Google tools for smart searching. Google’s created a host of tools to help users find just what they need online. Take a look at these easy tools to narrow down your search results and speed up your search time.

Not sure what words to enter? A synonym search is one great way to find a variety of listings for things under similar terms. Use Google’s tilde (~) operator to search for pages that are synonyms or similar to the term you enter. For example, if you enter “~cheap office furniture” your results may yield “affordable office furniture”, “home office furniture”, “discount office furniture”, and more. If you find a website that is useful, you can also enter “related:” along with the website name to find similar content on other domains.

Quickly eliminate results that aren’t useful. The negative (-) operator gives you the power to eliminate specific matches from your results. For example, if you don’t want to see a listing for “home office furniture” you could type “~cheap office furniture, -home” to eliminate any results with the word “home” in them. Refine your results as much or as little as you would like to find just want you need online.

Other useful tools. Don’t forget, Google offers many built-in tools too. Tracking for packages sent via UPS, FedEx or USPS allows you to quickly find any shipment online by entering your tracking number into Google. The location trick is great too! Say you want Chinese food near your hotel, simply enter “Chinese” and the zip code for a full listing.

Our newest addition is happy to help! ITS is growing at a fantastic rate. In the past few years, we have expanded every division of our humble company to better serve you. Today,
we are proud to introduce Brian Arredondo as a new technology sales agent here at ITS.

Brian works with prospects and new clients to budget IT expenses offering our all-inclusive, flat-rate IT services, and predictable support. He is committed to ensuring your systems are stable and reliable so you can focus on growing your business.

Brian joined the sales team in April. You can’t miss his bold character and cheerful attitude. Brian is passionate about technology and focuses wholeheartedly on the most effective solution to for all our prospects and customers. If ever you have a question about a new project or service, give Brian a call.

As a special tribute to our ITS family, we present the ITS Tech Scoop snip-it to share a little more about our wonderful team. Ryan Deneau, Project Manager/Virtual Virtuoso is our Tech of the Month for May. Ryan is an essential part of the ITS team. You’ve probably worked with him on new projects or even upgrades. We often find him buried in his computer diligently working to improve our services, researching new technology, and always 100% focused on our clients. Ryan is our most established technician with a full collection of industry certifications and extensive training in everything from network and project management to computer information systems and VoIP services. Ryan humbly attributes the turning point in his career with his decision to join the ITS family. He says,

On the lighter side, Ryan’s first experience with computers was his schoolage experience with a Apple Macintosh LLC. A “Computer Bus” rolled up to his preschool to introduce technology to children and Ryan was excited to dive in. Who knew this, now archaic, technology would be the beginning of a long life in the technology service industry. As Ryan grew, his Sony Walkman blasted MC Hammer tapes and a passion for English, history and writing flourished.

Today, Ryan’s favorite activities include computer games and running. When asked his favorite food, he stated “Thanksgiving is a food, right?” The most rewarding part of his work here at ITS is the great work environment, wonderful coworkers, outstanding boss, and a fulfilling career that will be around for a long time to come.

Thank you Ryan for your commitment and dedication to the ITS Family.

Everyone wants to save some money, don’t you? Take peek at these three money saving tips for any office. They seem like no brainers, but these simple changes can reduce costs.

1. Become an energy efficient office. Reduce the amount of energy your office sucks up each day can save you a pretty penny over the course of a year. Start by switching out old CRT monitors if you’re still using those mammoths, upgrade your old printers, and swap out plug strips that are over three years old. Push a company wide policy for employees to turn off their monitors when they leave for meetings or the night and be sure to put workstations to sleep at night.

Trash your 70’s tube lights!!! You must be able to see to complete your work. Updated lighting can offer a more comfortable work environment with lower energy costs. Most businesses recover the cost from their lighting projects within a year or two. In addition, there are a number of assistance programs through lighting vendors, utility companies and even the state to reduce your initial investment. You can’t lose!

2. Stop dealing with vendors. Calling Dell or Microsoft is a time vacuum. You hired your employees to work, right? Don’t let them sit on hold for hours just because a hard drive crashed. Don’t send out your machines to get fixed.

Going in circles with vendors is one of the worst time and money wasting activities business owners face. While they mean well and will eventually get repairs done for you, it takes roughly four times longer than through an IT partner. Find a trusted advisor to facilitate your warranty work, replacements, and purchases to save valuable time and money.

3. Don’t just react to IT issues. When you drive a car, you react proactively, right? You know trouble areas like busy intersections or dangerous places and you scan the roadway as you approach, you’re cautious and alert. Business IT solutions are much like driving a car. Taking a proactive approach to network management will reduce the overall impact on your company should an incident occur.

A new type of vacation has emerged for couples and individuals to immerse themselves in the activities they love or would like to learn, adult summer camp.

Adult camping is becoming a grand getaway to revive the mind, body and soul. Camps like the Arizona Cowboy College near Scottsdale offers everything from roping lessons to riding, cowboy safety, penning, sorting and other forms of cowboy activities.

In Brooklin, Maine boat making is the primary goal at the Wooden Boat School. Students enjoy on-site accommodations including room and board or camping facilities too! Courses include sailing, kayaking, small boat voyaging, and a large variety of boatbuilding classes too.

Want something a bit more challenging? Try Jumptown’s “VIP” Accelerated Free Fall (AFF) Camp were you can learn how to Skydive. This is Jumptown’s seventh season offering the “VIP” camp and last season they had 95% of the camp participants go on to earn their A Licenses.

A little too risky? Road bike camp gives participants a challenging training program and great experience. Anyone who loves to ride and enjoys the scenery is welcome to join. Camp includes days filled with 2-6 hour rides, guided walking tours, cultural and bike industry visits as well as plenty of time to relax and enjoy.

If you’re looking for a great getaway, Google a key word from your interests and add the word “Camp” after it in quotes to find a great fit for your next vacation.

Remember the good old days when you could hop on your bicycle and feel free racing down the street? Revive your cycling days with National Bike Month.

According to the League of American Bicyclists, more than half of the U.S. population lives within five miles of their workplace but, commute by car? Cycling is a good form of exercise, it is environmentally-friendly, and an extremely economical option to standard commuting.

National Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 17th, 2013, the third Friday in May each year. This is a great opportunity for seasoned and new cyclists to hit the road and support great causes like better health, ecofriendly commuting, and economical solutions to solve road pollution.

The end of May also coincides with the arrival of warmer weather and beautiful blossoms to encourage this outdoor experience.

The number of people riding bikes in America is decreasing in an alarming fashion while obesity is sky-rocketing costing our nation over $68 billion in health care and personal costs each year. The primary reason for this alarming high rate is simple, lack of physical activity and has a simple solution—Exercise more!

The League of American Bicyclists, founded in 1880 originally as the League of American Wheelman, encourages people to forsake their motor vehicles and bike to work for just one day to celebrate National Bike Month.

Interested in learning more about National Bike to Work Day or hosting a cycling event in your area? Visit www.bikeleague.org for the most up-to-date information on this wonderful observance and enjoy National Bike Month from the road this year. Get cycling today!

Ever since crime fighter Dick Tracy put on his two-way wristwatch radio in 1946, corporations have spent millions developing experimental wrist-mounted computers.

Several companies, such as Casio, Seiko and Microsoft, have come close. Sony even sells a $129 SmartWatch that can be used for e-mail, tweeting or playing music on the go.

In the words of Bloomberg Businessweek, “Into this graveyard of tech empires steps Apple.” Its team is in late stages of development and they hope to introduce its new smart watch this fall.

This new device will likely be an iPhone accessory, allowing users to make and receive calls or check map coordinates while leaving the phone in their pockets. According to the U.S. Patent office, Apple has filed roughly 79 patents applications since 2001 that include the word wrist.

A wrist mounted device like this could become a hot trend among busy professionals. Soon, we can all make our Dick Tracy calls on the go!

The term, “in the cloud” doesn’t just mean operations are completed on an unseen server in a faraway place. Cloud computing provides additional space, security and enterprise functionality for small and medium sized businesses to gain traction in their vertical.

Cloud computing is everywhere.
By now, you’ve heard and used cloud computing in some fashion whether it be through social networking sites like Facebook, online e-mail like Gmail, shopping sites like Amazon.com or even storage programs like DropBox.

Today, many of the everyday services we rely on are moving to the cloud in order to expand the breadth of their offerings and serve a larger portion of their market. Your business can profit and flourish from these same cloud solutions.

Trade in your tricycle for a mountain bike.
Joining a trail bike race with a tricycle is just crazy. You need the right equipment to compete at the same level with industry experts. Cloud computing offers high quality solutions that prepare small and medium sized businesses for the fierce, otherwise untouchable, competition in their markets.

Things to look for to prepare you for the ride.
Cloud computing is a complex mixture of technologies and not every piece will be a great fit for your operations. Take a look at these three things to consider when looking into cloud services.

1. What are your goals? Clearly defining what you want to accomplish with your technology will help you determine the best solutions to support your efforts. Don’t pay for added offerings you will never use. Look for utilities that have a measurable benefit that will improve your business.

2. Enlist an IT consultant that will map out your course and stick with you for the long haul. Find a consultant who is ready and willing to discuss all the details and options with you. Creating a plan for implementation is just as important as putting the technology in place and maintaining it for the future.

Changing your company over to the cloud is not always a smooth transition. Having an expert on your side will smooth the integration keeping your business on track throughout the changes.

3. Create standard operating and training procedures. As with anything new, change is difficult and there is a learning curve. Setup company meetings to inform staff of the operational changes and develop a list of standard operating procedures. Include things like common mistakes, error messages, and who to call for technical support.

This may seem pretty simple but, it can help employees tremendously just knowing they have the support they need.

Cloud construction. Cloud providers have worked hard to build business environments with a robust basis to account for the desired scalability and security businesses today require. Working with a cloud solution provider is like joining a large community. You become a part of their internal operations and can take advantage of their large scale options without the high cost of physical infrastructure installations.

Solid potential. The “cloud computing” name doesn’t say enough for the possibilities. It sounds light and fluffy, airy, even temporary. However, cloud solutions are very firm, concrete if you will. Cloud providers give businesses of any size access to tools that can skyrocket their potential for success. To review cloud computing options for your company give us a call today!!!

An affordable convertible to show off at the office.
No, you won’t have to invest $100,000 in this baby, but you will get all the bells and whistles. Lenovo now offers convertible laptops that incorporate the standard features of a laptop, a full keyboard and a healthy lineup of ports, along with touch screen tablet like technology.

The IdeaPad series of laptops has a convertible design to allow you the flexibility you need in business. You can open the laptop and use it as is or convert it into a tablet for display or use as a tablet.

A variety of styles to choose from. First off, we have the 11 and 13 inch Yoga versions that give you 360 degrees of performance. You literally flip the screen all the way over the top and you’re all set. Then there is the IdeaTab Lynx which offers a detachable touch screen for you to simply grab and go or use with the keyboard dock and finally, the ThinkPad Twist in which the screen pivots on the base providing four fantastic positions for use (www.lennovo.com).

Each of these new marvels are packed with great storage, long battery life, Windows 8 compatibility, and lightweight portability. Are you ready for a new convertible?

ITS 10th Anniversary Trivia… You mean the world to us. that’s why we are running this Anniversary Trivia to give a little something back to those of you who are avid readers of our newsletter and ITS fans. Take a peak at the following trivia and give us a call with the right answer as soon as possible. The 10th person to call with the right answer will receive a FREE 1 hour massage from Massage Envy so you can relax and treat yourself for our 10th Anniversary.

Contact Us with the right answer and we will mail you your prize!

In present times, businesses are required to do something new and special in order to thrive in the midst of severe competition, both locally and globally. Check out these great tips to outsource tasks for yourself and your company.

Reducing the cost of doing business has become the topmost priority. Since the benefits of information technology have become ubiquitous today, outsourcing has assisted in developing new global business trend. Time consuming tasks like trip planning, bookkeeping, research, scheduling, and marketing calls can be delegated and completed while you focus on larger tasks.

Outsourcing offers businesses more traction. For instance, managers can easily get the things done in faster, better and cheaper through contractors living in another part of the world. It has helped to bridge the gap between the east and west. Countries like India, Bangladesh and Philippines have done a tremendous job to produce technically skilled manpower in order to put momentum in the businesses of the developed world.

Tips for outsourcing your work or personal tasks. There are a variety of resources online to help you find the right freelancer or assistant. Look for a reputable organization that has a history of outstanding service, offers reviews on their website, and tests for their freelance workers to show their skills like ODesk.com. As for personal assistants, consider using a virtual assistant staffing firm that does background checks and monitors their agents before you offer up your personal information.

A little extra time goes a long way. Business owners are now concentrating solely on important things like strategic planning and attracting potential customers. They are confidently putting the responsibilities of doing the simple day-today activities into the capable hands of freelancers or personal assistants.

Sometimes data isn’t pretty. Does your customer management system dump all of your information out in an undesirable format? Half of mail merging is the data you use. Clean it up in Excel to find and correct discrepancies before you merge.

1. Find errors. Open your data file, click on a column header to highlight an entire column of information, then choose “Sort & Filter” in the “Editing” section of the “Home” tab, and click “Sort A to Z”. This will list your data in alphabetical order showing you entries with missing data or characters at the top or bottom of the list. Use the “Expand the Selection” option so each row of information is sorted as an entire record. Carefully review the data and make any necessary corrections.

2. Alphabetize and number records. If you would like to number your recipients, sort your list by company name or first name from A to Z and insert a new column labeled “Key”. Then click in the first cell, type the number 1, and double-click the small black box in the lower right hand corner of the cell. This will auto fill the column with the number you typed. Then click on the white “Auto Fill Options” box located in the lower left corner of the columns filled and click “Fill Series”. This will fill the column with the numbers you need in sequential order for your mailing.

3. Use the Mail Merge Wizard in Word to complete your work. Open or create a document to merge and click on the “Mailings” tab, click on “Start Mail Merge”, and select the “Step-by-step Mail Merge Wizard”. The Wizard will prompt you to set your preferences from start to finish.