It’s all about improving one’s posture.

Just think about this: what is your posture like while tapping away on your keyboard for hours on end day in and day out? Pete Egoscue has written an additional book to address this chronic problem – Pain Free At Your PC. Everyone in attendance received a complimentary copy of this book and was guided through some basic Egoscue exercises (called e-cises) that improve posture and range of motion and more. Just those few minutes of simple e-cises and I could feel the difference.

My stress goes to my neck and shoulder areas (it has for decades) and I believe that it’s all related to my poor posture. It doesn’t help that I am in front of a PC way too much (it’s a necessary evil) at work and at home. So, knowing that being in front of a PC won’t change, I need to change contributing factors to the stress.

Check out the Pain Free books and give me comments on what you are doing to help yourself be pain free.

The biggest threat to your computer systems probably isn’t a nefarious hacker, a freak tornado, a major power outage, or a lethal case of malware. It’s something much more innocent-looking: a ubiquitous part of the modern office and a little productivity-boosting device that’s just as valuable as your Android, iPhone, Windows Phone or BlackBerry.

It’s called a cup of coffee.

This innocent beverage, if it happens to spill on your laptop, could spell major disaster. Computer technicians will probably tell you that spilled coffees have spelled the deaths of more hard drives than power surges, dropped laptops, or other common accident categories combined.

Of course, Death By Liquid can take other forms as well. Floods can easily destroy not only tens of thousands of dollars of computer equipment, but whole offices. A leaky roof can quickly escalate from an annoyance into a major threat to equipment. And faulty sprinkler systems – or, for that matter, working sprinkler systems that come on when there’s a real fire – can destroy your computers in a matter of minutes.

When it comes to computers, moisture is your enemy. Here’s how to combat minor spills – and how to prevent major data loss.

The key with a coffee spill is to act quickly. Cut the power, unplug the computer, and remove the battery. (The thing that will kill your computer isn’t actually the water; it’s the electrical current.)  Then, gently turn your laptop over to let the liquid drain out. Blot away whatever runoff you can catch.

Prop up your laptop to dry facing downward. Then, wait for time and evaporation to work their magic.

If you happened to spill a soda on your laptop instead of coffee, you might have serious residual stickiness issues to contend with. You can try dismantling the computer and carefully rinsing the individual parts in distilled water – but at that point you might as well just call CMIT and get an expert to help you out! Any laptops that we purchase for our clients come with a very strong recommendation for accidental (oops, I spilled a drink on the keyboard) care warranty.

For major water disasters affecting a whole office full of computers, you’re going to have to go a different route. You may never be able to resurrect all of your equipment. But if you’re smart and plan ahead, you can at least resurrect your data.

By running regular remote backups, you ensure that your data will live on even if your in-office equipment suffers from some untimely disaster. It protects you not only from equipment failures but also from local data corruption due to viruses, bugs, or just plain accidents. A remote backup is one of the best insurance policies you can have for your business data. To find out more about CMIT’s remote backup solution, check out CMIT Guardian.

     First, data backup simply means a copy of your data is replicated to another device or location. Tape drives, offsite backup and even USB devices provide data backup.  Data backup is obviously important. However, the more important consideration is whether or not your backup solution provides easy disaster recovery, or the ability for you to recover all your files, software and functionality quickly, easily and without corruption.  For example, if your server died, you wouldn’t be able to quickly get back to work if you only had file-level backup. In order for you to start working again, your server would need to be replaced, all software re-installed, data re-installed and then the whole system would need to be configured with your settings and preferences. This process could take hours or even days – and that’s if you have all your software licenses and a clean copy of your data.

     Then there’s business continuity. This is the ability for your business to continue to operate even after a major disaster. For example, if you ran an accounting firm and your building burned to the ground, you’d be out of business if all your files were on the server only. However, if you had your network in the cloud (see our first article) your employees could continue to work from home or some other location, giving your business continuity.

     Of course, you need all three at some level. At a minimum you need to make sure you have in place the right backup and disaster recovery plan for your tolerance for downtime, and a plan for how your business could continue to operate if you could no longer access your building, server or data. You should review your plan annually. If you want a simple and easy way to get all of this handled, give us a call! We specialize in planning, implementing and managing these projects so you don’t have to.

CMIT Solutions has a program to cover all three areas of protecting your data and your business. It’s CMIT Guardian where we protect your business and we keep your business running smoothly.

If you have Microsoft Office 2010, you already have OneNote.
Time to start using it.

Once you start using OneNote to create digital notebooks of your notes and ideas, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. Before you know it, you’ll be looking for reasons to create more notebooks – work or school reports, home projects, and who knows what else.

What will hook you on OneNote:

• OneNote helps bring together your digital info (notes, photos, videos, web links, etc.) into easy-to-organize notebooks.
• OneNote makes it easy to share your notebooks and collaborate in real time with other OneNote users.
• The OneNote Web App and OneNote Mobile allow you to access and add to your notebooks from virtually anywhere.

Not only is there OneNote Mobile for Windows phones, but there is OneNote 1.3 for  iPhones and iPads  (with iOS).  Integration and flexibility are some of the benefits of Microsoft OneNote that will add to increasing your productivity.

If you do have Office 2010 and haven’t played with OneNote, there is no better time than now to try it out and start 2012 on a good Note! And, if you don’t yet have Office 2010, what are you waiting for? Give us a call at 303-756-2648 or go to our website to discuss what is necessary to upgrade your old version of Office.

We all have a strong sense of what we need to do to be successful in our businesses. In fact, we can rattle off the “rules” of success all day long. But some people just don’t sit down and DO what they know needs to be done.

Here are a few tips to get you pointed in the right direction for 2012. Please take some time to write down a few things you want to work on . . . then start working!

• Take control of your finances. If finances bore you or scare you, or you just don’t have time, hire someone. Make that piece of your business go smoothly and everything else will go better as well.
• Rethink your prices. Today. Whether that means considering increases or service agreements, managed services, flat rate, or whatever. Do Not just let the hodge-podge of prices in your business continue without some overall structure that makes sense. KISS: Keep it simple. If you can’t explain your pricing to another consultant (or a client!) in one paragraph, you’re in trouble. If you ever want to grow, this area will need regularity.
• Rethink Growing. Growing doesn’t have to mean that you hire ten people and become a fulltime administrator. You can grow by intentionally organizing your business around policies, procedures, and tools that allow you to provide higher quality service to your clients.
• Hire carefully. Fire quickly. These are two major areas of pain. When you hire on a whim you’ll probably lose a lot of money before you either train the person properly or send him to work for the competition. Remember Brian Tracy’s simple advice: The best time to fire someone is the first time the thought crosses your mind. This is a hard one.
• Rethink your clients. How can you weed out the ones that aren’t good for you and find the ones you want?
• Work on being professional. Get your invoices out on time. Dress professionally. You should be as well dressed as anyone you’re going to do business with today. Our industry is terrible on this score. You don’t have to wear a tie or a dress and high heals, but find something other than a t-shirt and jeans.
  Make sure your “presentation” is professional. Buy printed envelopes, stationary, and business cards. With services like VistaPrint, the whole lot will be less than $100.
• Standardize your practices. Write it down! Begin describing everything you do in terms of “We like to . . ..” Think back to conversations with I.T. Pros when we all sit around and ask what the others are doing about this or that or the other thing. Just as you have an elevator speech for your prospects, you should have an elevator speech for your marketing practices, your training practices, your documentation practices.

I’ve met people who say they’re working toward success, but they spend all their spare time watching TV or playing video games. If you fill your time with TV and video games, you’ll be good at watching TV and good at video games. If you spend your time reading and thinking about your business, you’ll be good at the business side of your business.

Don’t just pore through the powerpoint slides from presentation and copy someone else. Develop YOUR habits of success. Make them consistent. Treat your business like a business.

If you want some tough love, here it is: If you’re not willing to work ON your business and become more professional, then your business will decay and you will find it tougher to compete every year. Tune up your radar and listen. If you keep getting the same advice over and over, TAKE IT!

No one thing will keep you from being successful. No one thing will make you successful. Success comes from focusing your attention and your intentions like a laser beam, and from establishing good habits and becoming their slave (thank you, Og Mandino).

If you just wake in the morning and do whatever seems like a good idea today, then you better work inside a pinball machine because that’s the only place where that behavior can lead to success.

More than 80 years have passed since Emily Post wrote her first book on etiquette. Back then, the rules had more to do with how to properly introduce someone and which fork to use at a dinner party. But with the introduction of new communication tools comes new rules of engagement. Here are 15 quick tips and rules for what is—and isn’t—acceptable behavior when using e-mail.

1)      Be concise and to the point. Read your e-mail to make sure it makes sense before sending to avoid e-mail “ping-pong.”

2)      Use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation. This is still a communication and a representation of YOU. Sloppy spelling and punctuation looks unprofessional.

3)      Don’t use e-mail to deliver bad or personal news. If you need to discuss a serious matter with someone, only use e-mail to request a face to face meeting or phone call, not to deliver the news.

4)      Do not attach unnecessary files, especially large ones. Sending big files can cause someone’s e-mail system to clog, shut down or crash. Instead, use www.yousendit.com for large documents.

5)      Do not overuse the high priority option. Use it only when something is truly critical and time sensitive.

6)      Do not write in CAPITALS—it’s the equivalent of shouting.

7)      Don’t leave out the message thread.

8)      Give your recipients an easy way to opt-out or remove themselves from your list.

9)      Do not overuse “Reply to All.” If you have a message for the sender that is not relevant to everyone else, make sure you only send it to that person.

10)  Do not “CC” everyone when sending a broadcast to multiple people. Instead, use the bcc (blind carbon copy) to keep everyone’s e-mail private.

11)  Don’t overuse abbreviations and emoticons.

12)  Don’t use neon colors, hard to read fancy fonts and background images. They make it difficult—if not impossible— to read your message.

13)  Only use rich text and HTML messages when you are certain the recipient can receive that type of message. Many people can only open text messages, and most rich text and HTML messages don’t convert well.

14)  Do not forward a message that was sent to you without permission from the original sender.

15)  Do not use email to discuss confidential information. If you don’t want the entire world to see it, then don’t put it in an e-mail.

When you’re making a list of things to be thankful for, computers and technology usually don’t make the list; as a matter of fact, they often get put on the “hate” list of things that frustrate us!

   However, I think it’s time someone gave credit where credit is due! Here are the top 5 reasons why we should be thankful for all the new (and constantly evolving) technology we have available to us:

1.)  It allows us all to be more “earth-friendly.” Thanks to e-mail and the Internet, as well as the ease in document imaging, we can all communicate with each other without having to waste paper and ink, not to mention stamps!

2.)  We can instantly access information on practically any topic we want, whenever we want. I remember when I was a kid, all research required a trip to the library and old-fashioned research with a set of encyclopedias. Now, if you  need to find a Mexican restaurant within 1 mile of your location, you can not only find one, but you can check out the menu and order online so your food is waiting for you when you show up!

3.)  It keeps us in touch. Although it can easily be argued we’ve gone too far in this department (see the article to the right), cell phones, Blackberries, and even online forums (blogs, Facebook, MySpace) have enabled us to find and stay in touch with more people more frequently.

4.)  It saves us time and money. Nothing has done more for the consumer than the Internet. In minutes, you can search on and compare various products and services without having to make a single phone call or (even better) getting in your car to drive about looking for what you want. Plus, you can order just about anything online and have it shipped to your door. Amazing!

5.)  It’s a great scapegoat for any number of mistakes you’ve made. Missed an appointment? Blame your system being down. Don’t want to talk to someone? Use the old, “I have no bars in this area,” excuse. Overlooked an important client’s request? Just tell them you never got the e-mail!

   What are WE most grateful for? Those of you that trust us to make all the computers and gadgets work the way they are supposed to so your business can perform at a high level of productivity!

By outsourcing the IT support function to CMIT Solutions of Denver we can guarantee access to a breadth of expertise, experience, knowledge and intellectual property. CMIT Solutions uses a sophisticated line of business application to create and manage projects and document deployment standards, as well as a knowledge base for common IT issues and their resolutions. We leverage our local ownership presence and take advantage of our nationwide system to benefit our clients, especially the purchasing power and our braintrust. It’s really the best of both worlds.

For those operational practices that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house, allow us to step in and alleviate any issue with our broad range of solutions from our local and national pool of technical talent. Whether your company is looking for a major step change, modification, innovation, or supplementary support in your internal IT department, CMIT Solutions of Denver is a solution for outsourced IT support.

Though there are many facets of your business that can be greatly improved by utilizing cloud computing, one in particular that any business regardless of industry should be concerned with is that of email. Cloud-based email, often referred to as ‘Hosted Exchange’, is the perfect way to eliminate the hassles of slow performance and influxes of spam messages as well as making it easier for your IT support to manage and care for this element. With this innovative technology your email server is hosted and maintained through a very high security hosting company and can be accessed securely by any authorized device or PC.

There are many advantages that can be derived from cloud-based email, most notably synchronized data and access from anywhere, at any time and from any device. Rather than accessing your email and calendars only from your office desktop, you can securely access these from any device or PC. When you delete an email on one device — cell phone, iPad, or desktop — it is deleted everywhere. This increases your productivity so you aren’t looking at emails more than you should. The hosting companies also have extremely high performance systems increasing overall speed and backup servers so any sort of interruption or network failure doesn’t deter from your communications or business continuity. For all you penny savers out there, this technology also makes it so that you never need to allocate capital for maintenance or the purchase of new software and hardware. Cloud-based email can be the most cost effective and easiest means of eliminating email downtime and increasing performance for your business.

One big caveat — hosted solutions are not always cheaper and may not work with all of the applications and needs of your firm.

Contact CMIT Solutions of Denver with any technology questions or to schedule a cloud assessment. This will allow you, with our trusted  insights and recommendations, to make an informed decision about your technology environment.