Virtualization
Executive Briefing

TOMORROW
September 30, 2009
11:30am-1:00pm

In this tough economic environment,
your IT needs to do more with less. Come see a demonstration of how a virtualized infrastructure can enable
you to see immediate, tangible and quantifiable cost savings from your server to your desktop.

You’ll learn how virtualization can:

Click here or call Courtney at
909-481-4368 to RSVP

Hello Everyone,
I hope this edition of Protech IT News finds you well. Looks like we have found our way through the hottest part of the California summer and I am certainly looking forward to cool fall nights and those cool Monday night football evenings.

Football season really makes me think about the “Game Plan”. Many of you like myself begin planning the next year in the September/October time frame. Last year about this time our team had written our 2009 Business Plan. We were not overly optimistic in our planning, but planned for growth in 2009. Well, as we all know, the economic bottom fell out from under all of us in October 2008. We took a month or two and revised the plan considering the reality that was upon us. As it turns out, we were able to grow our services business in the challenging times we faced. The project/hardware portion was very slow, but our core business continued to be successful. I truly think it was because we were following a plan, albeit revised.

Who knows if the worst is over in our economic challenge, but if you are beginning your planning for 2010, I am seeing my business clients thinking about taking care of some of the issues that have been bugging them for a long time. It seems like business executives have decided to execute “Game Plans” instead of “waiting to see what happens”.

Have a Great Month!

Marty

When you think of “creativity”, you might immediately think of artists, musicians or designers. But the fact is that creativity is a useful tool in all sorts of occupations, from accounting to engineering to teaching. Creativity is the fuel for new products, systems, and better ways of getting work done.

According to Dr. Warren Bennis, a respected American scholar, organizational consultant and an expert in the field of leadership studies, “The organizations of the future will increasingly depend on the creativity of their members to survive. And the leaders of those organizations will be those who find ways both to retain their talented and independent-minded staffs and to set them free to do their best, most imaginative work . . . In a truly creative collaboration, work is pleasure, and the only rules and procedures are those that advance the common cause.”

The value of developing and encouraging creativity in the workplace is clear. But how can you boost your creative contributions? Here are a few techniques you may want to try.

Channel your frustrations constructively
According to a study published in the Academy of Management Journal, people who are the most dissatisfied with their jobs are often the most creative.

In a survey of 149 people, the researchers asked workers questions about their work lives, including some to assess their level of job satisfaction.

Read More

This isn't another lecture about minding your e-mail manners. This is a story about a new subset of e-mail etiquette. Call it wireless politeness.

An increasing number of e-mail messages are being received on small, wireless devices with limited screen space — devices such as Windows Mobile-based Smartphones. Being polite is still important. But so are a number of other considerations, including brevity, diction and consideration for bandwidth.

Reader Terri Thornton aptly sums up the frustration with today's wireless transmissions. "I hate checking my e-mail and having the subject line be so long that it scrolls forever until I can figure out what the topic is, or whether it's important," says Thornton, a Cincinnati marketing executive. "Worse is the one-word subject line that says nothing and you have to open it to find out what it is and discover it's 30 lines of nothing."

So what is the etiquette for sending e-mail messages to and from wireless devices? Here are seven tips.

Read More

Quote of the Month

A high school teacher hung this sign
under the clock in her classroom.
"Time will pass . . . Will you?"

- James E. Myers

Accent would like to welcome and introduce:

Scott Johnson
Technology Consultant

Scott joins us from a diverse and extensive career in information technology that has spanned over 30 years and 5 continents. He has spent most of his career in sales, marketing and sales management, including almost 14 years with Apple. Scott has also spent time with Toshiba, HP, Philips and other large IT companies. Scott lives with his wife of 28 years, Laura in Upland and enjoys his Golden Retriever and Chocolate Lab. He and his wife also enjoy travel, classic movies and friends and family.