Once you reach 45 - 75 employees your costs for IT support will force you to consider hiring a full time IT employee. This can be a big success if done right, but keep in mind that the first employee in ANY department is usually a failure. Companies that have proprietary technology such as custom hardware (ie, kiosks), custom software (ie, accounting package), or manufacture/develop technology products will hire sooner and spend more on IT than their non-technical counterparts. Their IT spend...View full post

0 Comments  Author:  Joe Gleinser submitted 2 days ago

After more than a decade working together, I just had enough. When I first met my auto-attendant (the recording that answers every call) I was desperate for help. I couldn't possibly answer the phones quickly enough because of our small staff. We kept asking clients to wait so we could answer another clients call! Our auto-attendant went right to work and allowed us to grow without upsetting too many people.Fast forward ten years and we were a different company. Our hold times were down below 1...View full post

0 Comments  Author:  Joe Gleinser submitted 4 days ago

Reducing the amount of email at GCS is a goal common to all staff. Socialcast has helped reduce a significant amount of internal email. Socialcast is essentially a private Facebook. It allows only GCS employees to view and post updates, images, and documents. Our rule is that if the email is for informational purposes only, post it to Socialcast.We have groups in Socialcast so that we don't burden the project team with information only useful to the Help Desk, and vice versa. Socialcast has...View full post

0 Comments  Author:  Joe Gleinser submitted 15 days ago

You finally took the time and broke down the task step by step. You carefully formatted the numbered lists. You changed font colors to make it easy to read. And then you filed that beautiful new process away like it was the Arc, never to be seen again. Stop doing that!Modern Wikis allow you to create, edit, and store processes that can be easily used. How is a process used? It is:1) Read/Followed: For this to happen it must be able to found quickly with as few mouse clicks as possible.2)...View full post

0 Comments  Author:  Joe Gleinser submitted 15 days ago

No. Not at all. Businesses that accept credit cards, especially over the web, expose themselves to unique risks. A small legal practice in Des Moines, IA does not attract much attention from hackers. Start accepting credit cards over the web and you've painted a bright target on your business.The payment card industry (Visa, MC, etc) has created a series of standards called PCI. These standards describe minimum technical security requirements for all businesses that accept credit cards, whether...View full post

1 Comments  Author:  Joe Gleinser submitted 16 days ago