using the fabulous 1Password.

13. Catch up on news with the official Drudge Report app.

14. Play Tiny Tower and Airport Mania.

15. Work on some new songs with Garageband.

16. Create a webinar (and actually bring people into the call) using Fuzemeeting.

So, as you can see there was a lot of momentum going on here with this iPad. And let’s not forget, I didn’t even have to worry about battery life. I can easily get 7+ hours out of a fully charged device.

Storage During Flight and at Destination

Even transport of the iPad was a cinch once on-site. When I travel for 2-3 day trips, I use my

Rimowa Salsa Deluxe Hybrid with iPad Sleve

Rimowa Salsa Deluxe Hybrid case. Although it’s a hard case, it has two pockets on the front. One is made specifically for the iPad. I just take out the device then put the Rimowa in the overhead. It fits easily and I’ve just avoided paying the $50 round-trip luggage fee. Over time, this savings will pay for this amazing case. When attending conferences or trainings I carry the iPad in the Waterfield iPad Ultimate Sleeve Case.

These are very well made, and I highly recommend them. This case will protect your iPad, and not add a lot of bulk. It has a pocket that you can store a bluetooth keyboard too.

In conclusion, I was able to do 98% of work needed on the iPad. Sometimes it was a little less elegant (switching between apps, etc). But in most cases everything worked great. And with the extended battery life, I had no complaints. The iPad is not just a content consumption device. If you choose the right applications, you can get a lot done. Business, personal, etc. – all of it. Got any suggestions of your own? Be sure to leave them below! I’d love to hear from you.

Email plays a big role in the way people do business. Whether you work from a fixed location at an office desk or from a mobile device on the go, the kind of email you use can define your level of productivity. Are you sure that the email system you are using is the right one for you?

Whether you work from an office or are productive while on the go, email most likely plays a big factor in the way you go about your business. Unbeknownst to many, some types of email systems have certain limitations that by extension can also limit the level of productivity of your business, and especially for people in the organization who must also work while out in the field.

One major issue for many people is synchronicity. Many people need their emails to be accessible on their mobile phones, PDAs, or other mobile devices, and they need them to be properly synchronized with their desktop workstations. The need to constantly update conversations and email threads from mobile devices to desktops with certain types of email can prove to be tedious and unproductive– and some email system types don’t include this ability at all.

Depending on the way you use your email, especially when on the go, having full access and full control of your account can define how productive you and others in your organization can be. Besides providing a much better degree of synchronization and integration with mobile devices, certain types of email systems also have features for sharing and collaboration features that allow you to set schedules and share files from your mailbox, as well as central storage for emails that allows you to access your account seamlessly with any mobile device, regardless of where you are located.

Of course, having a full-featured email system might not be best for everyone. The key is to know whether adapting a more bare-bones system is cost-effective for your business (especially in the long run). Sometimes the top of the line may be needed, and sometimes all you need is a bit of tweaking on your less fully featured system. Not sure which is best? Call us and we’ll be glad to sit down with you and assess what kind of email system is best suited for you and your business.

Someone, somewhere could be talking about you or your company, and—depending on what’s being said—it can be either helpful or damaging to you or your business. This is of special concern in the online world, as the proliferation of websites and social media tools make it easy to share opinions with the world. In this article we point you to tools and online resources to help monitor and manage what’s being said about you or your business—and thereby build or defend your reputation.

Besides your own eyes and ears, there are plenty of tools—for free or for a price—available to help you monitor your presence online. The simplest of these is your familiar search engines such as Google or Bing. By simply searching online, you can find where your name or your company’s name appears in various websites. With Google in particular, you can set up “alerts” which will email you when a specific word or term appears in their website index.

What words or terms should you use? Start with your name, or your company name, then try the name of your products and/or services, and maybe even the names of your employees, directors, and other stakeholders. It might also be helpful to search for the competition as well. As results come in you can refine your search by expanding or narrowing the scope of terms you would like to search or be alerted on. If you want to be able to search across all different search engines and not just one or two, you can use Monitor This.

Next you can use specialized website or social media monitoring tools to search only specific sites or services as opposed to the entire Internet. One example is Greplin, which allows you to search all of your accounts or accounts that you own. This is very helpful to be able to execute highly filtered searches on specific information in your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn accounts, or your blog. Another option is Rollyo, which allows you to set up your own specialized search engines that cull content from public or open websites of your choosing.

Other more generalized tools include RSS feed readers—which allow you to consume news or information feeds from news sites or blogs. Examples include Newsgator.com, Bloglines.com, Google Reader or Pluck.com. Other generalized tools include those that monitor specific newsgroups or message boards like BoardReader.com, ForumFind.com, Big-Boards.com, BoardTracker.com, iVillage, Yahoo Message Boards, and MSN Money. Still others track changes to content of specific sites (Copernic Tracker, Website Watcher and WatchThatPage.com), as well as their domain information (DomainTools.com and BetterWhois.com).

The really interesting new services actually give you an explicit idea of the status of your reputation—especially if you are a relatively well known name or your business has an established brand. In this category are sites like Amplicate, which monitors general feelings or impressions about brands, businesses, or services; Klout, which tries to measure the influence of individuals based on their social interactions; and SendLove.to, which focuses on celebrities and media personalities.

There are literally dozens more tools you can use to monitor and manage your reputation online. To find out more, a great resource is here at the Duct Tape Marketing blog. If you have any additional suggestions, feel free to let us know!

For companies interested in trying out cloud-based services, email maybe something worth trying. Here’s a breakdown of two options from two industry giants that may be worth considering.

Google Apps
Google Apps is a service from Google that started in 2006, with the introduction of Gmail—a hosted email service, and which later incorporated other apps such as Google Calendar, Groups, Talk, Docs and Sites. Google Apps allow customers an independently customizable version of these Google products under their own domain name. The entry level option is free, but the package offered for Businesses is a paid service with an annual fee per user and additional storage space.

1. Storage. Gmail, Google Apps’ email service starts with a sizable 7GB of free storage. Business users get 25GB. Bear in mind however that this storage space is shared with any data you have in other Google properties such as Picasa Web Album and Google Docs. Extra space can be bought however starting with USD $5 per year for an extra 20GB of storage. E-mail attachment sizes are limited to 25MB.
2. Calendaring and Task Management. Gmail can be integrated with the overall excellent Google Calendar application. Google Calendar allows you to easily share personal calendars with colleagues, or create shared calendars used by groups of people (such as a calendar to track meeting room reservations, marketing events and others). Google Calendar also offers a built-in, but somewhat underpowered task management tool. Tasks can readily be added with due dates, but not readily shared or cannot be nested or linked with other tasks.
3. Spam filtering, security and reliability. Gmail’s spam filtering features a community-driven system. Email tagged as spam by users help identifies similar messages as Spam for all other Gmail users. Generally the system works well, although some have complained that it can get over aggressive in its filters. In terms of security and reliability—Gmail has been criticized in the past with showing ads in its free Gmail service that display based on key words in the user’s messages—potentially violating their privacy. Its paid service offers however the option of disable these ads. Reliability is generally good with very few, but widely publicized disruptions in service.
4. Usability. Gmail offers a host of unique usability enhancements that make it different from most other mail services. For one for a web app it loads really fast, as Google has been known to studiously optimize web page loading performance for their products. Another is that it offers a threaded view of messages by default. It also uses a starring/labeling system to tag and segregate messages instead of using folders. Another interesting enhancement done recently is the ability to sort messages by “importance” where it learns based on your usage over time what email messages it thinks you think are important.
5. Mobile access. Gmail offers a version optimized for mobile devices, as well as support for a variety of devices for their native mail applications such as iOS and Android.

Overall Gmail is a solid mature choice if you are thinking of moving email to the cloud and are not afraid of being on the bleeding edge of cloud services and technology.

Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft Office 365, like Google Apps, offers a host of applications such as online versions of productivity tools which we all already know and use such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Most however work best when they are used in conjunction with your desktop-installed Office applications. Focusing on email, Office 365 offers a Hosted Exchange service, which transforms the mature, business-proven on-premise application to an on-demand service. Compared to Google Apps, it is quite new—being introduced only last June this year, although its suite of products in an alternate form has been around for much earlier.

1. Storage. Microsoft’s Hosted Exchange email service gives users 25GB of storage. Attachment file sizes are limited to 35MB. Additional storage can be purchased for $2.5 per GB per user per month.
2. Calendaring and Task Management. Exchange integrates a mature feature set for personal productivity including calendaring, resource management, and task management. As an example tasks can be grouped, color coded and easily sorted. Emails can be converted as tasks and so on.
3. Spam filtering, security and reliability. This is an area where perhaps Microsoft easily outshines Google with Exchange’s roots as an enterprise-class application. It offers spam protection, antivirus and others via Microsoft’s Forefore Online Protection for Exchange technology. It offers other features such as more full features user management, identity access management, mail archiving, etc. If you are in a highly regulated industry like financial services or healthcare these features may be essential for your business.
4. Usability. While the web apps of Office 365 is not as fast loading or as slick as Google, it does offer familiarity. Modeled after their desktop brethren, or directly integrating with them—they offer a smoother migration experience for users specially if they have been weaned on Outlook.
5. Mobile access. Like Gmail Microsoft made sure to support a variety of devices on launch, as well as integration with a variety of devices—specially enterprise stalwarts like Blackberry mobile phones.

Overall Office 365 is a solid choice if you are thinking of moving email to the cloud but may be hesitant with changing the apps your users already know and use. Also if you are a business with strict policies related to security and compliance—this service may be something your auditors and IT people may be more comfortable with.

Interested in learning more? Can’t decide which to try? Let us know and find out how we can help get you the right balance between your existing IT systems and infrastructure and the cloud.

Smaller businesses usually face the difficulty of having their voices heard in the market today. While traditional marketing and advertising methods cost a lot more than many of these firms can afford, an effective alternative has arisen that is both efficient and cost-effective: marketing through social networking.

One of the most difficult challenges smaller businesses face is having a bigger presence in the market. While many of these companies offer good, quality services at much more affordable rates, they are many times overshadowed by larger firms that have bigger budgets to spend on marketing, advertising, and the like.

Things have changed, though, with the advent of social networking. What was once a simple, social, get-to-know-each-other tool between people on the internet has now evolved into a tool that small businesses can take advantage of in order to get their voices heard.

The gist of social networking for business is the simple concept of reaching potentially millions of people at a mere fraction of what is normally spent on advertising and traditional marketing. The wide reach of social media allows businesses to find their voices and showcase what they can do. The playing field then moves from an unfair balance of advertising budgets to a battle of service quality and value for money, as it should be – and many smaller firms can compete effectively in this arena.

There are many ways to tap into the social networking phenomenon to boost your online presence and aid in your marketing. If you are interested in knowing more about this, please contact us and we’ll be glad to assist you in developing strategies that fit your specific requirements and needs.

Part of establishing a proper security cordon around your business data is having the right hardware – like a router/firewall – to get the job done, and done well. Resorting to cheap and basic equipment might cut it for simple personal or home use, but it’s not ideal for business applications.

In business, protecting important information and data is paramount. This is why it is recommended for any sort of business to invest in a security system that will prevent any cyber-attacks that might be launched against you.

Unfortunately, though, it’s lost on many that a security system is not just made up of one single thing – software, better staff, better hardware, et cetera. A good and solid security system is composed of several factors working together to create a virtual chain that envelops your business and keeps it safe.

And one of the most underestimated links in this chain is the router/firewall. Many businesses are content using the most basic and cheapest option available on the market, without realizing that their security chain is only as strong as its weakest link. And if you make do with a cheap router/firewall, odds are you’ll get what you pay for – not much.

While basic routers might work fine for homes or individual users, it is a much different scenario when it comes to business operations where basic just doesn’t cut it. Plus, there’s more at stake with business data, so why take the risk with cheap routers that lack the proper security features?

With viruses, malware, and the cyber thieves behind them continuing to grow and evolve, it is important that you understand what it takes to protect your system and your data – and invest in the best solution. Remember that it can take only one incident, one infiltration, to bring your whole business down.

We realize that every system is different and every business has its own specific needs, so if you want to know more about getting the right router/firewall for you, please don’t hesitate to contact us.