Abacus IT Solutions provides cable for voice and data connectivity and installs a telephone system enabling the Bruno Event Team to communicate with their corporate headquarters, as well as players, vendors and volunteers onsite during the tournament.

Let Abacus IT Solutions do a review of your business’s current IT infrastructure and telephone system.  We can report on your current operating systems and applications, determine possible threats, formulate a hardware replacement timeline, and determine if there are ways you can save money.  Abacus IT Solutions can integrate a telephone system using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), paging and intercom systems, call center management, call recording and logging and enterprise messaging solutions. 

If you receive a phone call or paper letter via mail from an individual claiming to be the IRS but you suspect they are not an IRS employee:

• Ask for a call back number and employee badge number.
• Contact the IRS to determine if the caller is an IRS employee or if the letter is a legitimate need to contact you.
• Contact your CPA.
• If you determine the person calling you is an IRS employee with a legitimate need to contact you, call them back.
• If caller or party that sent the paper letter is not legitimate, contact the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1.800.366.4484.
• For more about phishing reporting…

If you receive a letter via mail from the IRS indicating identity theft, follow the instructions in that notice. If you believe you are at risk of identity theft, contact the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit immediately at 1-800-908-4490 (also contact your CPA).

Abacus IT Solutions can work with you to establish firewalls for your office computers and provide solutions such as network monitoring.

This offer expires 12/31, so contact Abacus IT Solutions today! 205-443-5900

In her article, she provides tech etiquette insights to follow within the following work areas:

• Instant Message
• Video Conferencing
• Speakerphone
• Smartphone

Quick takeaways:

• Instant Message – “Keep it short.  IM works best for quick questions and updates.  If the message is complicated, and takes more than a few sentences, pick up the phone or get out of your chair and walk down the hall to discuss.”
• Video Conferencing – “It’s best to always assume the microphones and the cameras are on.”  Remember that many video conferencing tools now allow the presenter to record!
• Speakerphone – “Don’t place someone on speaker without first telling all parties in the call, and don’t assume everyone knows who is on the call.”
• Smartphone – “Be careful what you say in public….you never know who might be listening when you happen to be discussing confidential information…”

Keith Barfield is one of the founding shareholders of Barfield, Murphy, Shank & Smith (a sister company of Abacus IT).  He recently launched a new blog where he shares his avid love for technology.  With a blend of posts ranging from his personal entrepreneurial experiences to information for new technology companies, Keith shares great insight for businesses.

Be sure to check out his blog Barfield on Tech.

As you walked into your business today, you most likely had a plan.  A plan to complete items on your to-do list.  Possibly plans for lunch or meetings.  One major plan that many small-to-medium sized businesses do not create is a technology plan.  Technology can be one of the higher costs within your business today but without it, your business may become crippled.

With many decisions, proper IT planning can create efficiencies and cost savings.  Rather than waiting on your IT infrastructure to fail, causing you to propose an off-the-cuff decision, build an IT plan.  With the help of an IT professional, planning your IT infrastructure can save future pains and the potential to save you a lot of money – money internally and externally.

As technology continues to rapidly change, minimize the possibility of others gaining competitive advantages over your business because of a lack of IT infrastructure planning.  Simple technologies like cloud solutions or in-house solutions may allow you to gain the competitive advantage you’ve been seeking in your overall business plan.  Create a goal so that you can answer the following:

What’s plan A and B for your IT infrastructure?

]]> http://www.abacusit.com/technology-plans/feed/ 0 http://www.abacusit.com/system-enhancements-capabilities-mitel-5000-systems/ http://www.abacusit.com/system-enhancements-capabilities-mitel-5000-systems/#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:43:53 +0000 Jim Johnson http://www.abacusit.com/?p=1315

Mitel recently announced a number of system enhancements and new capabilities with software release 5.0 for the Mitel 5000 Communications Platform.  The following features were enhanced or added to release 5.0:

• Enhanced conferencing
• Email synchronization for embedded voice mail
• System and user reporting
• Mobility
• Unified communicator based softphone options
• And more…

If you are currently a user of the Mitel 5000 Communications platform, this new release would greatly benefit you.  You can find more detailed information about this release on our website by clicking here.

If you have any questions or would like to talk to someone about these enhancements, please contact Jim Johnson at 205.443.5916.

Google released their new service Google Drive today.  This is their answer to Dropbox, Box.net, SugarSync, and Microsoft SkyDrive.  I am a huge fan of Dropbox and love the ability to access my files through my work PC, MacBook Pro, iPad, iPhone, or through any web browser.  To date, Dropbox has had little competition due the ease of use. This is proven with their more than 50 million users.  They have created an outstanding drag-and-drop environment that is so simple – “even a caveman can do it.”

Will Google Drive bring substantial competition to Dropbox?  I think so.  Google Drive is Dropbox with added features.  It will have the same drag-and-drop feature as Dropbox but added collaboration by means of Google Docs.  Google Drive is also providing 5GB of free space as compared to Dropbox’s 2GB of free space.  Need more 5GB of space? You can increase your space to 25GB for 2.49/mth, 100GB for 4.99/mth, or a terabyte for $49.99/mth.  Currently, Dropbox offers 100GB for $20/mth.

I did not see an iPad Google Drive app in the Apple App Store so it’s really not an option for me at this time. I do appreciate Google’s release and hope that it will drive Dropbox to become more competitive with their service offerings.  I think many Google users will find great benefit from this service.  If you are a Google Docs user, then you will find great benefit by having the ability to access your Google Doc files offline.

Here is a short clip of Google’s new service.  We’d love to hear your thoughts on Google Drive and if you plan to use the service or shift from another service (Dropbox, SugarSync, SkyDrive, etc.).