December 2010
In this issue
►Letter from the President
►Ricky's Corner
►Value Added Reseller
►Buyer Beware
►The Customer Comes Second
►Business Continuity Tip
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The Customer
Comes Second
by Craig Kitch www.CraigKitch.Com
In September of 1990, I was in the final stages of my application process to join one of the world’s most renowned hotel companies, Marriott. My challenge would be to take the helm of a problematic hotel with service issues and put it back on track for Marriott’s standards of excellence. The final interview was with a Vice President at the corporate headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland and I was on pins and needles, to say the least. As the interview came to a close, the VP had one final question: “Craig, who would you say are the most important people in your hotel?” “The customers”, I announced with enthusiasm, thinking that I had slam-dunked that one. My interrogator leaned forward on his elbows, looked me straight in the eye and informed me that I would never be successful with their company if that was my attitude. I got the job anyway but I have never forgotten that conversation or what I learned about my “true” customers during the ensuing years.
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Business Continuity Tip
Build a team.
It's a tall order to expect one person to efficiently develop a comprehensive recovery plan by themselves. After all, they have to account for every reasonable interruption across the entire business. There are just too many moving pieces. There is power in numbers and at worst, two heads are better than one. Assembling a team will give you the ability to share information, brainstorm, and create a natural sounding board to bounce off ideas. During an actual recovery, having a team provides additional advantages. If the team leader is not available, others will be familiar with the plan and can execute it. This built-in redundancy to your recovery response helps ensure a quick and efficient return to business as usual.
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Laugh a Little
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Remember, if Christmas isn't found in your heart, you won't find it under a tree.
- Charlotte Carpenter
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Letter from the President
Tim Rettig
Cyber Wars
 In Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace the Trade Federation used tall, thin, skeleton-like battle droids in many large-scale attacks. These battle droids blindly carried out commands sent to them from centralized control ships. The droids were unthinking and would follow any orders given to them.
It seems like something you would only see in a science-fiction movie, but just like battle droids, there are armies of zombie computers all around the world being centrally controlled to wage wars. These “botnets”, as they are called, are used for varying types of criminal activity like attacking other computers and sending spam. There are some botnet armies that number in the millions, but most are in the tens of thousands. When the Wikileaks website was recently attacked, it was by some of these botnets. And when Paypal stopped allowing donations to Wikileaks through their website, botnets attacked and took down credit card websites in retaliation.
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Ricky's Corner
Ricky Phipps
Managing the Human System
When I introduce new staff members into my organization, I tell them that above all else INTRUST is a service company. These staff members are people who have traditionally thought of their core value as a professional revolving around skills and/or aptitude with computer systems. So, to make sure they get the point, I typically follow up the “service company” assertion with, “As far as I am concerned, technology is just a delivery vehicle for service here.” Of course, technology is important. It’s what our customers *need* from us to remain productive and competitive. But, what they *want* is Extraordinary Service. Technologies come and go. Today, Information technology usage in business is very different from what it was 20 years ago. It’s going the be different still 20 (or even two) years from now. However, the desire for great service, and what it takes to fulfill that desire, has and will remain the same: people interacting with people, connecting, empathizing, supporting, and fulfilling. The ability to successfully deliver the human experience is what defines great in a service industry. People interacting with people is a Human System.
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Understanding the Value of a Value Added
Reseller (VAR)
used with permission from the HP Site
 VARs have a variety of perceptions about them. Some of these perceptions are right on. Some of them completely miss the mark. The truth is the right VAR can help most businesses more than they realize. Can the right VAR help you?
Technology is critical to run almost every business today, and in most cases, can offer both competitive and strategic value to your business. The problem is many businesses don’t think about their PCs, printers or servers as providing a competitive advantage or as strategic business tools. Even as a fundamental business tool, many think that there is little difference in the basic capabilities across the huge variety of technology devices on the market today. Having been in the industry for almost 20 years now, I can tell you that there are many differences worth noting when comparing computing products. I can also tell you that when used appropriately, there are both competitive and strategic advantages to be gained from technology.
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Buyer Beware
Don't Expect Consumer-Grade Technology to Meet Your Business-Class Needs
used with permission from the Cisco Small Business Website
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When you walk into a business meeting, do you wear pajamas?
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Do you let your children manage the accounts receivable for your office?
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When you buy business technology, do you choose products designed for home use?
The pricing on consumer-grade technology is tempting. But the lower price can end up costing your business dearly, in both productivity and cash.
Ways to Save Time and Money, by Not Going Home
"While you may be saving money now, you're spending more in the long run," says Austin Smith, founder of Digital Son, a Cisco Registered Partner. "One of the worst things that a small business could do would be to go to a retail establishment and purchase home gear for their business. Home equipment is just not designed to provide feature sets that businesses need."
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