March 2018

630.850.9039 Continued pg.2 We love this stuff! We are committed to helping businesses use technology to run their organization successfully and profitably. Your Image Here What’s New This monthly publication provided courtesy of Catherine Wendt, President of Syscon Inc. April 2018 If April showers bring May flowers, what do Mayflowers bring? In all my years of private teaching, this one always brought a smile . The days are getting longer and signs of Spring are everywhere. Spring thunderstorms are on their way, so review those emergency plans with staff. The techs have successfully replaced our Firewall which updates our equipment, our security, and our disaster recovery options; great job! We have some upgrades coming up for our clients, too. Please keep an eye on your email, and as always, call with any questions! - Catherine Wendt Don’t Ever Let Your IT Company Do This To Your Computer Network Today, when companies need to be lean, nimble, and brutally efficient to survive in a competitive marketplace, cutting unnecessary costs is paramount. Unfortunately, it can be easy when you’re on a tight budget to accidentally strip away components of your business that may seem gratuitous but are actually essential to your success. One of the first things that often ends up on the chopping block in the frenzy to save money is IT. Instead of continually investing in managed IT services, where professionals carefully maintain, protect, and update your network month to month, some businesses decide that the best way to keep their technology running smoothly is to simply leave it alone, calling up a professional only when something breaks down. Of course, this approach forgoes monthly costs and shaves off a fair few dollars from your technology budget in the short term. But while this approach may seem cost-effective, it opens up your business to a huge variety of technological crises, from expensive network outages to cyberattacks that may cripple the very future of your company. The Problem With A ‘Break-Fix’ Strategy It can be hard to imagine the huge list of problems that might arise within your network. So, it’s an understandable strategy to wait to do something until an issue becomes a serious problem. At that point, they bring in a professional who – charging by the hour – attempts to find and repair whatever may be broken. It seems like a logical approach, but unfortunately, it’s littered with huge -- 1 of 4 - All Things Tech April 2018 (continued from page 1) hidden costs. If you’re calling an IT expert only when something in your network is broken, only your most urgent problem is being addressed. When your technician is being paid an hourly wage to fix a specific issue, there’s no permission to be proactive with your system. They might recommend important, moneysaving upgrades or updates, and they may be able to detect a crisis before it happens, but when they leave, the ball is still in your court. What’s more, the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach very likely leaves huge holes in your security and drastically magnifies the costs of an IT meltdown. If they’re only arriving in the midst of crisis, there’s hardly ever an opportunity for the break-fix technician to strengthen the barriers between you and the hordes of hackers clamoring for your data. They’re on the clock, being closely monitored to fix the problem and then go away. Meanwhile, the security landscape is constantly changing, with criminals and security experts in a back-and-forth arms race to stay abreast of the latest developments. Without someone managing your system on a regular basis, your protective measures are sure to become woefully out of date and essentially useless against attack. We have stories! Why Managed IT Services Are The Answer When you turn over your IT needs to a managed services provider (MSP), you’re entrusting the care of your network to a team of experts who have a real interest in your success. MSP engineers regularly monitor the health of your system, proactively preventing disaster before it enters into the equation and hurts your bottom line. Beyond this preventative care, MSPs do everything they possibly can to maximize the power and efficiency of your equipment, implementing only the best practices and the latest software and updates. When you invest in an MSP, you may have to invest more funds initially, but likely you’ll save tens of thousands of dollars in the long run by avoiding cyber-attacks, downtime, and hourly rates wasted on a technician trying to catch up on months of neglect to troubleshoot a problem. When you choose an MSP, you’re not just choosing a superior and healthier network – you’re choosing peace of mind. Cathy and Larry Sightings Catherine directed the choir and orchestra at North Ridge Community Church in Cave Creek on Palm Sunday. Larry took his French Horn out of mothballs and played for Palm Sunday services. ‘Vision without execution is hallucination.’ - Thomas Edison 630.850.9039 Two Harvard MBA students signed up for a class called God and Money. They worked on a research project for their professor culminating in a final term paper based on their research and the results from a survey of other Harvard graduates. They admit that it’s one thing to write about how to handle money that they didn’t have yet, and another to put their advice into action in their own lives. The research includes all faith disciplines including atheists and agnostics, all weighing in on the topic of giving. There’s a great interview on You Tube (search the book title and authors’ names), a live interview with the two authors; you might want to check it out. They tell their story and tell how they’ve executed their own advice. Recommended! —CMW God and Money by John Cortines and Gregory Baumer “Instead of continually investing in managed IT services...business owners decide that the best way to keep their technology running smoothly is to simply leave it alone, calling up a professional only when something breaks down.” -- 2 of 4 - Shiny New Gadget Of The Month: A 65-inch OLED TV is a beautiful thing. But can it compare to a crisp, bright 150-inch display in the comfort of your home? That’s what LG is offering this year with its new 4K HDR projector, the HU80KA. Clocking in with a 3840 x 2160 resolution, 2,500 lumens and a stunning picture, the portable device is an attractive offer indeed. The device is only a few feet tall, but it looks like it will be the ideal piece of equipment for home theater enthusiasts. It’s the closest you can get to the big-screen experience, and you won’t even have to plonk down 20 bucks for a tub of popcorn. It remains to be seen, though, whether it’ll be worth the price tag. At the time of writing, the price has not yet been released, but bulkier, less portable competitors cost a little under $2,000. Microsoft Privacy Statement Have you ever read this? One of our techs took a deeper dive and found some very interesting things. ‘Cookies’ are small text files placed on your device by Microsoft. In their privacy document, they tell you that they use cookies and similar technologies to help collect data. These cookies allow them to ‘enable you to sign-in’ and ‘provide interestbased advertising’ which I read to mean they watch how and when I sign in and choose advertising to send me. Under ‘Personal Data We Collect,’ if you hit the Learn More option, you’ll see some other info. They also obtain data from third parties and these include demographic data; social network info when you grant permission to them; service providers that determine your location based on your IP address so they can customize certain products to your location. Other data they might collect includes name and contact data such as first/last name, address, and phone number; credentials such as passwords, password hints, and other security info; demographic data such as age, gender, country, preferred language; voice and text search queries or commands; getting worried… How about your interests and favorites such as teams you follow in a sports app, stocks you track, favorite cities you add to your weather app. Well at this point, I stopped reading. I’m glad I decline whenever given the chance, but to log onto some of these products, you have to agree to the terms, and I’ve only shared a very small portion with you. Be careful out there... Automatically keep workstations, laptops and servers up-to-date Managed Services are all about bringing automation to network devices, monitoring, setting alert parameters, pushing out Windows and security patches, the latest anti-virus (AV) software and definition files, and a host of other automation options. When we’re at a client site performing maintenance without the benefit of Managed Services, installing these critical AV updates and Windows/ Security patches takes up a lot of our time. This really cuts into our time to look at the overall health of the network, devices that may be reaching end-of-life, running low on disk space, or in need of firmware updates. With Managed Services in place, our time is much more efficient and our clients benefit from having the latest security patches immediately rather than waiting for our next visit. Think of it like taking vitamins every day and still going to the doctor for a checkup! Give us a call and we’d be happy to tell you all about it. - CMW All Things Tech April 2018 630.850.9039 4K HDR Projector Can Beam A 150-Inch Picture Onto Your Wall Did you know we have a You Tube Channel? It’s full of short videos about IT-specific topics for your business and recorded webinars. Why not subscribe to can see the latest update? We have a Syscon LinkedIn page. If you’re on LinkedIn, let’s get connected! We have a Twitter feed, too. It’s @Syscon_Inc— check it out! -- 3 of 4 - All Things Tech April 2018 Construction Corner What’s New in Sage 100 Contractor S100C v20 Data is NOT in the MB7 folder any more—On a recent call with a new client, we asked about how they were handling their backup. They told us they copy the MB7 folder to a separate drive as a backup. Now there are a couple of things wrong with this process, but here’s the BIGGEST problem— they’re on version 20 and that’s NOT where the data is located any more. The data is in the C:Sage100Con folder; but that’s still not enough. These are SQL files; you need to get an IT person involved to be sure you get a good backup that can be recovered if needed. The Nightly Tune-Up Routine The new Tune Up feature is like the old Reindex process, but more important than ever with the new SQL tables. This automatically runs each night if everyone is logged out! If not, it won’t run. Exit the program at the end of the work day (just buy another license if you don’t have enough!). The Tune Up will run in the evening IF everyone is logged off. If this does not run, the SQL tables will not run through the cleanup process and the program may begin to run more slowly. One of the great features with v20 is the log of who has changed what; but all those logs take up space, which can slow things down. The TuneUp keeps these tables clean. We’ll be at TUG—Booth 6 We’ll be at the TUG Expo in Orlando, Florida this May. This user-specific show is always wellattended, focusing on specific Sage software and add-ons for the Construction industry. The event is May 15-17 in Orlando. We’ll feature our Field Integrated Time (F.I.T.) System, and some of our Sage 100 Contractor-specific analytical tools such as Over/Under Billing, Indirect Cost Allocation (ICAP), and a few others. Come by, say ‘hi’ and share some stories. Look forward to seeing you in sunny Orlando! Collecting Time From the Field Just Got Exciting! We’re helping our clients collect field time from mobile devices, and we’re fully integrated (really!) with Sage 100 Contractor version 20. We can collect cost code information, work order numbers, phases, client signatures, and a whole lot more. Your field can use iPhones, Androids, or Tablets. Interested? Join us for a demo on April 19th! 630.850.9039 This month’s trivia question: Alexander Graham Bell is credited as the inventor of the telephone. The ϐirst call is said to have taken place on March 10, 1876 in Boston. What are the words that Bell is said to have uttered? a) Once more unto the breach, dear friend b) Mr. Watson, come here I want you c) We few, we happy few, we band of brothers d) Is this Pizza Hut? Congratulations to last month’s Trivia Contest winner, Laurie Washburn, with DSI Service Master, IL! Laurie’s name was drawn from the ϐishbowl for last month’s correctly answered Question: What does SSL stand for? b) Secure Socket Layer Who Wants To Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card? To enter: Go to www.Syscon‐inc.com/Trivia and type in your answer. All correct answers will be put into a ϐishbowl and we’ll randomly draw the winner. The Winner will be contacted shortly after the deadline and will be announced in next month’s newsletter. Deadline: April 20, 2018 -- 4 of 4 -