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News Newsletters 2008 Newsletter for April 2008
Filled with relevant information about the rapidly evolving IT landscape, the Simpler-Webb newsletter is a must-read.
Newsletter for April 2008
Release date: 4/1/2008
WELCOME LETTER
Hello Partners in Technology
We are about to pass a huge milestone: fifteen years ago this May, Andy Webb and I started Simpler-Webb. We were actually playing pool at Andy's house in Houston when we decided to leave our respective jobs and become "Two Guys Consulting". It's hard to believe that 15 years later we've grown to nearly 50 employees and have served hundreds of clients. It's exciting to see the changes within our company and in technology solutions in general that have occurred since our inception. Now, if only I could remember who won that game...
Speaking of aging, do you have any old, end-of-sale, end-of-life hardware still in operation? Serviceability and reliability could become your liability should hardware fail without a supported vendor contract. Our account managers have been working with many of our clients to develop lifecycle management solutions that enable trade-ins of your old equipment to newer, supported devices. If you're interested in learning more, please read the Service Offering section below for more information.
We've added a new feature to our newsletter this month. It's called Food for Thought Leadership. It can be tough to keep up with the latest tech news given the hustle and bustle of everyday IT operations management, so we've captured some interesting headlines from recent technology publications and summarized them for you.
Finally, did you know it's our mission to be the trusted IT Infrastructure partner fostering your success? We're always looking for new and innovative ways to enable your success now and well into the future. Whether it's assuming management of your servers (see Case Study below) which gives you more time and resources to focus on other projects, or actually implementing those projects for you, we want you to know we're here to help you succeed.
Until next time, thank you for your continued business. We greatly value your partnership with us!
Warm Regards,
Jeff Simpler
CEO and Founder
SWINC NEWS & EVENTS ::
The Business of IT: Achieving IT Efficiency in Today's Economy
Now available online at www.simplerwebb.com/webinar
Username: webinar
Password: SWweb1nar
Simpler-Webb attends Symitar Regional Users Group Conferences
Symitar Midwest Users Group in Fort Wayne, Indiana on Feb. 19-21
Thank you to all who dropped by the booth to discuss Simpler-Webb solutions!
Symitar Northwest Users Group in Bend, Oregon on April 9-11
Be sure to drop by the Simpler-Webb booth and attend the Spotlight on Security Session from 2:00-4:00 pm on April 9th where Chris Cooper, Simpler-Webb Senior Account Executive, will present Inside the Corporate Castle: Your enemies have breached the walls and you don't know it!
Symitar Eastern Users Group in Memphis, Tenessee on April 16-18
Be sure to come by booth #1 and check out "A New Model for Outsourcing: Retaining Value and Controlling Costs" on April 17th from 2:30-3:15 pm
FOOD FOR THOUGHT LEADERSHIP ::
With the time constraints of modern life, it can be difficult to keep up on current technology news. This month, we're bringing you a special section where we discuss some of the recent headlines.
"CIO's Green IT Survey: Cost Cutting, Social Responsibility Drive Environmental Moves", CIO Magazine Online,
http://www.cio.com/article/197952/CIO_s_Green_IT_Survey_Cost_Cutting_Social_Responsibility_Drive_Environmental_Moves
In this article, CIO examines a survey of 280 IT executives regarding the concept of Green IT. The article reports that the surveyed IT executives declared decreasing energy consumption, and therefore cost, and social responsibility as the primary drivers for implementing Green IT. Unfortunately, only 54 percent claimed to frequently dispose of IT equipment in environmentally safe ways. Additionally, this article cites 61 percent do not currently measure their impact on the environment, including their carbon footprint, allowing them to then compare improvements after Green IT is implemented.
Food for thought: If you're looking into Green IT for your business, ask Simpler-Webb about our Server Virtualization and Consolidation solutions. Measure your data center energy consumption before and after the implementation, you'll likely see a significant difference.
"Experts: Employees Snoop on Customer Data", cnn.com/living, Feb. 28. 2008
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/02/28/snooping.workers.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch
Employees at a utility company in Wisconsin were found snooping into the confidential accounts of politicians, community leaders, family members, business associates, even their own bosses. The breaches were first exposed when an employee leaked a mayoral candidate's unpaid heating bill to the media, possibly costing him the election. The energy company argues that detecting misuse can be a challenge. Even government agencies, such as the IRS, have struggled to keep records from being compromised in this way. Experts maintain that many organizations do little to stop misuse of records citing identity theft, stalking, and privacy invasion as potential outcomes and call for lawmakers to intervene. In some cases, is not illegal unless the information is used for a crime.
Food for thought: Concerned about data leak prevention? Talk to Simpler-Webb today about a Network Security Best Practices Analysis.
SERVICE OFFERING ::
In our most recent webinar, The Business of IT, Chris Cobb talked about improving your IT maturity. Want to know where you are today and how to become more dynamic? Contact Simpler-Webb today for a FREE Infrastructure Optimization assessment.
Need Blackberry licenses? Simpler-Webb now sells user and Enterprise Server licenses and will soon be launching a Hosted Blackberry solution. Call today to find out more!
Do you have end-of-life hardware that's no longer covered by maintenance agreements? Check here:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/optical/ps2006/prod_eol_notices_list.html
Call Simpler-Webb today and we'll work with you to create a hardware lifecycle plan to phase out end of life hardware and take advantage of trade-in incentives for new Cisco gear.
EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT & NEWS ::
You asked for it, you got it! Simpler-Webb hires Service Coordinator to deliver improved communication
In our recent Customer Satisfaction Survey, Simpler-Webb confirmed a need for increased communication during service request handling and on-boarding. In response, we've hired an experienced customer service professional, Teresa Stewart. The new Service Coordinator will be reviewing in-bound service requests, communicating with clients to ensure the request is fully captured and prioritized for handling, and above all, acting as a client advocate guaranteeing expectations are set and exceeded. She'll also assist with Managed Services on-boarding.
Teresa Stewart, Service Coordinator, met Jeff Simpler in 1999 while working at a Credit Union in San Antonio. When she relocated to Austin in 2005 she "waited patiently for the right opportunity to join the incredible Simpler-Webb team!" She also worked with the account team's Louis Mayor and Chris Cooper at Digital Defense. Teresa is a great addition, having been in a service position for nearly ten years. In her spare time, Teresa enjoys riding her new motorcycle, a Ducati Monster S4R, and hanging out with her wonderful 10 year old son, Sean (who rides his own dirt bike and is learning to play guitar!). When she's not riding, Teresa also enjoys the great outdoors and dreams of a beach house in the Caribbean. Welcome to Simpler-Webb, Teresa!
Simpler Webb Grows!
Help us welcome Simpler-Webb's latest additions:
Teresa Stewart, Service Coordinator
Brittan Porter, Marketing Assistant
Case Study ::
LA DOTD Federal Credit Union Achieves Efficiency with Simpler-Webb Managed Server
Executive Summary
- Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Federal Credit Union (LA DOTD FCU)
- Banking/Finance
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- 57 employees
Business Challenge
Effectively operate newly migrated servers and provide ongoing systems administration without incurring the incremental costs of hiring and training additional in- house staff
Solution
Managed Server solution from Simpler-Webb complete with monitoring, maintenance, reporting, and access to Simpler-Webb's team of server specialists
Results
24x7x365 service availability monitoring, prompt notification of occurring or potential incidents, reduced downtime, access to expert technical staff, and the ability to focus internal resources on other IT needs
After a successful Microsoft Exchange migration completed by Austin-based, Simpler-Webb, Inc., Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Federal Credit Union (LA DOTD FCU) implemented Simpler-Webb's Managed Server product, resulting in controlled operation costs and increased IT service efficiency.
Business Challenge
LA DOTD Federal Credit Union was established in 1939 to serve the banking needs of LA DOTD employees. Over the years, the field of membership has grown to include contractors, consultants, corporate partners, as well as residents, employees, and students of Livingston, Calcasieu, and Cameron parishes.
In early 2003, LA DOTD engaged technology partner Simpler-Webb for an Exchange 2003 migration. Once completed, the LA DOTD staff was faced with an interesting challenge; they lacked in-house staff trained to administer the upgraded Exchange server and hiring a new Exchange professional seemed costly. Simpler-Webb presented a new option, outsourced server management.
Simpler-Webb Managed Server includes 24x7x365 monitoring, comprehensive server maintenance, utilization monitoring, and Client Portal reporting. "The productivity of your business is highly dependent on the performance and availability of your IT infrastructure. If you've ever had a downed server during the middle of a business day, you can probably attest to that," says Chris Cobb, Simpler-Webb CFO. "Managing highly available and secure servers can be challenging for small to medium sized businesses, especially when considering the cost of recruiting, training and retaining highly-skilled server administrators in-house."
Another facet of the decision to outsource server management is time. Simpler-Webb's solution provided a way for LA DOTD FCU to spend less energy on daily maintenance tasks, giving them more time to focus on other important IT projects. "When in-house IT staff members spend the majority of their time managing infrastructure, they end up focusing on maintaining status quo. While this may work in the short run, their true focus should be determining IT projects providing or enabling competitive advantage," said Cobb. "Our server specialist team cares for their servers 24x7 for less than the cost of a full-time LA DOTD server administrator, but more importantly, LA DOTD now focuses in-house staff on their core competencies."
"Key influencers in choosing to outsource server management to Simpler-Webb were 24 hour/365 monitoring, prompt notification of any issues or potential issues, reduced downtime, the ability to focus internal resources on other IT needs, and access to knowledgeable staff," said Patricia Bowen, LA DOTD FCU Systems Manager.
Solution
LA DOTD FCU on-boarded Simpler-Webb Managed Server in May 2003 with four servers housing Backup Exec, Trend Micro, Blackberry Enterprise, SharePoint, Websense Enterprise, and Exchange including approximately 90 email accounts. The process was relatively simple. "Often, we perform a best practices analysis before bringing a new client onto the service, however, because LA DOTD had just completed the Exchange 2003 project we had already done the work to make sure that their systems were optimally configured," said Tom Meunier, Simpler-Webb Senior Server Engineer. Simpler-Webb installed a server monitoring agent on LA DOTD's four servers, allowing the Managed Server team to perform nearly every task that an in-house server technician could. "The only thing we can't do from our secure Austin headquarters is put a disk in the drive," said Meunier. Simpler-Webb even installed an Integrated Lights Out feature, which allows the server to be cycled remotely if needed. LA DOTD FCU performs some server tasks in house; Bowen handles small account changes such as add/delete.
Results
"The greatest impact of Simpler-Webb's Managed Server solution is knowing an incident is often fixed before the end user notices. Additionally, internal IT staff are able to work on other projects instead of having to maintain monthly security patches or spend time on the phone with tech support. And although there has been an increased demand for servers at multiple sites, we have not had to increase our IT staff," said Bowen. Additionally, backups play a key role in LA DOTD FCU's business continuity planning and Simpler-Webb monitors these functions to make sure they are optimally configured and running properly.
"We're really proud to serve LA DOTD FCU. Seeing the positive impact of Managed Server on their organization early on in the product's maturity have proven this is a great solution for small to medium sized businesses that can benefit from having more time and money to focus on other competencies," said Louis Mayor, Simpler-Webb Account Manager.
"Simpler-Webb's Managed Server solution effectively maintains the health and availability of our servers allowing our internal technical resources focus on the identification, prioritization and implementation of new products and practices to strengthen our overall corporate vision," said Bowen.
USEFUL LINKS ::
Simpler-Webb:
www.simplerwebb.com
Webinar Series:
www.simplerwebb.com/webinar
Username: webinar
Password:SWweb1nar
Cisco end-of-sale/end-of-life hardware:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/optical/ps2006/prod_eol_notices_list.html
Article on Green IT:
http://www.cio.com/article/197952/
CIO_s_Green_IT_Survey_Cost_Cutting_
Social_Responsibility_Drive_Environmental_Moves
Article of Employee Snooping: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/02/28/snooping.workers.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch