Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) back in March of 2011 as an updated version of the popular internet browser. This new software was initially available as an optional update, however Microsoft has recently announced it will be pushing this updated release out through the automatic update process to all Windows Vista and Windows 7 systems.

At PCM we have been using the IE9 browser for some time now and have found it to be a nice improvement over previous versions. That said, we have held off pushing this upgrade out to our client networks in case there were issues with legacy applications that only worked with the older browser versions. Starting in February we are also planning to approve the IE9 release and have it automatically push out to all client desktops running Vista and Win7.

What’s so great about the new release? Well for starters, this release is the most secure yet with various built in protection mechanisms to stop software from automatically installing itself without a user knowing. IE9 also detects when add-in software is not loading or running slow and notifies the user so these problem applications can be disabled. All of this results in faster browsing and more secure computing which is something we really appreciate.

Apart from being more secure the IE9 browser is also faster and uses a cleaner interface creating a better browsing experience for users. Will there be changes to the layout and some new things to learn? Yes, while all of your favourites and preferences will be retained, there will be some changes to the screen. Most notably is the absence of the favourites bar at the top of the screen, instead people are encouraged to use the new “pinning” feature that allows you to pin sites to the Windows task bar just like other Office applications. Should you prefer the old favourites bar at the top this can still be enabled by right mouse clicking at the top of the screen and turning it on again. For a complete list of all the new features of IE9, including some videos demonstrating the new technologies, please go here.

Due to the security and performance updates we have decided to upgrade all desktops to the latest version available for your version of Windows (IE9 on Vista and Windows 7, IE8 on Windows XP). With today’s internet threat landscape, there’s no question that using an outdated browser is a fool’s errand. Feel free to contact us with any questions about these new releases or concerns you may have about the upgrade process.

As our network monitoring and IT management tools continue to evolve, so does our back-end professional services automation (PSA) system. As many of our clients know, PCM has an advanced PSA system in place to track your client details, service tickets, agreements and billing information.

We are happy to announce our new client portal, available to all clients that are on our Sentinel IT management service plan.

You can now log into your portal to get real-time updates on any service tickets in the system. In addition to viewing existing service tickets, you can also initiate new tickets from this portal and view other account information like invoices and scheduled activities.

To gain access to this new online portal you will need to first request a password by emailing support@pcm.ca Once your account and password have been created you can access this portal at any time, day or night, by clicking on the “Client Portal” link on the top right corner of our website.

As we come to the end of another great year and start our planning for 2012 we are excited to announce that we will be moving to a new office! Our current office has served us well for 11 years, however we have run out of space and it’s time to move on to something larger. As much as we have enjoyed being in the downtown Hamilton area, we have decided to move our office to Stoney Creek right along the QEW highway. This new location has more than twice the space and allows us to continue to add more staff in the new year. While the new office may be a little farther away from some clients, the location offers excellent highway access and an office layout that will allow us to work more efficiently. The official move date has been set for Monday, January 2nd which will allow for minimum downtime and will allow all of our servers to be operational by the time most clients open for business on the following day.

Effective January 2nd our new address and phone number will be:

1040 South Service Road, Suite 105
Stoney Creek, ON L8E 6G3
Phone: 289-656-1100

This past summer flew by quickly and at PCM the service requests continued to come in non-stop. As we increase the number of computers and clients we support, we also need to increase the number of people available to service them to ensure we continue to give you the best possible support.

Many have you have already worked with him, but I’d like to introduce our newest member, Jake Hoek, who joined our team at the end of June. Jake comes to PCM with over 3 years of IT experience, most recently as a help desk support technician, so while he’s new to us, he’s not new to supporting customers. Jake has been busy learning all of our support tools and has already helped out many of you remotely. Jake was hired for helpdesk support to focus primarily on end user, desktops and notebooks. This will allow Alvar to focus more time on monitoring our client networks and servers. Have an issue with your computer? Send your request into our office and you’ll most likely get to speak with Jake and see for yourself how good he is!

Did you know that PCM currently looks after over 520 computers and 60+ servers? It’s something that we take seriously and by adding resources to our team we hope to maintain the service level that our clients expect.

With smartphones being an important tool for many business people I often get asked which is the best. In the last year the market has literally exploded with many different options from RIM, Microsoft, Apple and Google. Each solution has their own pros and cons, however many of you will know that at PCM we continue to standardize on the BlackBerry devices.

With all the new gadgets being marketed all around us, it’s tempting to be lured into purchasing one with the flashiest ads or low purchase price. Recently I sat down and made a list of some of my favourite features which confirmed that the BlackBerry device is still the preferred choice for me.

Unique Blackberry features

1. Automatic sound profiles – In holster silent vs. Out of holster normal
2. LED new message notification – Even when screen is off I can tell there is a new message
3. BBM – only instant message solution that allows sender to see delivered and read status
4. Speed-dial – press H to dial home, O to dial the office etc.
5. Group text – BBM allows multiple people to participate in a chat session
6. Keyboard shortcuts – F to forward, R to reply and I to file etc. Makes management of email really fast
7. Attachments – PDF and other documents are automatically converted to smaller formats and include an option to view text only

Recently I came across an industry article that also highlights some of the reasons to not give up on RIM just yet. Click here to read the full article.

Do you have your favourite list of smartphone features? Have you found a solution that makes you more efficient and productive? Send us a message if you wish to discuss mobile solutions or if you would like to share your experiences.

At PCM we get to work with a lot of different software applications and have seen our share of great programs and not so great ones. Every once in a while there is one application that stands out and makes us say, “Wow!” Symantec System Recovery 2010 is one of those applications that has earned high praise around here in recent months.

Known previously as Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery (or BESR), it’s a full system backup and recovery application. Unlike many other backup applications Symantec System Recovery performs image based backups of the entire computer. It’s extremely fast and only needs to perform periodic full system backups, relying on system snapshot backups for the rest. This means that the storage requirements are much lower than traditional full system backups since only the changes made to the system are backed up each day. One advantage of this is that we can now retain backup files much longer, giving us the ability to restore any version of any file for as far back as our storage options allow.

But that’s not the real reason we are excited about this product. Backup solutions overall are fairly reliable assuming they are properly maintained, however restoring a complete system to a different computer has always been a tricky operation. This is where Symantec System Recovery really shines! The software proclaims that it can do “bare metal restores”, meaning we should be able to restore to a brand new system with completely different components and have the operating system still function properly. This sounds simple enough; however making this a reality has often been more than a challenge with the dizzying array of different hardware manufacturers and drivers out there. On this front Symantec has gotten it right and we have successfully restored to many different types of hardware; even going from physical servers to virtual ones and back again. That gives a real peace of mind when it comes to ensuring computer systems can be made operational in a disaster situation.

Recently we used this software for a server swap project at one of our clients and it out performed our expectations again. We had installed a temporary server at a client site after they were having issues with a particular line of business application. We didn’t think the original hardware was a problem but wanted to eliminate it as a possibility. Once the temporary server was operating flawlessly we wanted to move everything back to the original hardware. But how could we do this with a critical business application so that there would be minimal down time? We were able to use Symantec System Recovery to restore the complete server operating system and all business applications to the original hardware in less than an hour. Basically we shut down the temporary server, restored the image to the original hardware and staff were up and running minutes later. From an application standpoint nothing had changed, in fact staff couldn’t even tell the difference even though it was a completely different server.

Need a more robust backup solution? Want to make sure there is minimal downtime in the case of a theft or other system level disaster? Give us a call and we’d be more than happy to discuss the merits of a full image backup solution.

At PCM we spend most of our time helping clients manage their business networks and software applications; however there are times when we also need to spend time on our in house tools. For the last 3 years we have been using a remote monitoring software package from Level Platforms to manage our client’s servers and workstations. While we have gone through a few releases and updates over the last while, none have been as extensive as this last change. We had already been looking forward to this new release as we knew it was going to give us more tools and capabilities than ever before.

In February we spent a couple of weeks getting a new server prepared and the new Managed Workplace 2011 software installed. Once the testing was complete we then migrated all the data from our old server to this new server and upgraded the monitoring software at all of our client sites. The process wasn’t as smooth as we had initially hoped, however the end result was well worth the time. By the beginning of March we had our main service center running on the latest Windows Server 2008 operating system with newer SQL database software and the new Managed Workplace 2011 software.

So how will this new system benefit us? Right at the start we already saw that the new monitoring interface gave us much more detailed information for each monitored device than before. For example, in the past we could tell how much memory was installed in each device. Now we can see exactly how many memory slots are available, how many have been used and exactly what type of memory chip is installed in each slot! These types of advanced details are extremely helpful for our consultants as they work with the different devices.

In addition to better asset information we also now have a completely new remote monitoring agent. This new agent can be installed on any laptop or out of office computer so that it can still be appropriately monitored and maintained by our system. In the past we only installed an application on the client server, which was convenient, however once a computer left the company network we weren’t able to reach it. With the new remote agent we will be able to stay connect with all devices even if they are travelling outside the company network. This is extremely beneficial for people working out of home offices, or others that are constantly out on the road in hotels. Now their equipment can be managed and maintained just as well as the ones in the company office.

The feedback from our staff has been nothing but positive with this latest upgrade. The result for our clients is that we can now monitor and maintain all devices even better than before, making our Sentinel service stronger than ever. We’ll highlight other features and benefits in future articles.

As with any growing company, at some point you need to upgrade your internal software to match the changing needs of the organization. PCM is no different and we knew it was only a matter of time before we needed to retire our current customer databases and billing applications. The question was, which system should we switch to? Do we stay with our current systems and just upgrade them? Or do we move to a totally new system, perhaps something specifically designed for our industry?

In March of this year we decided it was time to purchase a PSA (Professional Service Automation) solution specifically designed for the IT industry. This new system replaces our existing Microsoft CRM database, many different custom spreadsheets, as well as our Timeslips billing database (after using it for 18 years!). In addition it gives us a new service module that will allow us to properly create tickets and track all outstanding client tasks/projects. We have been excitedly watching this product for a while as it offers an amazing amount of capability in one integrated system which seamlessly integrates with our existing remote monitoring database. Now our monitoring database, client database, service contracts and billing databases are all tied into one solution!

Implementing a new system internally is a huge task, and this one was no different. Staff spent many hours on training to learn the new system plus we spent a fair number of hours with the implementation consultants getting the system properly configured for our needs. The result was amazing and everyone here is excited about the new functionality. April 1st was our cut-over date (no, this wasn’t a joke!) and we are now fully operational in the new system. It will take some time to implement all of the new areas, but we have stopped using our old databases completely and moved over to the new ConnectWise 2011 system.

An immediate effect of this change is that we will now track all service requests as “tickets” in our system. With the new ticketing system we will be able to more easily track the progress and history of all service requests, even if multiple staff works on the same issue. As items are resolved or completed clients will receive an automated email from our server, similar to the “Tasks completed” email we used to send for onsite visits. This new setup will also let us keep a better eye on outstanding items and avoid things falling between the cracks.

To create a new service request you can just email support@pcm.ca, with a clear subject and details of what the request is about and any other information that will help us resolve the item. Our system will automatically convert that email to a service ticket and place it on our service board. This board will be monitored and tickets assigned to staff based on the urgency and content of the request. The system will also immediately respond with a reply email outlining the ticket number so that you can reference this specific item at any time. Should you have something to add to the ticket related to the same issue you can simply reply to the email and your comments will be automatically updated in our system and available to the staff. Once the ticket has been resolved you will again receive an email with our personalized comments related to the resolution and work done. Our hope is that this new system will make our system more efficient, resulting in faster turn-around times and better customer service.

In the future we plan to activate our new client portal feature; however that’s another topic for another time. We hope you find the new system an improvement and we look forward to any feedback or comments you may have.

We are excited to announce that our new Centralized Symantec Server has been up and running for a number of weeks now. This new server adds another level of centralized control and simplifies management of the Symantec EndPoint Protection software used at our various client sites to protect from viruses and spyware. As we continue to build our managed services offering this next step gives us greater control and visibility across all the networks that we manage.

In the past each client site would have had a Symantec Management Console application installed on a local server. As new releases came out, or anytime client policies needed to be updated, we would have to log into each site to make the required changes. Reporting also would have to be emailed to our staff for each individual site, creating a fair bit of work as the client list continues to grow. With our new server, all computers are told to speak directly with our PCM Symantec Server which will then push out updates and policies.

So is this new change mainly for our benefit only? Absolutely not! Now all clients will be immediately updated with any best practices or policies gained from experiences at different sites. This means all client workstations and servers will be automatically configured in the exact same secure way and we don’t have to worry about different settings at different sites. This also means that when we upgrade the central server each client will gain from this immediately, rather than waiting for their turn to be upgraded, or having to decide if this is something they want to invest funds into.

In addition to greater control, this new service also means that there is one less application running on your local servers. As we move clients over to this new central server we are seeing performance improvements on the local servers after the Symantec Management Console software is removed.

Another benefit is that the computers now are updated even when they are away from the office. So for those of you with laptops that frequently leave the office, these will now still be able to get virus definition updates and other changes whenever they have access to the internet.

Some of you may be wondering about bandwidth implications, especially larger sites as all computers now report regularly with our external Symantec Server. We have worked with Symantec to ensure that the “heartbeat” signal is so minor that we aren’t seeing any major impact to internet performance or overall network performance. For our rural clients with slower internet connections we also have the ability to customize the polling intervals so that these slower connections are not noticeably affected either.

All in all it’s an exciting process as we already have seen the benefits of more visibility and greater control of this critical protection software. Not part of our Sentinel network monitoring program? Contact our office and find out how we can remove the stress of managing technology while at the same time increasing the security and stability of your computer networks.

The Sage Top ACC Revenue Performance Award recognizes an ACT! Certified Consultant who has produced the most revenue for the first six months of the fiscal year.

Hamilton, ON, April 22, 2010 – Professional Computer Management announced today that it has been recognized by Sage Software, as the top ACT! sales partner in the Ontario/Ohio Region.

Professional Computer Management was one of only thirteen award winners announced at the ACT! division award ceremony on April 21, 2010. These awards acknowledge Sage Software ACT! Certified Consultants for their success over the last 6 months. “On behalf of the entire ACT! sales team, I’d like to thank you all for your fantastic selling efforts during the first Half Year of Sage’s FY10,” said Alex Taylor, National Channel Sales Manager, Sage North America, CRM Division.
A list of over 450 Partners was analyzed by the ACT! Sales Account Executives. The top revenue producing partner was selected for each of the thirteen geographical sales regions in North America. “Having worked with PCM for over 5 years, I have come to count on their professionalism, technical savvy and high ethical standards. They have distinguished themselves in a region of many top performers,” said Jason Barton, Account Executive, Sage North America, CRM Division.

About Professional Computer Management

PCM is a computer network support company based in Hamilton, Ontario, providing a variety of consulting services to small and medium-sized businesses in the Golden Horseshoe area. Established in 1993, PCM has seen the development of technologies, recognizes the evolving needs of their clients, and seeks to address these needs and help companies grow and expand with the times. http://www.pcm.ca

About Sage North America

Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Sage North America employs nearly 4,000 people and supports 3.1 million small and midsized business customers. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs 13,400 people and supports 6.2 million customers worldwide. For more information, please visit the website at http://www.sagenorthamerica.com