My first thought is, “Where are my bookmarks?” Every browser I’ve ever used has had a ‘bookmarks’ or ‘favorites’ drop down at the top of the screen, but not in Chrome. In Chrome, it’s all about what YOU are going to do next. After launching Chrome, it dumps you into your own personal Web Portal complete with tiled screen shots of your most visited pages, a bookmark toolbar, recent bookmarks, a history search, and most importantly, an address bar.

It’s quite clear that Google is focused on creating a personal web browser. Upon first launching Chrome, you begin to build your own personal web portal.

I believe that Chrome will do for Web Browsing the same as Gmail has done for free web based email. When I first used Gmail, I said, “How do I create sub-folders, this stinks?!” Gmail is now the only free web based email service that I use. That’s right – no more Yahoo or ATT mail for this guy here! While I don’t quite think I’ll stop using IE or Firefox for business use, I do think that I’ll do my personal web surfing with Chrome for the time being to get a feel for how it’s going to develop. I recommend downloading it and giving it a shot!

Now IT Works has many different remote support tools that we use. One of our remote support tools, Logmein Rescue, has just added the functionality to remotely support a mobile phone…

…Yeah, that’s right. YOUR PHONE. I have an AT&T 8525 that is Windows Mobile based. From my Logmein Rescue console I sent a text message to my phone and in a short while I was remotely controlling my phone. Bravo to the person who created this. I no longer have to talk end-users through setting up their email, calendar, and contacts, all while I read their particular phone’s user manual.

If you have a question about a purchase of new technology for you or your business; laptop, PC, PDA, etc, contact Now IT Works and speak to one of our knowledgeable technicians.

www.nowitworks.com

Implementing technology in your business can create many different points of failure that can cost you money on any given day. One of your goals should be to minimize these points of failure so that your business and employees can have 100% up time with nothing affecting your work flows.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. When you have problems, is your IT support quick to respond?
2. Have you capitalized on your initial investment that you have made into the technology for your business?
3. How much did you spend last year on technology for your business?
4. Did you have lots of down time because your ‘computer/network/server’ wasn’t working properly?
5. Did you lose business during this down time?

As a small business owner, you must make relationships with other businesses in order for your business to be successful. Creating a path to an IT resource is key. A small business needs a support avenue when something runs amok. Who do you call? If you call the freelance IT guy Larry, is he going to call you back? How long does it take for him to call you back? We find that in too many cases, Larry probably could have prevented the issue from happening in the first place if he had the proper tools to do his job. Since he didn’t and you chose him to implement your new email server, your company is now paying the consequences because you can’t get your email and Larry hasn’t answered your phone calls all day long.

Now, Let’s meet Larry. He is probably a small business owner himself, consulting other small businesses on technology and making a good living. Larry is also busy. He really doesn’t have ample time to manage that nice shiny new ‘computer/network/server’ he implemented for you last month. Unfortunately that leaves you, the small business owner, not capitalizing on the huge investment that you just made with Larry. Does it feel like Larry is just solving problems for you that he created himself?

The decision you have to make now as a small business owner is clear, you must find someone or something that can help. What you want is Large Business infrastructure in your ten man shop so that you and your crew can be as efficient as possible all the time, meanwhile making you and the business tons of money. Companies like us at Now IT Works are bringing corporate IT infrastructure to small businesses and essentially creating a technology department for your small business. Why pay Larry when you can gain a team of professionals to run your IT department for the same price, if not lower than what you pay for Larry? Did Larry check your company’s data backup from last night? Hmm…see where I am going with this?

Now you might be thinking, “What if I just hire Larry and he works for me?” Sure, you can do that if you have $60-80k to shell out to a network engineer every year. If you are that ten person shop, I doubt it’s a good idea. If your business is thirty employees strong, we have a different scenario on our hands. You can afford to hire Larry, but will all your problems go away now because Larry is dedicated to you? My guess is most likely not. Why hire Larry when you can have a team of people in different places at the same time working on new projects and helping your business to succeed? You can have a CTO, helpdesk technician, field technician, account manager, and network engineer all for the same price as Larry’s chunky new salary.

I can go on and on to prove my point that technology is essential in small business and that same technology needs to be constantly managed. So we here at Now IT Works decided a long time ago not to be like Larry and to join a team of professionals designed specifically to become the outsourced IT department for small businesses.

A few years back, the team here at Now IT Works was trying to come up with some sort of name that we could use to describe all of the above and more. Besides from being a famous Derek Zoolander modeling pose, Blue Steel has a few additional meanings. When working with steel and stainless steel parts, ‘blueing the steel’ is said to help from corrosion and rust. Technology and steel share similar qualities. Steel is known today for being cheap, easily recycled, strong and highly adaptable. Becoming a NIW Blue Steel customer is the only way to ensure the safety and well being of your steel.

To learn more about becoming a Blue Steel customer, please Contact Us