April 2019

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 2019 We’re keeping an eye out for the buds on the trees and those first flowers to open. It seems that many of our clients are ready for those Spring projects; lots of new workstations and laptops, new servers, moving to hosted solutions; all getting ready for the busy season ahead. If you haven’t done so already, make a list of any Windows 7 computers you have. These need to be replaced before January 2020. Many clients are doing a few at a time to minimize the interruptions and spread out the costs. We can help with this! - Catherine Wendt In today’s constantly shifting technological landscape, where fresh viruses and the new security patches designed to protect against them arrive by the week, it takes a proactive approach to stay abreast of all the changes. This is why, in 2019, more small to midsize businesses (SMBs) are ditching their outdated break-fix strategies and making the switch to a managed services provider (MSP) for their IT needs. But for those of us still coming to terms with the new rapid-fire reality of business in the digital age, it can be difficult to determine which approach is right for your organization, or even what a managed services provider actually does. Here’s a breakdown of the managed services strategy versus the traditional break-fix approach and how it applies to your business. MANAGED SERVICES ARE DESIGNED FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE IT UPKEEP. Maintaining the integrity, efficiency and security of your business network is a little like taking care of your car. You don’t buy the equipment with the expectation that it’ll be good to go forever; you know that it’ll take regular upkeep to stay in tip-top shape. For a car, of course, that means regular oil changes, rotating the tires, checking the alignment, checking and replacing the fluids, ensuring adequate tire pressure, changing your spark plugs, flushing the transmission – the list goes on and on. If you don’t bother with basic preventative maintenance of your vehicle, it’ll fail you sooner rather than later. We’re guessing most of our readers wouldn’t drive 20,000 miles without checking the oil, for instance. Many of these tasks can be taken care of with some savvy and time investment, but others require the expertise of a seasoned professional, especially when serious problems arise. It’s the same with your network. Business technology is notoriously What Is Managed IT Services…And Why Should You Want It From Your IT Services Company? -- 1 of 4 - All Things Tech April 2019 (continued from page 1) finicky. It’ll work perfectly for months and, in rare cases, for years – until suddenly it doesn’t, at which point it’s likely too late. Suddenly all your data is locked down behind some nasty new ransomware, or your server decided to give up the ghost without warning, leaving key customer information swinging in the wind. We constantly hear about Fortune 500 companies shelling out millions for highprofile data breaches, but when these attacks come to SMBs, they often fold the company completely. What was once a thriving small business is now an empty storefront, buried under the never-ending progress of modern technology. The old break-fix approach to IT management attempts to address the digital risks facing SMBs only after problems arise. Is your server down? Is malware giving you a headache? Is your e-mail not working for some reason? If so, they’re on the scene. Otherwise, they’re hands-off. The idea behind this strategy is the classic adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Business owners look to cut costs on IT by only addressing the most serious technological crises after they’ve already happened, rather than shelling out funds for regular preventative maintenance. Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t make sense in the context of your car, it certainly doesn’t make sense for your network. A break-fix strategy can save money in the short term, sure, but it results in more network downtime, a much higher frequency of issues and a ton of dollars spent on damage control down the line. Instead, you should listen to the IT professionals responsible for the backbone of your business and let them provide managed services. This means they’re in the guts of your network every day, mastering and locking down every aspect of your technology long before anything goes wrong. They’ll detect issues before they cost you money and fix them without hesitation. You might balk at the initial subscription fee, but if you run the numbers, you’ll quickly see how much money it will save you in the long run. This is an investment in the future of your business. You wouldn’t drive your car mindlessly until it breaks down; it’s arguably even more dangerous to do the same with your network. Take a proactive approach, sign up for managed services and breathe a sigh of relief knowing your network is in the hands of professionals wellversed in the ins and outs of your business’s specific needs. Cathy and Larry Sightings Catherine has been on the road for some industry events. Nido Qubein, Doug Lipp, and Payton Manning were guest speakers. Also visited some out-of-state clients. Larry had a chance to spend time with a business partner in Costa Rica. Definitely got some work done, but also did some fishing. ‘The smallest package in the world is a person all wrapped up in himself.’ - Unknown 630.850.9039 I had a chance to hear John Ruhlin speak at an industry event. He has a great personal story and clearly loves story-telling. His focus was on the art of giving and how it can be used in Marketing and Sales. Then he took it to another level; What if gifting was a way of life? What if we were looking for opportunities to ‘gift’ the people in our lives? In the book, he has more stories about how the art of ‘gifting’ can impact people. Showing appreciation, genuinely, to clients, employees, prospects, family members, and those who help make your life successful and meaningful can become a way of life, one that brings blessings right back to you, too! A quick read, but you’ll want to pause to give some of these ideas thoughtful consideration. Definitely recommended - CMW Giftology by John Ruhlin “You don’t buy the equipment with the expectation that it’ll be good to go forever; you know that it’ll take regular upkeep ... ” -- 2 of 4 - Shiny New Gadget Of The Month: As more and more things in the world become digitized and revamped for the smartphone generation, the humble peephole has joined the ranks of IoT-enabled devices. Enter the Ring Door View Cam, a nifty little piece of tech that replaces the fish-eye lens of your peephole with a camera so there’s never any question who is at the door. In addition, you get mobile notifications whenever the device’s motion sensor is triggered, enabling you to remotely communicate with a visitor from your phone, even if you’re not home. That means no more missed drop-ins, no more packages left out in the open on your doorstep and no more shady, late-night encounters with suspicious strangers. ‘Popular’ Email Scams: What You Need to Know We’ve seen some ‘old favorites,’ some seasonal scams, and some new email scams. Here are a few examples to warn family and friends so they don’t get tricked, and you should stay away from them, too! Microsoft supposedly called our office to let our sales person know that there was a problem with their machine. All they had to do was let ‘Microsoft’ log in and take a look—this was NOT Microsoft; it’s a scam. Microsoft is not going to call you and they are not monitoring you computer’s health. Delete this email right away. If you think something on your computer might need attention, call your IT provider; do NOT give anyone other than your trusted IT person access to your machine. Here’s a seasonal one—Turbo Tax says they have my tax return started. All I have to do is log on and finish it up; I don’t use Turbo Tax, so ‘delete’ was my response. American Express is another ‘oldie but goodie.’ I regularly get email messages saying there is a problem with my account; I don’t have an American Express account. Delete! If you think there might be a problem, delete the email and call them! The bank scams look better and better. There are fewer misspellings, and the logos are looking better, too. How do you know if it’s a scam? Call your bank; how do they communicate with their customers? Find out what to expect. If this is really your bank, delete the email and call them. It’s a lot easier to apologize for deleting an email that seemed ‘suspect’ than it is to cleanup or lose data because you clicked on a malicious email. Just give them a call! Why do these keep happening? Why do we tell you about these more than once? Because they are successful! The hackers are making wonderful profits because these tricks work. Be on guard. Be cautious—CMW The #1 Way Hackers Access Your Network It’s easy to imagine the hackers attacking your network as a team of computer masterminds. But in reality, the vast majority of data breaches don’t occur from some genius hacking into the mainframe. According to Trace Security, a full 81% of breaches happen as a result of poorly constructed passwords. Luckily, avoiding this is pretty simple. Ensure every member of your team uses strong passwords, over eight characters in length and comprised of letters, numbers, and symbols. Keep the numbers and symbols away from each other, and definitely avoid common, obvious passwords like “123456789” or “password,” You also might consider implementing twofactor authentication in your system, which is several degrees of magnitude more secure than ordinary passwords, but it can be a headache to set up without an expert on your team. SmallBizTrends.com, 1/3/2019 All Things Tech April 2019 630.850.9039 Bringing The Peephole Into The 21st Century: The Ring Door View Cam From the Techs Congratulations to Capitol Region Watershed in St. Paul, MN! They just moved to a beautiful and ‘Green’ building! They’ve taken advantage of new office technology for meeting rooms; be sure to let us know which of these are the most successful. -- 3 of 4 - All Things Tech April 2019 Construction Corner Sage 100 Contractor Updates Saving the Note Pad Takes Forever: Here’s a simple ‘fix’ for a lingering problem. Some of the note pads (not all) are taking forever to Save and close! You’ve checked and there are no odd characters; what’s the problem? Thanks to Rosalind from DMR Construction, we have an easy answer; turn off the Spell Check feature! With Spell Check ‘on,’ every time you Save that Note Pad, it runs through the whole thing with the spell checker. Turn it off and it saves the notes pretty quickly—give it a try! What version do I have? From the main menu, click on the icon with the house that says ‘Home & Resources.’ At the bottom of the list, click on ‘About Sage 100 Contractor’ and you’ll see the version you’re running, your Sage customer ID, your support expiration date, and what modules you have. Selecting a Job/Client/ Employee in a Print Screen: I’m surprised at the number of people who thought they had to go look up the job number (for example), then go to the report screen to print something and type in the job number because you ‘can’t look it up’ from that screen. They think that because there’s no pull down arrow in the field, you can’t look things up. Nothing could be further from the truth! At any field that has a list, whether it has a pull down arrow or not, use the F5 key to see the list. There’s no need to go look it up elsewhere, remember it, then go to your print screen and type it in. (BTW—you can also doubleclick in these report fields to get the list, but this doesn’t work in other areas.) While you’re in the print screens, have you ever played with using the In List option, or Not Equal to? These are great ways to sort your data. I use ’Not Equal To’ when I want a report that excludes a specific cost code, or excludes voided records, for example. I love ’In List’ when I need a report for specific vendors, together, that are not in numerical sequence. What other print features do you use? I’d love to hear your tricks and share them here. —CMW Collecting Time From the Field Just Got Exciting! Time and again we get a call that someone has gone with a time system that they were told integrates with S100C, but it turns out, it doesn’t. Well, we are! You won’t find a better, fully integrated, field time collection solution than ours because we wrote it to do what our clients told us they needed! Interested? Join us Wednesday, April 24th, 11:30am Central Time 630.850.9039 This month’s trivia question: The QWERTY keyboard has been in use since the late 1870s. How could you tell that the keyboard in front of you uses the QWERTY layout? a) The first 6 letter keys on the top row spell QWERTY b) The middle 6 keys on the keyboard spell QWERTY c) The last 6 letter keys on the top row spell QWERTY d) The function keys above the letter keys spell QWERTY Congratulations to last month’s Trivia Contest winner, Lorree Papenfus with Robert Borg Construction, IL! Lorree’s name was drawn from the fishbowl for last month’s correctly answered Question: After a gigabyte comes what, in increasing order? c) Terabyte 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 fishbowl 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, 2019 -- 4 of 4 -