May saw the team at DB win a couple of esteemed clients. One of which was an all-round team effort for a leading Irish agricultural company. We appreciate the opportunity to bring our experience to the table and we look forward to working closely with existing and new clients alike to deliver quality service and support.
As mentioned previously, our Sage 200 clients are embracing the long-awaited new Sage 200 2015, and we expect to hear their feedback over the coming weeks. We have deployed two new Sage 200 sites of late, in Dublin and Galway, and so far, so good. Additionally, an exciting opportunity to win an existing Sage 200 client is also on the agenda. Again, we appreciate the opportunity to deliver quality service and support, as well as deploy a couple of new sites for the Remote Rep mobile sales order processing solution.
Our very first Remote Rep site for Sage 50 is running well, and supporting five remote professional sales people. This solution is ideal for busy professionals who are on the road and who need information quickly. It is APP compatible with both Android and Apple Tablets.
Ever think of running a marathon?
There are some things that we don’t like to do at work, things that we tend to avoid and put on the long finger. In some ways, it’s similar to doing a marathon. To run a marathon you need to invest time, energy and dedication to complete the task. It is similar to implementing an IT strategy. If you cut corners training for a marathon the wheels may come off, you may hit the infamous wall, and you might crash and burn. However, if you have followed a plan, given the time to training, and embraced the idea of running 26.2 miles, you will soar, and most importantly you will cherish the moment of crossing the finish line.
This is similar to managing your IT strategy, because if your IT lacks a plan, corners are cut and not enough resources are given to it, your IT infrastructure might hit that wall. IT is the backbone of any business, and you don’t want a wall to stop the running of your business.
Sometimes things might happen unexpectedly during a marathon, it might be unexpectedly hot, humid, windy or even cold (or probably all four, in our great Irish weather), the course might prove more testing than expected, or you might even get caught up in the moment and run the first thirteen miles too fast. Unfortunately some of these things are out of our control, but preparation and time invested in miles and miles will ensure that you are best equipped to combat these challenges.
Similarly, with your IT infrastructure some things will go bump in the night that arise unexpectedly, a virus releases, a power outage, any from a range of potentially unforeseen difficulties. If you invest in your IT then you will be in a better position to combat these challenges. The main thing to think about is preparation. To try to cover all eventualities. So make a plan, run that marathon, protect your IT infrastructure and embrace the challenge!
We send our best wishes to all the competitors who have planned and prepared to embrace the Cork City Marathon on the June Bank Holiday Monday, including our very own Michael O’Callaghan. Good luck everyone, and good luck Mike!
Finally, and interestingly, on the IT support side of things, we had a callout to fix a unique problem this month, which involved loss of signal / attenuation.
The nature of the work to be undertaken involved some network cabling, to deliver a solution which included increased throughput / download speeds and internet access to some internet kiosks which hadn’t been working properly. Nothing too strange about that, except for the fact that the client was a huge ship, and the kiosks were connected to the nearest switch, which was on the bridge four or five decks above them.
The kiosks being for use wherever the ship is globally. Without blowing our own horn too much, we managed to deliver a viable solution, not least because our IT staff is trained to swim in deep waters. Thankfully, there wasn’t any need to port data in and out of different systems, or use a docking station. And of course, the internet users can now surf away, rather than being lost at sea looking for emails.
When asked for a brief appraisal of the successful resolution of this rather unusual issue, one of our team modestly noted that “There was a lot of running up and down stairs, but it all worked out eventually.”
May has been a busy month yet again, but of course we won’t complain about that. “End of Life” for MS Server 2003 is very much on the agenda, for companies who haven’t switched yet to avoid any potential vulnerability to their network, and so we have been busy helping clients who are still using Windows Server 2003 software.
As you are probably already aware, Microsoft will no longer support this beyond July 2015.
If you are not sure what your server is running, or would like to get a system health check, do get in touch with one of our team at DB and we will organise for a consultancy with one of our in-house experts.
If you have a need for a process improvement with your Sage 200, Sage 50 or Sage CRM packages, or would simply like more information on how to navigate the choppy seas of business process improvement via technology solutions, such as via our Remote Rep solution, or if you would like some advice or assistance to prepare to face the challenges of coming up against that wall, by all means feel free to call us on 061 480980 or email info@dbcomp.ie