VOLUME 1,
ISSUE 6

Inside This Issue

• How Companies Are Saving Money by Deploying Office Networks in the Cloud
• Starting/Expanding Your Dental Practice?
• Engaging Customers with Smartphones
• Coping When Disaster Strikes
• Managing Your Online Reputation
• September Quiz - Win Chipotle!
• Customer Profile
• Referral Program
• Valuable coupons

How Companies Are Saving Money by Deploying Office Networks in the Cloud

Two Case Studies

I found these case studies fascinating in their scope and impact on how businesses are changing how they implement technology to save money. The first is from a Microsoft case study on Target stores, a national retail chain that is saving BIG by moving its servers to an on-premise cloud. Target has traditionally deployed seven servers at each of its stores to track inventory, run cashier terminals, and support other workflows. With over a thousand stores spread across the nation, that is a lot of servers! The company experimented with a two-server private cloud appliance and discovered that this new appliance could easily run its seven application and database servers. Furthermore, the implementation offered significant cost savings through reduction in hardware, energy and labor costs.

Your server and computers can be deployed as cloud resources
that you access using a smartphone, tablet, PC or Mac

The second is from a Channel Cloud case study on a fast-growing professional services firm that saved BIG by moving its entire office network to a data center hosted public cloud platform. The firm had five servers that were reaching end of life and approximately forty computers. They moved their office network consisting of the servers and computers to a public cloud while leaving printers, scanners and thin clients at the office. They eliminated a large capital expenditure by ditching on-premise servers and computers and lowered their monthly costs for technology when all hardware, energy and labor costs were factored in.

On-Premise Private Cloud and Hosted Public Cloud

In the first case study, Target has an IT division to manage technology and support its stores from a central location. The company invested in a private cloud appliance that greatly reduced the time it takes to initialize and configure the technology needed to power a store. Target also benefited from the server failover and business continuity features built into the appliance. Here is how Target saved money:

• Reduced hardware and energy costs for the 2-server private cloud appliance that handles a 7-server workload
• Significant reduction in time needed to initialize and setup the 7-server workload when setting up stores thus saving on expensive labor costs
• Reduction in average downtime companywide due to failover and business continuity built into private cloud platforms

For a successful private cloud deployment, you need to ensure power redundancy at your office and access to private cloud appliance support.

The second case study is an example of a hosted public cloud. The professional services firm was able to retire its old servers without buying new ones, thus preserving cash. Also, it no longer needed expensive on-premise technology management because helpdesk staff could handle, with support from its technology provider, even the most challenging of issues. Here is how the professional services firm saved money:

• Eliminated capital costs associated with new server acquisition by deploying virtual servers in a public cloud
• Eliminated overhead labor associated with dedicated technology management by having generalist help desk role take care of technology support needs
• Virtually eliminated loss of production associated with server downtime due to 99.9% server uptime guarantee provided by professionally run data center

Much like the electric power plant made electricity into a commodity that anyone could consume, the delivery over the Internet of data processing power and storage from massive data center is creating a fundamental shift in how businesses acquire and use technology. In the two case studies, the businesses reduced capital outlays toward hardware and took advantage of automated system deployments and pooled support resources. We are slowly but surely moving toward the time when many office networks will reside in data centers.

Conclusion

Implementations of complete office networks in the cloud are not commonplace yet, but it is important you be aware of the trend and be ready to take advantage of such an implementation when the time is right. These implementations deliver savings by allowing you to leverage the power of a massive computing infrastructure and support process while paying only what you use.

The more technology dependent your business and the more standardized your business processes, the quicker you are likely to find yourself ready to jump on-board this technology as a service platform.

Quote of the Month

"In business or in football, it takes a lot of unspectacular preparation to produce spectacular results."

Starting/Expanding Your Dental Practice?

Join us for this extraordinary educational event!

Enjoy complimentary wine & hors d'oeuvres while industry experts teach you how to leverage financing, design build, real estate & technology to maximize profits and to acquire new patients for your dental practice.

October 12, 2011
6:00 - 8:30 pm
2841 Hartland Road,
Falls Church, VA 22043
Register at http://ramconsulting.bizservicepros.com/MTDental.html

News and Tips of Interest

Engaging Customers with Smartphones

These days it seems like everywhere you look someone is checking their smartphone. So how can small businesses take advantage of this platform and use it to engage customers?  Here are a few tips from Gail Goodman at Entrepreneur.com:

Make Your Emails Mobile-Friendly: Keep a message's subject line short and place high up in the message your brand name, the offer, and the call to action. Keep your email design simple and light on text, and offer a link to your company's website so a reader can find out more.

Give Mobile Customers What They Need: 40% of U.S. smartphone owners compare prices on their phone while inside a store, according to HubSpot. The most sought-after information (a company's pricing, hours, locations, and directions) should be front and center where customers can easily find them.
Text Message and Quick-Response Codes: Customers entering your retail establishment are probably carrying their cellphones on them. Build your contact list by inviting patrons to send a text message or scan a QR code and reward their participation with a coupon or special offer.
Build Your Fan Base: Your socially active customers have a Facebook or Twitter app loaded on their smartphones. Post a sign or poster that encourages them to connect with you, and be sure to give them a good (and fun) reason to like or follow you.

Tap Location-Based Services: If you run a brick-and-mortar business or host an event, encourage people to check in on location-based services like Foursquare, Gowalla, or Where. You will gain information about your customers and how often they visit you. A unique special offer can encourage these regulars to check in more often.

Encourage Reviews on the Run: Encourage customers to share their thoughts about their experience while they are still at your place of business. Post a sign that says, "How'd we do? Let us know!" and direct customers to sites like Yelp or Google Places where you would like them to post reviews

Coping When Disaster Strikes

The lights are out but your customers don’t want to wait - so what do you do?  Here are a few ideas for coping when disaster strikes.

1. Investigate the use of GroupMe to stay in touch with up to 25 people in a conference call type setting using SMS when your voice lines may be down.
2. Invest in Battery PowerPaks that can charge multiple devices when power is down for extended periods of time.
3. Consider backing up your data onsite AND offsite.
4. Invest in UPS devices and configure them to perform a graceful shutdown so you can work for some time while storm still rages before the device must be shut down.

Managing Your Online Reputation

Everyone has “Googled” or “Binged” the name of their business at one time or another.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking everything is A-OK if your search results look good at first glance.  Here are a few tips to keep your online reputation squeaky clean, from James Martin at Small Business Computing:

Name Drop: Try to optimize several pages on your site with your most important search phrase: your company name. Mention your company name on pages that describe your products or services, for instance.

Don’t Get Personal: When you perform a Web query, the Search Engine is serving you results based on what it knows about you. To minimize the effects of personalization, go to Google.com and perform your keyword search. Then go to the URL in your browser's address bar and type “&pws=0” at the end.  That simple string of characters will remove most personalization.

Keep an Eye Out: Google your company name once a month. Look past the first page of results. Keep an eye out for any content on the second or third page of results that might be negative.
Stay Positive: If you do spot something negative contact the person who created the content. See what you can do to switch their sentiment to positive. If it's a no go, leave a comment explaining your side of the story. Always be humble and respectful.

Use That .Org Address: When you bought your company's .com domain name, did you also buy its .info, .net, and .org domain names? If so, consider creating new sites to use those domains (rather than just redirecting them to your .com page). This will help you populate the top search results with more content you control.

Blog to the Top: If you need to create new content in a hurry to potentially push down negative content, set up a blog on WordPress.com, Blogger.com, or other easy-to-use blog platforms.

Do Some Social Networking: Your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube profiles should be optimized with your company name. Linked & Facebook allow you to create a custom URL that contains your company name.

Read Your Wikipedia: Wikipedia entries almost always rank highly. These entries are tricky because anyone can edit them - so keep a careful eye on the content.  Don’t have a page?  Ask a Wikipedia editor or industry friend to write it, writing your own is against the rules!

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Ace our September Quiz to Win $20 in Chipotle!

Yes, you could win a $20 gift card to Chipotle! To win you must have received this newsletter from us, or be forwarded this newsletter by someone on our mailing list. Submit the correct answer to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or click here by September 30, 2011. One winner will be randomly drawn from all correct entries received. The winner will be featured in the next month’s issue.

Congratulations to Bill Bolton of AH&T Insurance! our August Quiz winner! (Correct Answer was: “What’s All the Noise About Cloud Computing” is the most popular Computer Corner article on the Website asce-ncs.org.

September Quiz Question:

What should you expect when investing in an IT support plan?

A. Fewer computer and server problems
B. Expert technology help when needed
C. Strategic planning to grow and streamline the business using IT
D. All of the above

Customer Profile

Executive Plaza III, Suite 300
11350 McCormick Rd
Hunt Valley, MD 21031
P: 410771-9808 | F: 410-771-9809
www.nmpengineering.com

NMP Engineering Consultants is a certified Minority Business Enterprise focused on providing review, design, management and inspection for water resources projects – including a large amount of work for the State of Maryland. NMP got their start in 2002.  Since then, Founder & President Navrang Patel has grown the firm to a staff of 19, including 13 registered professional engineers and 4 engineers-in-training.

A very exiting current project that NMP is currently involved in is the Intercounty Connector (ICC) for the Maryland State Highway Administration. NMP staff is serving as the project-wide lead water resources engineer and contract specific lead environmental compliance inspector on this 18 mile, 6 lane, east-west highway linking Prince Georges County and Montgomery County. In those capacities NMP staff is responsible for overseeing all planning, procurement, design, and (most) construction activities in relation to project-wide permit compliance for roadway drainage, stormwater management, erosion and sediment control, and waterway construction. With the help of NMP, the ICC will provide a great new and environmentally compliant option for commuters between Laurel and Rockville, along with a variety of environmental stewardship projects in the area.

“Having been used to calling our previous computer guy for help only when things broke, we weren’t sure if a flat-fee IT   Services model that included technology planning components would give us the responsive computer support we needed. But since signing on with RCare Solutions in January 2011, we have been pleasantly surprised with the fewer headaches and the agility with which issues are addressed in the background.”

- Ron Gneo, Project Manager, PE
NMP Engineering Consultants

RCare™ Solutions Referral Program

We will pay you $25 for anyone that you refer to us that we get an appointment with. When your referral becomes a client (and has spent $1,000 or more) then we will pay you an additional $50. And, we will give your referral a true $100 off their purchase.

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RAM Consulting Corp - 21525 Ridgetop Circle, Suite 270 Dulles, VA 20166-6510. ph +1 703-766-2820