Outlook Scheduling Assistant

Have you ever needed to set up an outlook meeting with multiple people within your company and had trouble trying to figure out a free time in everyone’s schedule?

In this quick tip we’re going to be using the Scheduling Assistant to see when your co-workers are available so you can schedule internal meetings in a snap!

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Transcript:

Have you ever needed to set up an outlook meeting with multiple people within your company and had trouble trying to figure out a free time in everyone’s schedule? In this quick tip we’re going to be using the Scheduling Assistant to see when your co-workers are available so you can schedule internal meetings in a snap.

Let’s say Oscar gets an email from his boss saying that he needs to set up a department meeting sometime next week. At first this can seem like a big task, but Oscar can do this very quickly, provided that his co-workers are a part of the same Outlook Exchange Server and they have their permissions set to free/busy (which should be the default).

We could click on the New Meeting button here, but let’s use the workweek view to pick a time that currently works with Oscar’s calendar. Find a time, click and drag, title it, and press enter. And if you didn’t get the time just right, click the meeting to highlight it and drag the border down. We can change this from an appointment to a meeting by right clicking and selecting invite attendees. This brings up the meeting window.

In the To: column, type in your co-worker’s names or email addresses. To see their availability, in the Show section, click on Scheduling Assistant. Here are the co-workers invited and their availability. You can see our meeting right there. It looks like both Wendy and Edward are busy at that time. We know this because if we click this dropdown we can see that blue means busy. So our original time is not going to work.

We can either scroll through to find another time that does work. Or you can click through the days here to find openings. Down here is a list of Suggested Times. For example, it’s pointing out that Wednesday morning is free. 9AM looks like a great time for a department meeting. Finally, let’s go back to the Appointment button and add a room and note and hit Send.

Now when I go back into the appointment and click on Scheduling Assistant again, we can see according to the key this time slot is marked as tentative on everyone’s calendar. If they accept, their calendar will be marked busy.

And that’s about it. The Outlook Scheduling Assistant makes scheduling a breeze. Now Oscar’s department has been invited to the meeting at a time that looks convenient to everybody.

OneNote Basics

Microsoft OneNote is an application that allows you to organize notes, files, articles, pictures and more in a single digital notebook.

In this Quick Tip, we explain the basics of using this powerful software tool.

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Transcript:

Have you ever made notes in Word, Excel, Outlook, or Notepad, and categorized them in folders, inside other folders … and then found it difficult to keep track of everything especially when trying to retrieve specific pieces of information? For note taking, there is a better way. It’s called OneNote. With simple organization, search capabilities, very intuitive text formatting, ability to copy emails, articles, pictures, screen captures, and more. OneNote is arguably one of the most powerful note-taking softwares.

So how does it work?

Let’s start by opening OneNote. If you are using OneNote 2010, you may see this page from the OneNote 2010 Guide. In fact, I’m going to use this graphic to explain that. OneNote mimics real notebooks in the way it’s organized. It’s broken down like this: You have your notebooks. Inside your notebooks are your sections. Inside your sections are your Pages. On your pages are your notes. Also just like real notebooks – there is no save button – everything is saved automatically all the time.

Let’s go through the steps together of creating a notebook, sections, pages, and notes.

First go to File, New. For this example, let’s store it on the local computer. Give it a name and a folder location. Now that we have our notebook let’s create a few sections. Double click this New Section 1 tab to rename this section. And this tab right next to it creates new sections. Sections will automatically start with a blank page which includes today’s date and time, both of which can be changed. And we title it here. Click this New Page button here to add pages.

Writing notes is easy. Anywhere you place your cursor on the page you can write a note. And if you go to the Home tab you get the familiar formatting options from other Microsoft applications. When you copy text from the web a webpage link is included below your note. You can also drag and drop any file from your computer onto your OneNote page and create a link to the original file, create a copy of the original which is actually housed in your OneNote section file, or if it’s a printable document you can insert a printed copy. Other items may respond differently, for example dragging in a folder creates a link to that folder and dragging in picture files or pictures from the internet recreates them.

Now that we know how to create Notebooks, Sections, Pages, and Notes, get started on your own notebook. And don’t worry about not being able to find a note because this search bar allows you to search any word or phrase within all of your notebooks, so you can easily retrieve information.

And that’s it. Whether you take notes for professional or personal use, now you know the basics of OneNote and should have enough to start using this powerful note taking tool.

Track Changes in Microsoft Word

Endsight’s latest Quick Tip outlines how to use the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word. You can view the video below and we’ve also included the transcript at the bottom of this post.

Feedback? Take our short survey: www.surveymonkey.com/s/endsightqttrackchanges

Transcript:

Have you ever wanted your colleagues to review a Microsoft Word document, but were unsure how to keep track of the changes that your reviewers have made to the document? The “Track Changes” feature in Word is a simple way to identify these changes. It allows a document to be edited collaboratively, with changes made by one reviewer visible to all subsequent reviewers.

You’ll find track changes in the Review tab.

I suggest making sure you have an appropriate user name for your colleagues to see when you are making tracked changes as well as adding notes to the document. Go to the track changes pulldown and select Change User Name.

Now you are ready to start track changes. Click on the pull down and select Track Changes. By default when you edit this document Microsoft word will strike through deletions and underline added text.

Let’s say we made our edits to the document and sent it to the next reviewer.They would find the original edits in one color and their own edits in another. This will continue to change from reviewer to reviewer to reviewer. That’s basically what the “red and blue by author section” means in the “track changes options.” Simply that the tracked changes color will alternate from reviewer to reviewer. This is usually the default.

The reviewing pane is a great way to see every change that has been made to the document and identify which reviewers made those changes. It can be viewed vertically on the side or horizontally.You can also see who made edits and when they were made by simply hovering over the edited text.

If you want to see what the original document looked like before any changes were made, click on the pulldown and select “Original”. If you want to see what the final document will look like if all of the changes are incorporated, click on the pulldown and select “Final”. Individual changes to the document can be confirmed by choosing “Accept and Move to Next” or “Reject and Move to Next”, or simply right-clicking on an edited item and making your selection.

Now you know how to use the “Track Changes” feature in Microsoft Word.

Endsight Named to the MSP Top 100 List

We were pleased to learn that Endsight was again named to the MSP Mentor list of top 100 managed service providers in the world. Given the sheer number of service providers in our industry it’s a real honor to be included on the list.

In spite of the tough economic conditions, Endsight has consistently grown adding new clients and new employees.  This has allowed us to really refine our existing outsourced IT services  and provided the resources to add additional services including:

Managed SPAM Filtering:  That provides comprehensive protection against the most current e-mail borne threats that can cripple a computer network if left unprotected. Endsight’s Managed SPAM filtering optimizes performance on the e-mail server and provides a 12 layer defense against unwanted, unsolicited junk mail.

Managed Anti-virus: That provides an essential security protection component by incorporating reactive anti-virus spyware detection with the latest proactive technologies. Endsight’s Managed Anti-virus protection takes the place of existing anti-virus software and includes effective protection against malicious programs ensuring not only anti-virus protection but protection from unknown threats.

Managed Backup: That guards against two distinct disaster scenarios: catastrophic disaster (fire, theft, quake or flood) and localized failure (hardware failure, data corruption or human error). Completely automated, managed backup eliminates the "human factor" risks of reviewing backup software logs and changing, storing and transporting backup tapes.

For fast rebuilds in the event of a system crash, Endsight’s Managed Backup includes a locally installed storage device that provides a "tape less" backup of all server data as well as pre-configured images of all server software and system settings. In the event of a catastrophe, Endsight’s Managed Backup replicates a copy of the server data off-site assuring that a copy of the data lives beyond the reach of a disaster such as a fire and flood.

Data Center Hosting: That provides the capability to off load the cost and complexity of locating physical servers on-site. Instead servers reside in a highly secure, fault tolerant virtual environment with redundant everything including:

1. redundant server architecture
2. flexible redundant data storage
3. high availability firewalls and switching fabric
4. redundant fiber optic Internet connections
5. redundant utility and emergency power generators

Additionally, Endsight’s hosted environment includes:

1. 24 x 7 monitoring and protection against viruses, spyware and hacking
2. proactive maintenance and support for all core network services and functions
3. 24 x 7 physical security that includes video surveillance and key card access only to the data center
4. fire suppression, earthquake and flood countermeasures

Hardware as a Service (HaaS):  That reduces the hefty upfront costs of hardware and software replacing it with a predictable monthly fee. Endsight’s Haas Program includes the hardware, Microsoft software, the professional services to deploy the new laptop or workstation, and will manage the systems replacement in the event of failure. Laptops are replaced every three years and workstations are replaced every four years.

Quick Tips Videos:  Are 2 to 3 min. video tutorials on topics ranging from creating signatures in Microsoft Outlook to a quick overview of Microsoft OneNote. Quick tips are intended to be a fast, easy, self-serve library of tips and tricks that can help clients get more work done in less time or provide answers to a client’s "how to" question. We post a new quick trip every two weeks to the Endsight Facebook page. www.facebook.com/endsightIT

Everyone appreciates recognition and we are grateful to be named to the MSP top 100 list. We know that our success depends entirely on the quality of our relationships with our clients and our partners. We are grateful for your support and we look forward to working together for a long time to come!

Meet Me at the Corner of Technology and Liberal Arts

I’ve been thinking about Apple Computer and Steve Jobs a lot lately, seems like everywhere you turn there’s an Apple logo in staring back at you.  There are billboards, iPads/Pods, TV and has anyone seen a movie in the last 4 years without an apple product placement?!  Apple body art is not even out of place these days, I saw a huge Apple logo tattoo just the other day waiting in line at the local BBQ joint.  Anyway, I recently read Steve Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson and it really blew me away. 

This all lead me to a great Harvard Business Review article Isaacson wrote on The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs. 

In this article Isaacson discusses how Jobs strove to combine the humanities with the sciences:

“I always thought of myself as a humanities person as a kid, but I liked electronics,” Jobs told me on the day he decided to cooperate on a biography. “Then I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaroid, said about the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of humanities and sciences, and I decided that’s what I wanted to do.” It was as if he was describing the theme of his life, and the more I studied him, the more I realized that this was, indeed, the essence of his tale.

He connected the humanities to the sciences, creativity to technology, arts to engineering. There were greater technologists (Wozniak, Gates), and certainly better designers and artists. But no one else in our era could better firewire together poetry and processors in a way that jolted innovation. And he did it with an intuitive feel for business strategy. At almost every product launch over the past decade, Jobs ended with a slide that showed a sign at the intersection of Liberal Arts and Technology Streets.

The creativity that can occur when a feel for both the humanities and the sciences exists in one strong personality was what most interested me in my biographies of Franklin and Einstein, and I believe that it will be a key to building innovative economies in the 21st century. It is the essence of applied imagination, and it’s why both the humanities and the sciences are critical for any society that is to have a creative edge in the future.

I REALLY like this idea of combining humanities with technology, maybe this is why the world is in love with Apple’s products?  I’m not sure it’s that simple, but what I do know is that learning more about Steve Jobs’ business philosophy has left me seriously inspired. 

Hey, I wonder if they actually make an Apple temporary tattoo I could slap on for a few days?   Maybe I’ll ask my shinny new iPad3, (I’ll bet it knows)! 

There’s no such thing as a free lunch

In 1987 I got my first real job as a paperboy for the Akron Beacon Journal.    My paper route taught me early on that everything costs something.  Advertisers were paying the paper for access to my subscribers, the subscribers on my rout were paying the paper for access to the news, and the paper was paying me to deliver every morning to the subscribers.  And it didn’t stop there. 

I quickly learned that I could make more money in the form of tips if I made sure that I delivered the paper to certain subscribers a certain way.  Mr. Gore would pay more if I didn’t walk across his lawn.   Mrs. Johnson would pay more if I tucked the paper in-between the storm door and her front door.   Mr. Smith would pay more if I put his paper inside a plastic bag and then place the bag on the mat in front of the door.    Everything costs something, and then one day it didn’t.

That day was in the spring of 1999 when I signed up for my first "free" e-mail address.  It was my first encounter with a free Internet service and as I look back I can’t remember being at all skeptical about the offer. Why is that?  I think it was because everything about Internet and the World Wide Web was new and different. The old rules were being re-placed or so it seemed by a new set of rules.

But as this article demonstrates, that notion was wrong.  The Internet is bound by the same rules that bound that old paper rout. Everything costs something. 

I’ve re-posted the article below, but you can read that original article, by clicking here

New Google privacy policy allows even more access to personal information

Published March 01, 2012 | Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO –  If you’re amazed — and maybe even a little alarmed — about how much Google seems to know about you, brace yourself. Beginning Thursday, Google will operate under a streamlined privacy policy that enables the Internet’s most powerful company to dig even deeper into the lives of its more than 1 billion users.

Google says the changes will make it easier for consumers to understand how it collects personal information, and allow the company to create more helpful and compelling services. Critics, including most of the country’s state attorneys general and a top regulator in Europe, argue that Google is trampling on people’s privacy rights in its relentless drive to sell more ads.

Here’s a look at some of the key issues to consider as Google tries to learn about you.

Q: How will Google’s privacy changes affect users?

A: Google Inc. is combining more than 60 different privacy policies so it will be able to throw all the data it gathers about each of its logged-in users into personal dossiers. The information Google learns about you while you enter requests into its search engine can be culled to suggest videos to watch when you visit the company’s YouTube site.

Users who write a memo on Google’s online word processing program, Docs, might be alerted to the misspelling of the name of a friend or co-worker a user has communicated with on Google’s Gmail. The new policy pools information from all Google-operated services, empowering the company to connect the dots from one service to the next.

Q: Why is Google making these changes?

A: The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., says it is striving for a "beautifully simple, intuitive user experience across Google." What Google hasn’t spent much time talking about is how being able to draw more revealing profiles about its users will help sell advertising — the main source of its $38 billion in annual revenue.

One reason Google has become such a big advertising network: Its search engine analyzes requests to figure out which people are more likely to be interested in marketing pitches about specific products and services. Targeting the ads to the right audience is crucial because in many cases, Google only gets paid when someone clicks on an ad link. And, of course, advertisers tend to spend more money if Google is bringing them more customers.

Q: Is there a way to prevent Google from combining the personal data it collects from all its services?

A: No, not if you’re a registered user of Gmail, Google Plus, YouTube, or other Google products. But you can minimize the data Google gathers. For starters, make sure you aren’t logged into one of Google’s services when you’re using Google’s search engine, watching a YouTube video or perusing pictures on Picasa. You can get a broad overview of what Google knows about you at www.google.com/dashboard, where a Google account login is required. Google also offers the option to delete users’ history of search activity.

It’s important to keep in mind that Google can still track you even when you’re not logged in to one of its services. But the information isn’t quite as revealing because Google doesn’t track you by name, only through a numeric Internet address attached to your computer or an alphanumeric string attached to your Web browser.

Q: Are all Google services covered by the privacy policy?

A: No, a few products, such as Google’s Chrome Web browser and mobile payment processor Wallet, will still be governed by separate privacy policies.

Q: Is Google’s new privacy policy legal?

A: The company has no doubt about it. That’s why it’s repeatedly rebuffed pleas to delay the changes since announcing the planned revisions five weeks ago. But privacy activists and even some legal authorities have several concerns.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy rights group, sued the FTC in a federal court in an effort to force the FTC to exercise its powers and block Google’s privacy changes. A federal judge ruled the courts didn’t have the authority to tell the FTC how to regulate Google. The FTC says it is always looking for evidence that one of its consent orders has been violated.

Earlier this week, the French regulatory agency CNIL warned Google CEO Larry Page that the new policy appears to violate the European Union’s strict data-protection rules. Last week, 36 attorneys general in the U.S. and its territories derided the new policy as an "invasion of privacy" in a letter to Page.

One of the major gripes is that registered Google users aren’t being given an option to consent to, or reject, the changes, given that they developed their dependence on the services under different rules. In particular, people who bought smartphones running on Google’s Android software, and signed two-year contracts to use the devices, may have a tough time avoiding the new privacy policy. They could switch to non-Google services, but those typically don’t work as well on Android software. Or they could buy a different smartphone and pay an early-termination penalty.

Q: What regulatory power do government agencies have to change or amend the privacy changes?

A: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission gained greater oversight over Google’s handling of personal information as part of a settlement reached last year. Google submitted to the agreement after exposing its users email contacts when it launched a now-defunct social networking service called Buzz in 2010. The consent order requires Google’s handling of personal information to be audited every other year and forbids misleading or deceptive privacy changes.

Google met with the FTC before announcing the privacy changes. Neither the company nor the FTC has disclosed whether Google satisfied regulators that the revisions comply with the consent order.

Cloud Computing Sounds Fantastic Lando

There is no doubt that cloud computing has benefited the last few years from a considerable amount of hype.  But I believe that all of the buzz served to create an incredibly unrealistic expectation of the cloud’s true capabilities and benefits.

As a result, I’ve started to see some cynicism out there and I even received a few marketing pitches that include headlines like, "The Cloud is Dead."

I’m a big Star Wars fan so I got a real kick out of this comic.

I’ll admit that in the past,  I’ve also succumbed to some of cloud computing’s grandiose promises. I’ve blogged before about the benefits of cloud computing and some of what I’ve written has turned out to be true and some of it is turned out to be incomplete, or worse just plain incorrect.

For example, in the years since Endsight introduced its hosted server environment,  I’ve come to learn that often times moving servers into a virtual (Cloud) environment is more expensive than refreshing on-site server hardware and software.

I’ve also learned that not every application should be migrated to the cloud. Some data base applications we not written very well.  As a result, they end up consuming way too much computing power, bandwidth and energy.

Even so, cloud computing technology adoption appears to be accelerating.  The reason is that in spite of it’s limitations and hype,  Cloud Computing still offers real value.

Anywhere access to computing resources:  By design, cloud computing allows an organization to provision access to computing resources outside of the corporate firewall.  I’m not trying to imply that remote access is a new feature enabled by cloud computing.  I’ve sold remote access solutions for more than a decade.  Even so, remote access is one of the major topics local businesses want to discuss when we meet talk about Endsight’s outsourced IT support offering.  Usually, it’s because someone on leadership team recently purchased an iPhone or a tablet and is frustrated because he or she can’t connect to corporate e-mail.  With a cloud-based architecture, every user is remote.  As long as there is an Internet connection, each user can typically pick and choose the way she wants to access computing resources. (IPhone, tablet, laptop, etc.)

Redundancy on top of redundancy:  Provided the cloud operator is following industry best practices, the computing equipment used to support a Cloud environment is substantial.  It includes data center class protections such as multiple hardline Internet connections from competing ISP’s, back up power, fire suppression systems, earth quake hardening and key card security.  It also includes high advisability routing and switching and network security.  Finally, the server and storage infrastructure is built to be deep (Lot’s of physical server processors and hard disks) and immediately scalable (ability to expand and contract available computing power and storage in a short period of time).

Is cloud computing right for every small business?

Unfortunately, there’s no clear-cut answer this question. That’s why each of Endsight’s outsourced IT clients receives a complete network audit and assessment to determine which network resources can reliably be migrated to the cloud and which resources should remain on-premise.

As far as Endsight is concerned the servers and the applications that reside on the servers are all just plumbing.   Functionally, it doesn’t matter if the services reside in a virtualized cloud or if they reside on a physical server at the client’s office.  Because we can efficiently manage the systems in either scenario, we can allow the unique business requirements of each client to dictate which services ascend and which services remain on premise.

Good strategy, good planning and good architecture (local area network architecture as well as cloud architecture) are critical to achieving any kind of real benefit from cloud computing.

If you’re feeling a little over or underwhelmed by cloud computing hype and would prefer a candid and honest assessment of your current computing environment we should meet. You can schedule a meeting by clicking here.

Ignore IT Support and It’ll Cost You

I came across an interesting article  that I thought did a great job of illustrating the risks associated with poor IT planning.  In the article, the author chronicles the story of a school that provided laptops to its teachers without a lot of involvement from the school system’s IT department.  Instead of involving the IT department in the purchase planning and deployment of the laptops the senior administrator simply distributed the systems and instructed the teachers to “call the IT guys if you have any problems.”  If you’d like to read the full article, click on this link.  “Who needs an IT department, anyway? from InfoWorld Top Stories

“Our principal, ‘Sue,’ said the laptops ‘increased their educational opportunities’ — all well and good, but she failed to also recognize the importance of IT involvement.”

Most of the small business owners that I talk to already know that their computer network is a living breathing animal that needs to be looked after.  That’s why  Endsight has had so much success applying its outsourced IT support approach to help local businesses maintain reliable computing resources.  Prior to cloud computing or hosting our conversation centered around the care and feeding of the core computing infrastructure (servers, routers and switches, firewalls, etc.)

The advent of cloud computing has allowed a small business owner to shift the responsibility of maintaining the servers to the application provider (hosted e-mail is a good example of this). I think this is really good news from a business perspective and I believe this trend will eventually become the dominant way computing resources to deliver.  But I also think that it also presents a risky temptation to neglect the overall care and feeding of a small business computing environment.

Once the servers have been migrated off site, the endpoint systems (PCs, Macs, and laptops) remain and still require proactive maintenance and care as well is reactive, end-user support.  The routing and switching environment also remains and it also needs to be maintained and supported.

Any failure or performance issue on these remaining, local  network elements will impact a users ability to access the hosted services.  Adopting a “just call my IT provider if there’s a problem” approach to on premise  IT support can cause real headaches and stack up significant costs in the form of productivity loss as well as the hourly rates for expensive repairs.

Endsight is helping many of our clients to take advantage of cloud computing when and where it makes sense.  In every case, we’re helping them to maintain a local support and maintenance regimen that allows them to take advantage of the cloud and at the same time maintain reliable, supported on premise networks. 

To learn more about Endsight’s “all-inclusive” approach to outsource IT support click here.

Computer System Repairs V.S. Computer System Performance

Computers are supposed to make things easier. But when computers don’t work the way they are supposed to things are anything but easier. I receive phone calls every day from small business owners looking for solutions to immediate problems.  Murphy’s Law being what it is the issue typically occurs at the worst possible time. E-mail goes down at the exact moment that the big proposal is due.  It’s the worst possible scenario because you’re at the mercy of the IT partner.   Maybe the IT partner that you just called has the available resources to help you and maybe it doesn’t.  If the partner does have availability, I can almost guarantee you that the emergency rates you’re charged will feel like highway robbery.   As if that’s not enough, the IT partner won’t know anything about your computer systems  so the very best you can hope for is a quick break fix patch that lets you get back to what you were doing without causing some other bigger problem down the road.  (An that is unlikely)

When I receive these calls I always tell the person on the other end of the line the same thing, "I really wish I could help you, but I’m afraid this isn’t the way that we work with our clients.”   Endsight’s approach to computer system support is fundamentally different when compared to the more traditional break fix or reactive style support model.   Instead of waiting for something to go wrong, our team is working in the background to monitor and proactively tune our clients computer networks to that  they have less problems to begin with. Of course, good maintenance and proactive tuning can’t head everything off and so we do provide reactive support via the Endsight Response Center. Our average response time for an inbound telephone support request is 5 min. or less.  Each time that we close a support ticket, the client receives a client satisfaction survey with five questions. On average, our survey responses ranked 95% highly satisfied.

But even with reactive support there is  key difference between Endsight’s approach when compared to an "as needed" support approach. Endsight response center engineers have access to a wealth of information about each of our clients networks. We are incredibly diligent about making sure that we document each of our clients computer systems before providing reactive support. This helps to assure that when a client calls for reactive computer system support that the response center engineer already has access to all of the information he or she will need to solve the client’s issue. This really helps to reduce the amount of time it takes to solve the problem and also helps to de-hassled the support experience from the client’s perspective.

No one likes the duress that’s caused by reactive repairs. We’re always happy to see the plumber or the HVAC guy but we dread the bill.  The only consolation we have is the hope that the repair we just paid through the nose for will hold for a few years. Computers are a different story though. We’ve all been using them long enough to know that they’re  temperamental little buggers and that in the not-too-distant future that were going to have problems.  That being the case, it’s far less painful to find an IT partner before you have a problem and as you evaluate your options it’s a good idea to look for an IT partner that’s more focused on making sure the problems don’t happen in the first place.

Our clients engage with us to continuously support their network.  To learn more about our Outsourced IT service click here,   or you can can schedule an appointment with me to talk about the details of your specific situation by clicking here: contact us.

Endsight honored as a thought leader for managed service providers

We tend to stay away from the term managed services when we talk to clients about computer system support because we think it’s a confusing concept. 

Outsourced IT support and Managed Services are not the same thing.  There are still a lot of firms in the bay area that  provided traditional Outsourced IT services on an as needed, or hourly basis.  Managed services are an alternative  delivery and billing  approach that breaks from the pay by the hour model.   The distinction may seem subtle, but in practice it’s a night and day difference.  For more about the differences click here.   I also plan to post future blogs about this topic.

Endsight uses managed services to provide outsourced IT support for our clients.  In 2004, we were one of the first local firms to introduce the model.  Since then we’ve grown to almost 50 employees and nearly 5000 computer systems under daily management and support.   It’s success you can hang your hat on and we’re honored that our peers have noticed by inviting us to share what we know.

In June, Mike Chaput & Josh Carroll, two of Endsight’s founders, were featured in separate industry discussions about best practices for Managed Service Providers (MSP’s) .  Mike participated in a panel discussion at TruMethods’ Schnizzfest and Josh presented a case study with HP & Intel on Everything Channel.

You can read the details for each forum by clicking here:  Josh on Everything Channel and Mike at Schnizzfest.

The fact that our peers / competitors want to now what makes us successful is a real compliment.  We’ve worked hard to create a valuable service for our clients and will continue to innovate new ways to improve our clients experience with information technology!

About Everything Channel

Everything Channel is the premier provider of channel-focused research and consulting, events, media and custom solutions for the technology industry. Everything Channel provides integrated solutions to technology marketers for managing channel strategy to accelerate technology sales.

From building go-to-market strategies to partner recruitment and enablement to creating customer demand, Everything Channel offers the unmatched breadth and depth of global media and event brands, combined with the largest Solutions Provider database enabling an unparalleled audience loyalty and credibility built from over 30 years of experience and engagement.

About TruMethods

TruMethods is a consulting firm that helps IT solution providers achieve their full potential as managed service providers. TruMethods’ FormulaWon program transforms IT businesses by providing a proven, repeatable process that perfects leadership, solution packaging, sales processes, and results tracking through online tools, seminars, and the personal guidance of MSP sales authority Gary Pica, the company’s founder and CEO.