In some cases yes you can. If you have only recently lapsed out of the original warranty period Dell Warranty sales will be in a position to offer extended warranty at a cost. Phone the sales line.

Tip: You will get a better cost if you have multiple PC’s to cover under warranty extension. If you just ask to extend the warranty of one PC the cost will be significantly higher (by about half).

Recommendation: Based on my experience with Dell you should extend the warranty of the machine for the life you expect to use it.  Example: If you plan to rotate PC’s over a 5 year period then get 5 years on-site warranty.

A mistake would be to think just because they worked for 3 years they will just keep working. The older they are the more likely they will be to fail.

If you have any questions then get in touch.

A Document would be created in Microsoft Word.
A Spreadsheet would be created in Microsoft Excel.
An E-mail would be created in Microsoft Outlook.
Customer Data Might is stored in Microsoft Access.

Now it’s not uncommon for small to medium sized businesses to have their own way of doing things that is typically thrown together with the skills available to them at the time.

Could your Small Business be better organised.

Do you have a customer database?

Do you have a server and does your staff knows how to file things correctly?

Are your documents created in a consistent manner?

E-mails created in a consistent manner.

Not everyone in the business uses the same standard forms or documents.

This is how we can help Small Business solve these problems.

We provide lots of services to clients and one of those is Microsoft Office Development. We can review your work flow and design automation around existing business processes.

We can develop a bespoke customer database and use the automation that desktop database software allows to make creating documents, spreadsheets and e-mails based on the customer data so much quicker and in a consistent way.

We have extensive experience in the area of workflow automation and database development going back some back 15 years.

We have a unique way of delivering training for the work flow solutions we create. We supply on-screen video tutorials about how to use the work flow systems we create and your staff will use. For example of this type of delivery see www.screencastingnow.com

If you would like to discuss how we can help you then contact us today.

With more than 10 year experience in getting users back up and running in the least amount of time possible, here are some of the things we put in to practice when dealing with a customers faulty PC.

Out goal is to ensure minimum disruption for the user.

Test Case

Our customer calls us with a PC that will not Boot up. They describe the problem as: “It passes the Bios screen and looks like it’s loading Windows but just stops on a black screen”.

After some routine troubleshooting this problem PC is then allocated parts and an engineer whi is then dispatched to fix the problem on-site.

In this scenario it could be a number of things, a corrupted user profile, a possible virus attack, faulty hardware or about 100 other things.

The technician will be send to site with:-

1 x Replacement PC (business class for example a Dell Optiplex)

1 x Hard Disk IDE or

1 x Hard Disk SATA (these are just types of hard disks most commonly used in a PC).

With this combination of parts we can guarantee to fix or replace the problem computer. during the on-site visit.

Within moments of arriving on site the problem will be identified.

The computers existing warranty status will be checked.

We will then start the process of either swapping parts or swapping computers depending on the severity of the problem.

If we have to get a repair under the original manufactures warranty we will pursue this after we have got the user back online and recovered any data that they may need.

We are proud of this service because it never fails to deliver a solution. We only offer this service to customers with a support agreement.

If you would like to have this level of support for your business then get in touch. 01606-841587.

How confident are you that your computer systems are getting backed up CORRECTLY? If you would like to talk to someone about this topic. Please call 01606-841587

Our clients all use servers, these all have either DDS tape backup systems or NAS (Network Attached Storage) for backing up their data.

A Backup is only going to be any use to you if it actually works.

We have been working in technology management for 10 years and have seen countless examples of automated backup systems that have failed.

Examples of Failure

DDS tapes are only good for 150 uses, so they wear out eventually. If your tapes are 5 years old do they still work?

Another issue is illegal file names and paths that can cause a backup to fail.

When you leave it up to staff to backup they forget from time to time.

People backup a two tape backup on the same single tape (yes you did read that correctly).

Automated backups can and do fail but because they are automated you assume they work everyday, they don’t.

We could go on….

So how do we help our clients with this problem? easy, we do it for them.

Every evening we remotely access the customer’s site and perform the backup ourselves. This involves:-

1) Connecting to the remote customer’s site.
2) Start the backup.

Next Day we check the backup was successfully completed.

Connecting to customers sites each day is a good thing because we can spot any problems before they escalate.

This is great for our clients it’s now just something they don’t have to worry about.

If you have questions about this or other technology issues then please leave a comment or e-mail website@481.co.uk.

If you would like someone to explain Remote Access Technologies to you and how these can be used to increase the producivity of your business then call 01606-841587.

We now live in an age where it is possible to work wherever and whenever you want.

Small businesses can use technology to help keep remote workers connected.

I think people get turned off by the complex sounding names for things like VPN, Remote Desktop or Terminal Services.

These are just the names of the technology that allow you to work remotely. The remote user experience is just like sitting in front of your PC in the office.

VPN

Virtual Private Network. This is a connection from one network to another, when joined together they create a Virtual Private Network.

A home worker would “VPN in” to a head office for example.

Once a VPN connection is established the user can access Shared/Mapped Network Drives for example and all the other network services like printing etc.

Remote Desktop

Remote Desktop is built into Windows XP Pro and Windows Vista and allows the remote computer to take full control over it.

Terminal Services

Terminal Services is like remote Desktop but it runs on a Windows Servers and creates virtual computing sessions for the remote user. So a Windows Terminal Server might have 30 people all remotely connected to it, each with their own virtual computer session connected to a central customer database.

So a VPN joins Site A to Site B and then you can choose either to Remote Desktop to a PC on site or Terminal Server depending on what you want the remote user to do.

All our clients use “Remote” technologies of one kind or another. I have clients who work from home.

We have branch office/head offices connected together.

We also have people working in France, China and Australia using these technologies to stay connected back at base.

We use use Remote Desktop to take over problem computers or perform server maintenance. This is great for me as some clients are an hour away, but using Remote Desktop I can take over in seconds.

I make it sound really simple, there are a few caveats, and Security for example is one. You have to trust the remote worker to access your systems.

What’s important to remember is that business are now free from geographical boundaries if you find the ideal employee but they live 3000 miles away there really is no reason they cant work for you and be efficient.

If you’re a North West based business looking help and advice about Remote Working then get in touch we can help you. Tel: 01606-841587.

Click Here for our Services Overview

If you have technology problems affecting your business call 01606-841587 for assistance.

There are several technological points on failure inside your business that can bring everything to a halt.

The show stoppers are:

Faulty/Broken Internet Router: With no connection to the internet it won’t be long before this starts to affect productivity, no e-mails, no browsing the web and external remote users can’t connect inbound.

Faulty/Broken Network Hub/Switch: This is a device that joins all the computers/devices on the network. If this breaks nothing works.

Server: Servers are usually robust and typically the only things to fail on servers are the moving parts. So that would be the Hard Disk and the Tape Drive. If your server dies you can’t access your data. If you Tape Drive fails your back up’s are in jeopardy.

Acts of God (or Utility Companies)

Also don’t forget without an electricity supply and no working telecoms will also be taken offline.

To a lesser extent

Single PC’s/Laptops: If your PC at work is broken then you’re not being productive.

Printers: If you can’t print your in trouble, just think of the important things like invoicing or quotes going out.

External Points of failure

The external points of failure usually end up being the ISP (internet service provider) and/or the company providing your internet e-mail/website hosting. My advice is if you repeatedly have problems with your internet service provider then change them.

In this topic I tell you how we help clients with these issues.

This one is simple, we keep replacement Routers, Hubs, Servers, Tape Drives, PC’s and Laptops ready to deploy when one of these crucial pieces of the jigsaw fail.

The external points of failure are naturally more difficult, but we maintain a good working relationship with the ISP’s and continually monitor their service. We use the sames services so we know when it’s failed.

As I good as we are, even we can can’t conjure electricity or working telecoms and when these fail the best you can do is know how to report the failure to the correct utility supplier.

Advice:

Get a technology support partner that has your back covered for the items above. We are a small consultancy and even we can offer this level of service to our clients. This combined with 10 years IT problem solving means things run pretty smooth.

Click Here for our Services Overview