July – August 2015

cannot be used by computer equipment. Make sure batteries are fully charged, and consider a spare battery for your laptop. Your Internet Service equipment also needs power, so even if your computer is on battery, you may not have internet access. Some cell phones have a ‘hot spot’ service so they can be used to provide internet access. In an emergency, you may not have access to electronic lists of family names, client names, employee phone numbers, and so on. Plan ahead by having the office print an updated list of names and phone numbers each Friday, and be sure it is available to you and your staff. Being prepared is a necessity; How can we help? Emergency Planning for Computers Updates and Tips from Syscon It seems like every time you turn on the news, there’s another disaster somewhere—flooding, tornados, hurricane winds, fire, earthquake. No one expects a disaster to happen to them; then again, that’s why we have insurance, backup our data, have a spare key with the neighbor, and so on. Passwords—many of our clients click ‘remember my password’ for their remote desktop log in to our cloud or their private cloud. Although convenient, if you have to use a backup log on icon, or your computer needs to be rebuilt, you’ll need that password. Don’t write it down or leave it in your drawer—keep passwords in a secure safe, lock box, or some other locked area. Backups—there are a lot of ways to back up your data. Have you checked your backup lately to be sure it has data on it? Is the data current and intact? Be sure you know if it is a backup of files that can be restored to a new machine once it is built and software installed, or an image that can be restored to replacement hardware. If it’s accounting data, do you have a way to install the program so the data can be accessed? If your backup is ‘in the cloud’ do you know how long it would take to download the data from the cloud in an emergency? This is highly dependent on your internet speeds and the size of the data. Power—do you have a generator to keep your fridge and sump pump running? That’s great, but it won’t run your computers. This type of generator creates ‘dirty’ power that Backup Disaster Recovery—our Partner, Datto In early 2014, Syscon began a search to replace our backup disaster recovery fleet. Through each round, the Datto Siris units came up on top. We were very excited, so we decided to begin with our own equipment. We replaced our BDR’s, attended their annual Partner conference, and started the training process. We have successfully replaced our entire fleet of backup disaster recovery units, and added a few of their NAS backup solutions. In several emergencies, the hardware, software, and support staff have come through— everything from file recovery, large data set recovery, to Cryptolocker disasters; each time with success. In July this year, we again attended their conference and heard some great new offerings; watched as they used dry ice to destroy a computer and virtualize the backup; all as we reached the highest partner level, Datto Elite Partners, with over 42 TB of data under management! —– Syscon, Inc. 15 Spinning Wheel, Suite 218 Hinsdale, IL 60521 (630) 850-9039 VOICE (630) 850-9040 FAX Did You Know? Sage 100 Contractor When you have to void a record, you can copy-paste, to avoid re-keying but with multiple job costs, it’s a pain to re-enter that screen since it doesn’t come over. Option1: Before you void the original record, copy the cost grid to Excel (without the record #’s), then copy the Excel grids back to the new record. Option 2: Copy the grid (right click, copy), void the record, recall, copy-paste as usual, then on the cost record, right click and paste to see the cost records. Give it a try—CMW 2014 Year End Wrap up Journal Entries for 2014 all entered? Ready to Archive 2014? Give us a call... Labor Day... We will be closed Monday, September 7, 2015 ___________________________ What our Clients have to say about our staff! Take a look at the back page of this Newsletter to read up on your favorite Tech or Business Consultant... July/August 2015 -- 1 of 2 - Cloud Hosting—News and Reminders June 2015 16-year Client Cathy, I’d like to pass on my EXTREME THANKS to Lenny who went above and beyond during the weekend of June 6th and 7th. We were going through a new software implementation that weekend and I had 28 staff members and 2 trainers I was paying to be here that Sunday. Saturday afternoon our modem stopped working. Lenny graciously gave me his personal cell phone number so I didn’t have to keep calling your ER number. I texted and called various times throughout the weekend… He walked me through various “fixes”...Through all this he was polite, friendly, and helpful... THANKS!! - Karen Rooney, Burr Ridge Veterinary Clinic Internet Providers (ISP’s) go down from timeto-time; sometimes it is weather related, other times a line is accidentally cut by a construction crew; no matter what the cause, it is inconvenient both personally and for work. Our hosted environment has two ISP lines with different vendors so if one goes down, the other can take over. Since this doesn’t happen very often, some of our clients may not remember that there are two icons on the desktop to access our client—a primary icon and a backup icon. There is a catch—many of you have clicked ’remember my password’ on the primary icon, but not on the backup, so when it’s needed, you don’t have your password. Although we can change a user password, we cannot ’see’ the password. Plan ahead and setup both icons so when needed, everything is ready to go! Anti-Virus Service Our anti-virus (AV) services is a great alternative to the traditional purchase and annual renewal model. You pay on a monthly basis, so there is less upfront cost when adding equipment. When taking equipment out of service, the monthly count/cost goes down. We also send weekly reports showing the last scan on each machine and other key information. Did you know this AV service includes web content control software for workstations and laptops at no additional fee? There are so many distractions during the work day; enabling this service allows your staff to focus on the job at hand while providing safety to your computers and network. Whether you need AVonly or to activate content control, we’re ready to help; just call! - BH Summer Heat versus Computers The Heat wins every time—each summer we hear that a client has turned off the AC over the weekend and the computers won’t work Monday morning. Keep the AC on and the computers as cool as possible—CMW July 2015 Private Hosting and Sage 100 Contractor Our Temp, Michelle Carter, really enjoyed her time with us. Carolina couldn’t say enough about her great attitude and phone presence! We wish her well in her next assignment! CMW Syscon, Inc. 15 Spinning Wheel Suite 218 Hinsdale, IL 60521 630-850-9039 Voice 630-850-9040 FAX Cathy attended the Datto Conference in New Orleans in July; they used dry ice to destroy a computer, then virtualize the backup! Sage 100 Contractor The recent releases address a known issue with the Combined Statement (AR & SR together in one report). Let us know if you need help with this update! July/August 2015 Take a look at Larry’s Cloud Computing article in the May 25th issue of the Business Ledger -- 2 of 2 -