XRBS Blog

What is an Expert?

Posted Apr 21 2012 1:47 PM by Rob Green

At Crossroads Business Solutions (XRBS), expertise has a very clear definition. We believe expertise is comprised of three factors: Education, Experience, and Training. The more one has of each, the more of an expert one becomes. Therefore, expertise is not a yes/no categorization, but a matter of degree.

When it comes to technical and/or complex matters – the more expertise one holds the better they will perform. This applies to everything from brain surgery to plumbing, from law to technology.

Education: This includes classroom instruction… like high school and college, but also includes industry certification. Certifications are developed by governing bodies or manufacturers to ensure that experts understand the intended design, functionality, and best practices associated with a given discipline. Education alone, however, can provide very little business value. For instance, a new college graduate, while well educated, has very little experience applying their recent education to the real world. A brain surgeon is not ready to operate until they have spent hundreds of hours working on cadavers. And in technology – we refer to a highly certified engineer with little to no experience to be a “paper tiger”.

Experience: This comes in many forms which can all be helpful. Sometimes we have bad experiences – but it serves as unforgettable experience of what to avoid in the future. Other times we have tremendous success, which gives us a certain path that is beneficial to repeat over and over seeking the same destination. At XRBS, we work hard to standardize our recommendations, actions, and processes on past success. And when we run across an occasional failure, we are just as diligent to dig into the situation to identify what happened, seek out warning signs we could/should have seen (to recognize it again in the future), and ask ourselves if there is anything we can do differently in the future to avoid repeating the bad experience.

Training: Training is the most important factor of the three, and there is only one beneficial form – good training. The better the training, the better the performance. Bad training, however, can only lead to poor performance. At XRBS, training of our engineers is handed down through hours of “Shadowing”. First the student watches the expert perform, then the roles are reversed and the expert watches the student. This approach to training is essential when grooming anyone to move deeper into expertise.

Having a defined concept of expertise is important for a company like Crossroads Business Solutions because we are paid for our expertise. And while this commitment to building experts is not cheap – rest assured that it produces the best results possible for our clients.

Think about this the next time you are disappointed with the performance or recommendation of your expert. And then inquire about these three factors – 1. who educated/certified them, 2. under what conditions did they get their experience, and 3. how were they trained. The answers may surprise you, and also explain why you were disappointed…

Small Business Mobility

Posted Jan 2 2012 5:30 AM by Rob Green

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2012. This could be your year of business ubiquity. What I mean is with the use of current and cost affordable hardware and software, we can work from almost anywhere, at any time, as effectively as we do in the office – and sometimes more so! For instance, as I write this blog post on New Years’ Day, I am still in my PJs sitting in my living room chair in front of a fire with a football game on the TV. I can assure you in years past I would not have gotten dressed and driven into the office to write this article. Further, after I write this, I’ll probably work on other stuff for a few minutes here and there as I feel like it. And it’s not just business owners that can do this – it’s your staff too!

So, on a normal day, after getting the kids on the bus, I sit down in my soft-comfy recliner at about 7am and begin my workday by opening my laptop and logging into Microsoft Outlook to read e-mail and review my calendar. I am not talking about a watered-down “OWA“ version of Outlook. I am using a full installation of Outlook on my laptop that is now able to communicate directly with our company Exchange server back at the office over my in-home wireless Internet connection – and the experience is just like when I’m connected to our network in the office.

When I finally arrive at my first meeting of the morning, if I find I have arrived a little earlier than my counterpart - no need to be frustrated over wasted time, I just reach for my smart phone (I currently carry the iPhone 4) and can do any number of helpful things such as responding to e-mail, reading the mornings news (local, national, or just about anything in print), watching the morning news (local, national, or just about anything on TV) or catch up with people via social networking such as Linked In or Facebook.

Following my breakfast meeting, frequently I have a lunch appointment in this same area – rather than burning 30 minutes driving to the office and 5-10 more minutes of water-cooler talk, I decide to slip over to Panera Bread, Paradise Bakery, or any one of the local restaurants that now offer free wi-fi. Once there I remotely connect in to our Microsoft Terminal Server for access to all my office applications, web applications, and data – just like sitting in the office. And, now that we use the Cisco Small Business UC series phone system at work, any calls at the office simultaneously ring to my cell phone.

It is 2012. It is a new year… and hopefully a new economy is emerging. Is your staff armed with the technology they need for business ubiquity?

If you find this article helpful - I would appreciate you letting me know by clicking on the Like button below!

As President and co-founder of Crossroads Business Solutions, Rob Green is responsible for the day to day operations of this central Indiana IT Outsourcing Company. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration & Management, as well as an MBA in Finance from Butler University. Over his 25 year career, he has obtained a broad array of Sales, Accounting, and Operational experience with businesses of all sizes, from startup to Fortune 500 high-tech corporations.

Crossroads Business Solutions is a central Indiana company providing Professional IT Services including advice, design, implementation, management, and maintenance support to small and medium size businesses that typically have 1 or no IT personnel on staff. To receive additional technical updates, sign up for our quarterly newsletter here.

Is the cloud your best business option?

Posted Dec 19 2011 8:09 PM by Rob Green

Many business owners these days are asking themselves if they should move their whole business to the cloud. While there is much to like about a web-based “cloud” model – unless your business is small and simplistic, you will want to carefully consider a number of aspects before making your final decision. Here are some of those critical aspects:

Bandwidth: If you were to move your business technology entirely to the web, it is imperative that your bandwidth be reliable and of sufficient capacity. The more interruptions you have, the more your productivity will be impacted. And don’t be fooled - interruptions are not always a complete outage. On occasion you could experience network latency for a variety of reasons. Because different applications rely on different communication protocols – they have different resiliency to network latency. For example, e-mail and web apps are designed to be very resilient against network latency. Database type applications, on the other hand, often experience data corruption if network latency is experienced. If your bandwidth speed is at least 3-6mbs, and has very little latency – you may be “cloud ready”.

Data Size: If your business creates and manages large data files – such as high-resolution pictures or CAD drawings, it is unlikely that moving these files to/from the web as a day to day practice will result in acceptable performance or reliability. If your business relies on files or attachments several megabytes in size, or any type of design application/files, the cloud will generally not be a good fit for you. However, if your business only manipulates common file types (Word, Excel, Outlook e-mail, .pdf, .jpg, etc.) - you may be “cloud ready”.

Database Applications: Many business applications store their information in a database repository such as Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL, MySQL or some propriety database technology. It is important to know that database applications almost always require direct-attached storage, and cannot run on externally attached storage. For applications that already run on the web – you have no database concerns because your hosting provider is hosting the database right along with your web application (i.e. Salesforce, QuickBooks, etc.). If you are currently running an “on premise” business application (meaning it is running on a server located in your business) that has a database component – then the cloud is not going to work without switching to a cloud based version of your software. If you are considering switching from premise-based software to web-based, be prepared for less functionality. To accommodate lower bandwidth customers, web based application creators tend to pull all but the most common features from their software to improve performance. On the other hand, if you do not run any applications that use a database at the core of the application – you may be “cloud-ready”.

Security: Depending on your business, you may need to abide by specific security measures such as HIPAA (medical), Sarb-Ox (publically traded stock companies), or PCI (credit card transactions). Additionally, data security relies on many factors. Perhaps the single greatest factor is “who” wants what you have. Even the most security-minded and capable organizations (i.e. US Dept of Defense and Microsoft) have been breached. Most SMB’s following common security best practices, do not become the target of malicious security breaches because the resources they protect provide relatively little reward for the effort required obtain the information. Compare this to larger organizations who can offer significant reward – even when the effort is greater. For the SMB market, this equation changes when many SMB’s are consolidated into one cloud offering. Many SMB’s combined start to offer a combined reward that can be worth the effort. So, unless you obtain and store sensitive data for your organization or your customers, you may be “cloud-ready”.

Cost: If you have made it this far without ruling out the cloud, one of the last considerations will be your business size. During a few general cost comparisons, I have found the typical inflection point to be between 10-15 users. When you consider the cost of data storage, user fees, and the other monthly recurring fees, the long term cost of moving to the cloud can be more expensive than purchasing the Hardware/Software needed for your company. However, if your organization is under 10 users, and you do not have issues with the most common considerations above – then you will find the cloud can provide a significant cost advantage over purchasing, installing, and managing your own technology.

In summary, it is my opinion that there is currently a stampede toward the “cloud”. The herd mentality states that if everyone around me is running a certain direction – then I had better run that way as well – even if I don’t know exactly why. Unfortunately I have also found a few business owners that have started moving toward the cloud without considering all of the above aspects, only to find their business in a difficult position. Like anything, with a bit of proper research and planning you can avoid an operational and/or financial setback.

If you find this article helpful - I would appreciate you letting me know by clicking on the Like button below!

How are your relationships with Vendors, Clients, and your friends/family?

Posted Feb 21 2011 7:08 PM by Rob Green

Rogers Hornsby, who averaged hitting .400 over five years, was facing a rookie pitcher who threw three pitches that he thought were strikes but that the umpire called balls. The rookie shouted a complaint to the umpire, who replied: "Young man, when you throw a strike, Mr. Hornsby will let you know."

What made the umpire so trust Hornsby’s judgment about what was a strike and what was a ball? Because Hornsby had earned the umpire’s trust for consistently making excellent choices year in and year out.¹

At Crossroads Business Solutions (XRBS), we have three core values: Trust, Respect, and Value. We chose these because we feel they are at the foundation of every relationship; Professional or Personal.

While we may not understand the jargon or “techno-babble” of a given industry, the actions that strengthen or weaken Trust and Respect are universal. Making commitments and upholding them; speaking with frank honesty – even through the tough messages; and/or making recommendations based on the way we would act (or spend) ourselves; these are essential in strengthening Trust. Staying calm, cool, and professional in the face of high emotions or adversity is crucial to earning and maintaining Respect.

At XRBS, we say Trust is earned through what you do, and Respect is earned by how you do it.

The third element in maintaining strong relationships is Value. This value of a healthy relationship is slightly more specific for business relationships (compared to personal). In healthy business relationships, there is a clear value in the product or service provided or consumed, and the associated payment. If our product or service maintains a high value and if payments arrive within expected timeframes – mutual value exists. If either side of the relationship falters on their value proposition, the business relationship will suffer.

In a strong relationship, both parties are working to ensure their value proposition stays strong without the need for notification from the other party. In a strained relationship, one or both parties feel the need to occasionally remind each other of any diminishing value. In a lost relationship, one or both parties frequently don’t think beyond their own needs.

By taking a few moments to consider what makes relationships strong, we can ensure the relationships that we are in with our vendors, clients, or even our personal relationships are not strong by accident or hope, but rather strong by our effort to make them so.

1. All Pro Dads daily update (http://www.allprodad.com/pod/viewplayoftheday.php?date_pod=2011-02-21)

Urgent! Virus Alert from XRBS

Posted Dec 14 2010 5:54 PM by Scott Cunningham

Urgent Virus Notice - Be Aware!

We have been dealing with a Virus that has been very effectively disguised. It appears to come from a package delivery company - in the case below DHL.

It looks something like this:

The attachment is a virus - so do not open it. If you are using our XRBS Barracuda Spam/Virus filter, you will be protected from this attack. If you are not on our service and receive this message, please hold down your Shift key and press delete to permanently delete the message. If you have already made the mistake of opening the attachment, please contact our Help Desk ASAP at 317-770-6400.

Free Laptop coming your way?!!!?

Posted Oct 7 2010 3:39 PM by Scott Cunningham

If you bought a laptop from Dell, HP, or Apple you may be in line for a free replacement due to this recent class action law suit. Here is the detail of what you may recieve from the lawsuit:
"Depending on which model you have and whether you paid for repairs, the settlement provides for: (1) a replacement of the NVIDIA chip inside your notebook computer; (2) for a replacement HP notebook computer with one similar in kind and value if you bought a subject HP notebook computer; and (3) for reimbursement of either the entire amount that you spent to have the notebook computer repaired due to a previous failure of the NVIDIA graphics chip or a portion of that amount, depending on the number of people who submit valid claims for reimbursement."
Go to http://www.nvidiasettlement.com/index.html and check your laptop serial number information to see if you qualify.

Bruce Jenner LIVE October 19th, 8am in Noblesville; read more here 

Posted Oct 7 2010 3:09 PM by Scott Cunningham

Learn from experts how to develop a consistent approach to excellence.
How to coach and manage the "Millennial Generation" to new heights of success.
How to develop your own personal "brand" to differentiate yourself and your business.

Bruce Jenner, is an Olympic Decathlon Gold Medalist, author, and small business owner talks on setting and achieving goals.

Our second speaker, Coach Larry Judge, Ph.D., CSCS, is an associate professor and the coordinator of the graduate coaching program at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Coach Judge is recognized as the premier throws coach in the United States, Coach Judge has coached 8 Olympians, 2 American-record holders, 3 collegiate-record holders, 3 American collegiate-record holders, and 2 world-record holders, and tutored more 100 NCAA Division I All-Americans, 11 NCAA national champions, 16 USATF champions.

This is an INVITATION ONLY EVENT. Contact Scott Cunningham @ 317-529-0418 for registration information.
Tuesday, October 19
8-10 a.m.
Hamilton IMAX 16 Theatre
13825 Norell Road
Noblesville, IN 46060

Event: Patent Protection for Computer Software Seminar

Posted Oct 7 2010 2:36 PM by Scott Cunningham

If you are in the software business, or you developed custom software to run your business you should attend this free seminar.

Patent Protection for Computer Software and

Business Methods After Bilski

Wednesday, November 3, 2010, 8:00 - 10:30 a.m.
Johnson Room, Robertson Hall - Butler University
4600 Sunset Avenue, Indianapolis, IN
There is no charge to attend this seminar.

Program Description

This presentation will provide guidance for assessing whether to seek patent protection for software or a business method and will briefly explore other methods of intellectual property protection and open source licensing.

On June 28, 2010, after months of speculation and anticipation, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed in Bilski v. Kappos, 561 U. S. ____ (2010) that at least some business methods may be patent-eligible. Although the Court affirmed the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s determination that certain patent claims at issue in Bilski are not patent-eligible, the Court refused to find that all business methods are ineligible for patent protection. The Court also rejected the Federal Circuit’s en banc determination that the machine-or-transformation test is the exclusive way to determine whether a process is patent-eligible. However, the Court did confirm that laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas are not patent-eligible.

In light of the Bilski decision, lower courts and the U.S. Patent Office will be more likely to focus on whether the patent claim boils down to an abstract idea. If so, the claim is unpatentable.

Speakers:
James A. Coles, Esq., Co-Chair of Taft’s Intellectual Property Practice, Patent Attorney
Mr. Coles has vast experience with all types of intellectual property and technology matters, including agreements and resolving disputes involving technology and intellectual property issues, and helps clients determine the breadth and value of their intellectual property assets through audit services and strategies for protecting and exploiting those assets. Mr. Coles frequently assists local, national and international clients with intellectual property and technology agreements and issues in a broad field of technologies including but not limited to electronics, information technology, healthcare, software and medical devices.

Anthony P. Filomena, Esq., Partner, Patent Attorney
Mr. Filomena has a diverse background in electrical engineering, computer science, business and law that gives him broad experience and equips him to address a variety of intellectual property issues for clients. He counsels clients in all areas of intellectual property law, including preparation, prosecution and licensing of patents, as well as drafting, reviewing and negotiating proprietary and open source licensing agreements. Mr. Filomena’s practice experience also includes preparing patentability, non-infringement and invalidity opinions. He has experience working with a diverse range of clients, from individuals and entrepreneurial start-up companies, to universities and Fortune 100 companies.

Please join us for this discussion with time for questions and answers.

Please register by clicking here by October 27th.

Questions: Please contact Kelly Sharpe at ksharpe@taftlaw.com or 317-713-3441.

Hosting Perils: ePeachtree spoiled in shutdown

Posted Sep 9 2010 10:30 AM by Scott Cunningham

Be careful in what business operations you elect to support via hosted services. You may get such a letter that will send you scrambling for alternatives. It is simply a business decision Sage has to make, they can't support a money losing offering forever. If your, the customers', business is negatively impacted, sorry; that is not Sage's problem.

Date: August 27, 2010

Dear Valued Customer,

We regret to inform you that the ePeachtree service will no longer be available as of November 30, 2010. The ePeachtree service runs on a platform that will not be supported going forward, therefore we are retiring the product line.

We at Sage value you as a customer, and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

If you are due a refund, you can expect it to be refunded to the credit card on file with us for your account within 6-8 weeks for the ePeachtree service. In an effort to make this transition easier for you, we are offering:

Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting software at no cost.

If you choose to accept the desktop version of Sage Peachtree software – Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting single-user or multi-user version – at no cost, we will also provide you with 30 days of free support which includes extracting and converting your ePeachtree lists and balances information into Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting, as well as assistance with installation and setup.

Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting has even more functionality than ePeachtree including:

job costing functionality to track project costs and revenue
depreciation tracking for up to 200 fixed assets
additional reports to help make better business decisions
terminal services for remote users

For more information about this product, see http://www.peachtree.com/productsServices for a list of features or call 877-481-0341 for your free downloadable version of Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting software.

Extract your data from ePeachtree by November 30.

If you do not wish to convert your data to Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting, you can manually extract your ePeachtree data by following the instructions in KnowledgeBase Library article: ePeachtree Data Export Overview. We recommend that you start the process today to ensure the availability of your data.

Should you have any further questions or concerns, please call us at 877-481-0341.

Sincerely,

Sage Peachtree Customer Service

New Referral Program

Posted Sep 9 2010 9:50 AM by Scott Cunningham

Free Monthly Maintenance!

Most of our business comes from referrals of satisfied customers. To show our appreciation, we have developed a Customer Referral Program which rewards you whenever you send us qualified contacts that turn into successful new clients. The more friends or associates you refer, the greater your rewards become!

Earn a Referral Reward of your choice, for every successful referral:*

Free Monthly Maintenance - total value equal to 20 hours, OR
$500 check from XRBS, OR
"Priceless Experience" of similar value**

*A valid referral must be a prospect with which Crossroads Business Solutions, LLC has not previously had contact regarding its services

** Based on a questionaire you complete, a unique and personal event will be created for you and a special someone to enjoy. This could include travel, entertainment, or a unique once-in-a-lifetime experience. It will be a surprise and experience to share for a lifetime.

How the Referral Program Works

To refer a prospective client call 317-770-6400 x 2 and provide the name of the decision-maker and the company's name, address, phone, and a little background on the opportunity. You can email the information to sales "@" xrbs.com and we will contact you to discuss the opportunity. Upon the referral signing a service contract with Crossroads Business Solutions, LLC, we will deliver the referral reward of your choice.

To qualify for this program referred prospects must sign a Crossroads Business Solutions support agreement within 12 months of referral date. Rewards are delivered after agreement between Crossroads Business Solutions and the prospect is signed and first payment is received from the new client. A referral reward may be split if multiple parties refer the same prospective client. This offer is valid in the 48 contiguous states, subject to local laws, jurisdiction. Crossroads Business Solutions is not responsible for lost or misspent money by the referring party. Referring party must pay all applicable taxes, tariffs, visas, fees, etc. Terms and conditions are revocable, subject to change without notice by Crossroads Business Solutions, LLC.

Cisco Certified Select and Cisco Small Business Certified achieved!

Posted Jul 21 2010 10:27 AM by Scott Cunningham

Crossroads Business Solutions, LLC is proud to announce that they have achieved the designation of Cisco Select Certified Partner in USA and Cisco Small Business Specialization certification (those companies with less than >150 employees). Making this investment in challenging economic times shows the commitment we have to providing expertise to our clients, and to our confidence in our business growth in the future. "Improving our staff's skills and investing in them are critical to making our company better, retaining our great employees, and show managements' confidence in our business and our ability to provide a career long term."

This Crossroads investment in the market leader Cisco speaks to our commitment to bring the best solutions to our clients. Cisco is the leader solutions that boost efficiency and productivity, critical to small businesses. Their technology has grown to include networking, video, security and more. Most importantly Cisco is priced for the small business market. Click to see the new small business services and product we will be delivering now Cisco Product Showcase and Cisco Solutions

The service you get will stink! (& how you can fix it)

Posted Jul 21 2010 8:48 AM by Scott Cunningham

Complaints about poor service are leading to new sales inquiries for us. I want to explain why your service stinking today, will have a long term impact on your business.

As the layoffs continue, http://www.employmentspectator.com/2010/07/lilly-to-cut-340-info-tech-positions/; capital expenditures slow, and new jobs are not being added; services companies find themselves utilizing current staff fully. Service companies are running lean and are without extra staff to complete special projects or handle unexpected emergencies. Companies are not keeping resources on payroll that are not generating revenue. I talk daily with business owners on how this high utilization service model is creating a problem for them, and their service partners. The shortage of skilled and trained employees to deliver on increased demand for those services is real and will cause problems. Short term affect is servcie complaints will increase as delays happen. Long term more serious issues will arise.

I will speak from experience on why this is a costly problem for your business.

Deferred Maintenance
Get an IT Assessment now, ahead of when you will start new IT investments or business changes. What will happen when demand rebounds is service companies called to do this new project work will find the current state of the business information technology is not up to date due to deferred maintenance. Systems maintenance has been deferred or not completed due to budget and time constraints. There will be service companies that will fail to address these issues up front and you will get project price adjustments to address these issues while the project is in process and you have no choice but to pay. Get the IT Assessment done first, correct maintenance issues, then build on top of the solid foundation.

Contract Workers
Service companies, especially in IT, use sub-contract workers to "fill in" when they need an extra hand. Serious issues for the business arise from this business model. Continuity is important to the business in the area of IT. This can be mitigated through knowledge transfer, usually through strong documentation. When a sub-contractor is used I see the companies losing continuity and knowledge when they leave, project complete. If there is a problem with the technology you access to the engineer who did the work to support their work, warrantee it. With an IT sub-contractor it is common for them to NOT be available, and you have no leverage to hold them accountable. Avoid using service companies that use sub-contractors, your IT is a 4-6 year investment and the pain of poor craftsmanship last longer than the pleasure of low price.

To avoid these Issues
Do an IT Assessment ahead of your need for new projects to start. Understand where you are, before you start building on a unstable foundation.
Bring your service providers to the management table. Discuss your upcoming plans and what increased services you will need from them. Get an understanding of their ability to meet your needs and if necessary what ramp up period they will need to meet the additional service levels.

There will be a lot of rush to deliver, and haste makes waste. If you don't have the time and money do the work right the first time; when will you find the time and money to redo it?

Questions, drop me a line scott.cunningham@xrbs.com

Crisis in customer service! Beware!

Posted Jul 15 2010 11:20 AM by Scott Cunningham

Recent research from the Enterprise Council on Small Business (ECSB) found that critical to customer satisfaction was efficiency and quick response to customers requests. (See research below). Research shows Proprieters and Small business owners tend to be reactionary in style; when they need something they need it now. This is creating a crisis in customer service as the economic downturn has thinned work forces and the ability for a supplier to have "on call" resources that are not utilized - read bringing in revenue. In our business a non-utilized resource will cost us $45-$75 dollars an hour. If an employee is not making us money, they are costing us money and a lot of it.

Most service businesses have cut staff due to lower demand. (We did NOT cut staff as our business model is unique.) These same service businesses will be slow to hire as business demand returns. Thus the ability to deliver service that is efficient and respond quickly will not be attainable. The result will be dissatisfaction in the level of service and the possibility of losing customers due to this service dissatisfaction.

The only viable long term answer requires the Proprietor and Small Business owner to buy-into a new services business model that is a partnership with the service providers. The new services business model is one that is NOT reactionary but proactive, planned and managed in nature. A service supplier's most expensive resource - their people - can be managed and utilized fully with proper planning and systems along with the customer. Without this partnership the customer will not get the desired service level; and the service provider will be unable to deliver efficient and quick responses.

Are you having service issues? Want to hear about a working partnership model. Give me a call or email.
Scott Cunningham scott.cunningham@xrbs.com 317-529-0418

ECSB explored what elements work together to create the best customer experience for small business owners and found that efficiency and quick response were amongst the most critical. Furthermore, we uncovered that small business owners’ expectations around speed continue to increase. So, how fast is fast enough?

BY INVITATION ONLY:  Social Networking to the Max

Posted Jun 7 2010 2:33 PM by Sherry Herrick

"Social Networking to the Max"

A FREE eye-opening seminar for small business owners and marketing communicators.

Social media - Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, wikis and more - can be overwhelming, especially for small businesses. But, it will have a significant impact on your business, whether you're ready or not. Get in front of this phenomenon and learn how to leverage social media for your business. You can't afford not to. Click here to register today!

This free seminar will arm you with the knowledge and confidence to:

1. Make your first steps into Social Media
2. Manage your company's reputation
3. Avoid the pitfalls of poor execution
4. Maintain and grow your business by understanding how to effectively leverage these dynamic tools

Program Details

When: June 24th, 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Where: Hamilton IMAX 16 Theatre, Noblesville
Details: Click here
Registration: Seating is limited so click here to register today!

As a Guest, You Will Receive

A FREE creative consultation and Facebook ad for your business
FREE tickets for a future IMAX movie of your choice
A complimentary breakfast

About Our Speaker

Speaker Richard Parker is the founder, president and creative director of Creative Direction, Inc., a marketing communications practice dedicated to helping businesses grow. Launched in 1993, Creative Direction successfully transitioned from a traditional marketing consulting firm to a social media advisor for businesses around the world. Winning over 1,500 awards for creative excellence, Mr. Parker has been a guest speaker for many trade and industry organizations and has been a keynote speaker at the Worldwide Creative Consortium panel in New York City for three years.

We look forward to seeing you on June 24th!

Sponsored by Cisco Systems, Inc.
www.cisco.com

Regards,
Scott Cunningham & Rob Green
Crossroads Business Solutions, LLC

Phone: 317-529-0418
E-mail:scott@xrbs.com
Web: www.xrbs.com

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Support is ending for some versions of Windows

Posted Jun 7 2010 1:33 PM by Sherry Herrick

Support is ending for some versions of Windows
• Support for Windows Vista without any service packs ended on April 13, 2010.
• Support for Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) will end on July 13, 2010

If you're running one of these versions after support ends, you won't get security updates for Windows

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/help/end-support-windows-xp-sp2-windows-vista-without-service-packs?os=other

Microsoft project financing available through us

Posted Jun 7 2010 1:21 PM by Sherry Herrick

Microsoft is offering financing through its partners including flexible payment options of 3 months of zero payments with the outstanding payments structured as regular monthly payments for the remaining term of the loan. Contact Scott Cunningham at 317-529-0418 for more information.

Eliminate fraud, instant payment, minimal investment; here is how...

Posted Mar 16 2010 2:15 PM by Scott Cunningham

Years back a friend of mine closed his computer support franchise because he was losing money. One reason he was losing money was that the franchise business used engineer contractors to service his clients. He lost money when he sent a contractor to a client, the engineer fixed the problem, took cash for payment; which the engineer pocketed, then marked the service call as closed with no service. Common with any service industry is the "disappearing cash transaction". Now a new technology is coming to market may prevent this problem in the future with minimal investment for the business.

Square, a startup by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, and others allows for any cell phone or pda to become a credit card transaction machine. Now, by requiring credit/debit/check for all service calls and you can make stealing from you more difficult. You now have a processing system that doesn't require investments in wired machines, is mobile, and it does not lock you into a specific Telephone company service. Here is great links on the device. https://squareup.com/about
http://gigaom.com/2009/12/01/jack-dorsey-on-square-why-it-is-disruptive/

Protect the Co. from the No, No's of social media...

Posted Mar 5 2010 7:42 PM by Scott Cunningham

Rarely do you attend a seminar that provides critical take away action items. Today I attended such a seminar; I attended the Barnes & Thornburg, LLP (www.btlaw.com) "New Rules New Economy Seminar" on the topic of "legalities of social media". A talk about how to protect my - YOUR - business in this new, free spirited, social media world. Here are the bullet points, contact the speaker David Wong (david.wong@btlaw.com ) if you want more info. My post is not legal advice.
In case you didn't know: social media includes: web sites, facebook, twitter, myspace, yelp, Angie's List, Linkedin, your blog, your employees blog, iphone applications, games, etc. etc..

Take away items:
- Create an acceptable use policy for employee post and employee social media interactions.
- Have all employees sign as a condition of employment and keep in the employee file.
- Create a company policy for acceptable use policy for social media interactions.
- Enforce the policies.
- Trademark infringement does not include web site addresses (URLs, PURLS, etc). Buy your sites across the globe first if this impacts your company.

I hope this helps. If you have any IT questions, send me the question and we'll see if we can answer it.
Scott Cunningham

Stolen from and you don't even know it...

Posted Mar 4 2010 3:26 PM by Scott Cunningham

You've been ripped off and you don't even know it; a seemingly perfect crime. I am seeing more stealing from companies as the economy tanked and revenues and competition for projects increased. Here is the crime, and the harm once uncovered.

Just yesterday we found out, along with Co. XYZ's CFO, that the former IT co. illegally loaded all Co. XYZ's business software. The former IT co. took money in payment for legal software from XYZ Co., but the IT co. then loaded software that was already licensed and being used legally elsewhere. Why would the IT Co do this? The IT Co. pockets the money for the software (not paying the software vendor for new licenses) and thus nets thousands of dollars in revenue instantly. Why does this tick me off? Several reasons:

This is stealing and stealing is wrong. But this crime has a significant negatively impact on the victim, the business. The small business person paid money for product they didn't get, which means they will have to pay again for legal software, and they are at serious risk of significant fines from the BSA if caught; large fines. This is so unjust to the small business owner that already has enough challenges in normal day to day operations.

Also, bad co. prices their project proposals artificially low, as they know they will get this ill-gotten profit by selling stolen software. This is unfair competition.

Finally, the real issue is a business owner cannot fairly select and evaluate technology as they are not trained and experienced enough to do so. Trust has been broken. I liken it to selecting a surgeon, lay people don't know surgery technique, methodology and select on the basis of trust. These thieves are taking advantage of the small business person and that hurts the small business person and all industries.

Ensure you get receipts documenting your purchased software and get the original (not copies) of the software licensing keys. You can also move to volume licensing (but this cost more) and the keys and software come with a license management system. Also, this topic is covered in our other blog, "why documentation is so critical to a small business" - click to view steps you can take to protect your business.
Click on the following link to see a video on how to protect your business.

What questions do you want answered? Send me an email or put the question in the comment section.
Scott Cunningham

Comments on Butler researchof Indiana CEOs

Posted Mar 2 2010 3:55 PM by Scott Cunningham

Quick overview: opinions of over 350 Indiana chief executives from all areas of the state and from a wide range of manufacturing, service, and not-for-profit organizations captured in this survey. Link to the survey overview and results: http://www.inceosurvey.com/2009_results/
Lots of interesting information and I pulled this info to share and comment on:
Section 6: Information Technology
1.     Over 60 percent of respondents indicated their company has no method for monitoring the amount of time employees spend on the Internet, and over 75 percent indicated their company has no formal policy on employee-authored blogs.
2.     There is only weak agreement that executives are able to monitor the productivity of their IT staffs, or that they are able to evaluate their IT leaders.
3.     "Production/maintenance of company Web site" and "server maintenance" are the only IT functions which emerge as having a "likelihood of outsourcing" that rises above the scale midpoint.
#1 bodes well for Compendium Blogware out of Indianapolis. It is so simple and inexpensive for a monitoring tool to be installed. Not sure why this isn't happening, and we made this recommendation a stern request in a recent letter to our clients - see: http://blogs.xrbs.com/managing-your-information-technology/smb-internet-usage-alert

#2 Business leaders cannot evaluate IT Leaders. There is a tremendous shortage of competent business and IT trained individuals to lead and manage. A smart business leader reads a book or an article finding the right "questions to ask" your IT staffer. Yet, the business leader can't evaluate the answer. Business leaders can't call "BS" or dig deeper to ferret out miss-information. (Business can't hold IT accountable, as they can't audit the IT work).
I talk after about how SMB business owners can't hold their IT staff accountable. When you outsource accountability is the service vendors’ responsibility. This should be part of your interview questions, "How do you hold your IT Staff accountable?" If you don't know the answer, ping me and I'll share 1-on-1.

#3 There are three core areas of an IT department: help desk, applications, infrastructure. Applications are where you create a competitive advantage for the business (process, workflow, one-click, etc). You are likely to want to own what gives you a competitive advantage. Infrastructure, you want to outsource that to a service provider that can use operation excellence to manage and maintain it. Maintenance is repetitive, boring, detail oriented. Sr. IT staff won't do maintenance, and business leaders are ignorant of the issue (can't hold IT accountable, as they can't audit the IT work). Help desk, outsource or insource based on volume.
What do you think??  Can you manage your IT staff? How do you hold them accountable?

SMB internet usage alert

Posted Mar 2 2010 3:06 PM by Scott Cunningham

This topic is critical to all businesses, so I am sharing this alert we sent to our clients recently. Scott C.

Crossroads Business Solutions LLC would like to advise you of a most serious situation affecting a number of our clients recently.

Over the last month we have been responding to an increasing number of malware infections. These infections, in addition to becoming more prevalent, are increasingly difficult/time consuming and therefore expensive to resolve – occasionally requiring a complete system rebuild.

The source of these infections appears to be a result of visiting web sites – perhaps even sites of reputable companies - but we do not yet have more specific information. The symptom is typically a pop-up alert on the user's display designed to look like a Microsoft Security alert. It attempts to entice the user to click on the scan to resolve the issue. If anyone receives a pop-up with any kind of virus or spam alert – DO NOT CLICK ON ANYTHING.

Please have that user contact us immediately.

Furthermore, it is our recommendation that until further notice, all web activity be confined to only business uses. Until further notice, we highly encourage avoiding social web sites such as facebook or free web-mail unless avoidance it would be disruptive to your company operations. It is our hope/expectation that this can be controlled in your organization via a stated verbal policy, but if you would like more certain control, a Sonicwall router (~ $900) can be installed to block/monitor web usage.

We will send a subsequent notice to you when we have a better handle on the source(s), further protective actions, or even a more effective response.

Respectfully,

Robert M. Green

317-770-6400

Chinese New Year shutdown will slow order delivery.

Posted Jan 26 2010 8:32 PM by Scott Cunningham

I just received this alert from a major computer manufacturer notifying us of expected delays in receiving equipment from China:

"Chinese New Year is Feb 15th – 19th, please enter orders on or before January 29th or be subject to longer lead times due to the shutdown!! Every year around this time there is a Chinese New Year’s celebration that slows down notebook delivery and increases lead times by at least a week. During this time, for commercial notebooks there will be limited inbound customs, no factory order processing, factory production or shipments and backlog in outbound customs will increase."

Be forewarned, I would expect the Chinese holiday to impact other industries' deliveries as well.

Time's up: You, SMB owners, are now the prime targets of cyber-crime!

Posted Jan 19 2010 5:42 PM by Scott Cunningham

For years, small and medium businesses (SMB)s flew under the cyber-crooks' sights. SMBs were small hauls, and crooks went for the big score. Not anymore. SMBs are now the prime target for cyber criminals. A recent article in USA Today reveals that SMBs are a target for cyber criminals and small business management is making it easy for them.

I hope you read the whole article, but I wanted to highlight a few items of particular interest:

First, "the FBI are advising small and midsize businesses that conduct financial transactions over the Internet to dedicate a separate PC used exclusively for online banking." A nice start, but security has a significant "human" component and individually targeted "spear phishing" techniques create an initial compromise. Train your employees what to avoid and block all non-business activity on work networks and PCs.
This should scare you: "Gartner's Litan tells acquaintances who run small businesses to switch from commercial online accounts to an individual consumer account. That's because consumer-protection laws require banks to fully reimburse individual account holders who report fraudulent activity in a timely manner. However, banks have taken to invoking the Uniform Commercial Code—a standardized set of business rules that have been adopted by most states—when dealing with fraud affecting business account holders. Article 4A of the UCC has been interpreted to absolve a bank of liability in cases where an agreed-upon security procedure is in place and a theft occurs that can be traced to a compromised PC controlled by the business customer". Small business owner, beware. As stated in teh article, "many cases end in civil disputes in which small businesses often lose".
So is Internet banking "safe"? It is, assuming that account holders continually secure their PCs against cyber-intrusions.

Will this push SMB owners and management to increase controls over their companies' networks and computers? Will proper computer and Internet usage policies be enforced as a result of this cyber crime? As an SMB owner and IT professional I hope it does. It would be a refreshing change for the positive.

Stress-free I.T.

Posted Jan 19 2010 4:41 PM by Scott Cunningham

"If we identify and truly understand the problem before we implement a solution, our lives will have much less stress." Peter Drucker. (This was sent to me by my friend Dan Lacy, www.dynestybuilder.com.)

Stress is unnecessary in information technology. Avoiding stress requires proper understanding of the problem so the proper solution can be designed and implemented. Stress is created by business owners and managers who fail to plan and who fail to invest up-front in assessing the problems, needs, and requirements. What I wonder is this: why don't business owners learn from their past stressful experiences and change their stressful ways? Life would be much less stressful and much happierif we all took the time to plan.