TCG Computer Services Limited

The end of an ERA

2009-07-24T02:13:00.000-07:00

The end of a very nice ERA has finally arrived, With effect from 1st August 2009 we will be moving our blog over to its new home on our own website, which is www.tcgcomputerservices.com/blog

So this means with immediate effect we will no longer update this blog.. so please update your bookmarks accordingly.

Good by Blogspot .. so long and farewell.

2009-07-10T09:51:00.001-07:00

I am still in the office .. Just finalizing my day before I go on holiday next week.

Best Customer Services in the World

2009-07-09T10:43:00.000-07:00

So just what is Good Customer Serivce ?

Being available when your customers need you (even half way across the world) ?
Going the extra mile for your customers ?
Always willing to help and Polite ?

Well of course its all of the above..

So for the last year or so I have experienced this kind of 1st rate customer service myself from one of our suppliers. They are always willing to go the extra mile, ALWAYS polite and willing to help and their staff never seem to sleep (I can contact them any time of the day and I get a response) .. The company I am talking about is Reflexion. (www.reflexion.net) they provide AntiSpam solutions for Small Businesses and we use their services ourselves at TCG.

Reflexion is one of the fastest and best products available for Anti Spam and my customers all love it. If you are a small business consultant and offer IT services to your customers you should really look at Reflexion if you have not done so already..

You can contact either Scott Barlow (scott.tcg@reflexion.net) or Karen Guarino (karen.tcg@reflexion.net) both of who I know would be delighted to hear from you.. If you do speak to them as a result of reading this blog please tell them I sent you .

As SMB Consultants, we really can a leaf from the Book of Reflexion not only do they have a first rate product, but their service is the best in the world

AND before you ask.. No I am not being paid to write this blog. I am happy to do it as service like that deserves writing about

Microsoft EULA

2009-06-09T04:30:00.000-07:00

So today we were talking with a customer, about using Microsoft Office on multiple machines.

The first place to turn was the "EULA - End User Licence Agreement". But like any good customer, they don't keep these kinds of things. :-) .. At least some of them keep the Media though :-)

So never being one to admit defeat I headed to my favourite search engine, which incidentally is fast becoming the new Microsoft BING.com (they have some awesome pictures on there)

Anyway, needless to say, with very little searching a link pops up which refers to the Microsoft License terms website, via the following link

This is a very useful site for looking up Eula's and a great site to keep in Your favourites.

Engaging With Vendors

2009-05-22T00:00:00.001-07:00

So yesterday I was in Birmingham, UK, for the Channel Expo 09 event. This is yearly "trade show" event where Vendors and Disties come together to exhibit thier wares to the Channel.

This year, the show was the smallest I have ever seen, in the all the years that I have been attending . Could this be due to the downturn in the economy or just that there is no interest in this kind of show any more ? Although, speaking with a number of the Exhibitors such as Zenith, Kaseya and Ingram Micro, they all said how valuable the show was to them and how many leads they generated, despite it being small and very quiet on the second day.

One of the great things I enjoyed about the show being small was that there is a great oppourunity to really engage with the vendors and have a proper conversation without feeling rushed that you have to move on to the next vendor in order to get it all covered in the day. So personally I think that the smaller it is, the more value you get out of it

As well as engaging with Vendors and Disties, attending the show was a great oppourtunity to meet with my fellow peers in the SBS Space, some who I know well, such as Richard Tubb from Netlink-IT and Simon Aronowitz from Support Lounge

So if you have been wondering about these shows, I would say that although most of the updates are available on the Internet, and you can get the latest information from thier websites, nothing beats meeting the vendors and peers face to face .

Next year (2010) the show is moving to London, which I assume is to make it more central and easier to get to for people in the South .. If you have not been to the show before, this will be a good oppourtunity to visit for the day.

Windows 7

2009-05-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Microsoft officially released the "Release Candidate" of Windows 7 which is Microsoft's latest operating system, which is going to replace the much maligned Vista Operating System.

I have personally been using Windows 7 on my everyday laptop since the early BETA days and I can honestly say I am very impressed. Usually BETA products are very buggy and unstable however that is not the case with Windows 7 it just seems to work brilliantly. Windows 7 certainly seems to work better and faster than Vista, and although I do have a highly spec'd machine, I have heard that even on slower machiens, it tends to work very well. (I will be testing it on old hardware this long weekend )

One of the great things about Windows 7 is its support for older applications. All the applications that are designed to run on Vista just seem to work and are actually a lot faster on Win 7 than on Vista. Windows 7 has something called "XP Compatibility" mode, which makes applications for XP run better under Windows 7 as well.

Windows 7 has lower hardware requirements than Vista, which is good news for most customers because they dont have to spend money buying new hardware when it comes to upgrading and therefore, when Windows 7 is fully released would make it a very viable upgrade path for those customers who are looking to running the latest and greatest.

If you would like to learn more about some of the great features of this truly wonderful Operating system, why not visit the offical Microsoft site now which is here. Once on the site, you will be able to download the Release Candidate and then install it on a spare machine to try out for yourselves.

If you would like to test out Windows 7, for your organisation, or you just want more information on what it can do for you, then give us a call or email us, and we would be happy to help.

Windows 7 Readiness Day

2009-05-05T00:30:00.000-07:00

Please Join us for the Windows 7 Virtual Partner Readiness Day on May 7th, 2009

Location - http://www.windowspartnerreadinessday.com/index2.html
Time - 8:00am-2:45pm (Pacific Time) 3:00-9:30pm (Universal Time)
Registration - The event is FREE, register here and be notified the day prior with the link to the live feed of the event.

At this event you will have the opportunity to learn about Windows 7, the next-generation operating system from Microsoft. Online attendees can take advantage of the readiness and marketing tools made available specifically for partners to help prepare for the Windows 7 business opportunity.

Windows 7 Partner Readiness Day will provide the resources you need to become a Windows 7 expert and help better prepare you for customer conversations. Microsoft executives and product experts will be on hand to answer all your questions and to provide you with a look at the following Microsoft product strategies:
Industry trends and how Windows 7 will affect the marketplace
The business opportunities that Windows 7 brings for partners
An overview of the key steps and programs to get ready for Windows 7

Thought Leaders Converged On Dallas

2009-05-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

HTG Summit, the first annual gathering of thought leaders from across the small business technology community recently wrapped up and Small Business IT Radio has the inside scoop on what happened in Dallas. Join Stuart Crawford from Bulletproof InfoTech along side the leadership of Heartland Tech Group with members and other thought leaders as we review the week in Dallas.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/smb/2009/05/01/Thought-Leaders-Converged-On-Dallas

HTG Peer Groups

2009-04-22T04:17:00.000-07:00

Last week, 20th April 2009, saw the launch of the first annual, HTG Summit in Dallas, TX.

So what exactly is HTG Peer Groups
HTG Peer groups are a group of IT professionals who get together and discuss best practices with peers in a non-competitive environment. We Discuss best practices around subjects such as Marketing and financials. The groups are divided up into 12 companies who meet on a quarterly basis on a 2 day session, and monthly meetings via the phone. There are currently around 19 groups worldwide, with our group, HTG11 based in the UK .

As a small but growing business, I learn a lot from the other members of the group, who have been where I am and have gone past a lot of the hurdles I am just crossing now. For ages I have been running as a "Life Style" business. Since joining HTG I have been taking my business much more seriously, thanks to the advice of my peers, I have already started to see the benefits by executing what I have learnt.

Whilst we were at the Summit, Aaron Booker, from Varvid.com produced a video about our group and has graciously given us permission to use it. To see more videos from other members at the HTG summit, as well as other events check out http://www.varvid.com/

HTG have adopted the Famous Thomas Edison saying of "Vision without Execution, is Hallucination".

To find out more about HTG Peer groups, please go to http://www.htgmembers.com/ or alternatively contact me at chris@tcgcomputerservices.com

Microsoft blocks Office 2010 public beta

2009-04-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

According to the PC Advisor Magazine Microsoft will not make the Office 2010 Beta publically available as before.

You can read more about it here http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=114365

AntiVirus Software

2009-04-03T01:15:00.001-07:00

On Thursday night I attended the monthly Thames Valley SBSC group, which is held at the Symantec Offices in Reading. On Thursday , we had the privilege of hearing James Baker from Symantec talk about the SEP (Symantec EndPoint Protection) products.

Of course I have always been very sceptical about some of the AntiVirus offerings coming from Symantec, especially the "Norton" product range. The first thing I do when I see Norton Internet Security is do "Add/Remove" as I constantly have issues with it, usually I install something else, like AVG.

However I listened with intent about what the product could do and spoke to some of the other members, during the Pizza Break, about their experiences with the product. Most of the comments were that its a pretty good product. Of the 3 or 4 people I spoke to all the comments were very positive.

I have been looking into changing the AntiVirus products I supply and install for my customers, which is currently a mixture of AVG and Trend. This talk by Symantec could not have come at a better time,.

I have now signed up to the Symantec Partner program, whereby you can download a trial copy of SEP. I have installed this on one of my test servers in the lab, and I must say, I am very impressed with the product.

Along with all the other Symatec products, offered by us to our customers, such as BackupExec. I think we will soon have our clients "SYMATECISED"

For more information on their partner program, visit http://www.symantec.com/partners/

IAMCP presents U.K Chapter Re-Launch Meeting

2009-03-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

Thought I would just to a very quick post on the blog about this. Its the IAMCP UK Chapter Re-Launch.. I am a member of this organization and thought it would be worthwhile for those who are interested in attending to come along to and see what its all about .

More information on this event can be found here

Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyser

2009-03-04T07:42:00.000-08:00

So I have been having a number of issues with emails synchronising to my phone, and so in order to find out what was going on and why it was not synchronising, I called on my peers for help, and I was pointed to this tool https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/Default.aspx

The tool is called the Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyser.. It simulates the steps take when connecting from your phone to the exchange server and tells you where the error is .. Its still in BETA at the moment but looks like its a very cool tool to keep in the arsenal.

Thanks to Ian Watkins for referring this tool. More information is available on his blog at http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/ianwatkins/archive/2009/03/02/testing-connectivity-to-exchange-server.aspx

SBS 2008 BluePrint

2009-03-02T08:17:00.000-08:00

So today I had the great privilege of meeting up with Harry Brelsford of SMB Nation, while he was in London on the way to South Africa. Being a South African my self I was particularly interested in his trip to Cape Town where he will ride the Argus Cycle Tour . Good Luck Harry..

Whilst I was with Harry this afternoon, we discussed the UK SMB market and what a great opportunity there is for small businesses to thrive by providing SBS2008 to their customers, even during this down turned economy. We also discussed how groups like HTG can really help small businesses grow in this economy by leveraging the skills of their peers and learning best practises from each other. For more information on HTG, why not visit www.htgmembers.com or contact me and I will make sure that you get in touch with the right person.

The main reason for my meeting with Harry was to pick up my personally signed copy of his new book, Small Business Server 2008, Blueprint which has now finally been released. This book is available at http://smbnation.com/Publications/Books/SBS2008Blueprint/tabid/88/Default.aspx. Having just read the first few pages of this book, I can see that it will be another brilliant book to add to my ever expanding collection of SMBNation Press Books.

Do you Twitter

2009-02-27T05:03:00.000-08:00

For some time now, at TCG we have started using Twitter, as a way to communicate with our Peers, Collegues and friends.

So what exactly is Twitter ? Twitter is a Social networking service which allows you to send updates (called Tweets) to your friends about what you are currently doing, anyone who is following you can read those tweets.. Twitter is known as micro-blogging, as it only allows you to send text-based which are 140 characters in length.

There are a number of celebrities who are using Twitter such as Stephen Fry and Johnathan Ross

Check out this website for a list of other celebrities who are using Twitter http://tech.uk.msn.com/features/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=14064863

Of course if you would like to know what we are doing on a regular basis, why not follow us on Twitter . See you there..

Document your Network Instantly

2009-02-20T01:44:00.000-08:00

As a network consultant, I am always looking for great ways to document my clients network. One the best toolkits I have used in a long time, besides Karl Palachuck's network documentation workbook is something called SYDI (Script Your Documentation Instantly).

At the most basic level SYDI consists of a collection of scripts which collects information from your servers and networks, then writes the data to a report. It automatically creates a word document with information about the server. Although this is a very simple tool, its one of the most powerful that I have ever seen.

Take a trip over to their website on http://www.sydiproject.com/ to have a look at the tool

Convert from Vmware to Hyper-V

2009-01-25T15:26:00.000-08:00

Recently I have been using Virtualization a lot more and whilst I am still undecided whether to go down the VMWARE or Microsoft (Hyper-V) route, when I started, I used VMWARE quite a lot. I have a huge amount of machines built and configured using VMWARE, and so I have been looking for a way to convert the VMWARE (VMDK) files to a Hyper-V (VHD) without using the Microsoft's System Center Virtual Machine Manager. That way I will have machines in both platforms which are configured exactly the same way.

So I was scouring the internet tonight and came up with a brilliant tool that seems to do a very nice job. The tool can be obtained by visiting the VM Toolkit site . They have a bunch of other useful information as well. To download the file go to http://vmtoolkit.com/files/default.aspx.

Free eBook on Virtualization

2009-01-25T05:33:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has a free Virtualization eBook which is available for download. Anyone who is interested can download it here.

Some of the areas that it covers are :

Microsoft’s Virtualization Solution
Server Virtualization—Hyper-V
Managing Virtualization—VMM 2008
Application Virtualization—App-V
Presentation Virtualization—Terminal Services
Desktop Virtualization—MED-V and VDI
User State Virtualization
Building a Virtualization Infrastructure

ConnectWise

2009-01-20T01:34:00.000-08:00

Last week I had the great pleasure of spending some time with the folks from ConnectWise at the HTG 11 Meeting in Birmingham, England. Arnie Bellini (CEO) and Jeannine Edwards came over from the US to do a tour of some of the user groups in the UK as well as talk at our HTG11 Meeting.

I have been using the ConnectWise PSA software in my organization for a few months now and it has really changed the way I do business. I am no longer leaking time, by forgetting how much time to invoice customers because ConnectWise keeps track of it all . The Customer Satisfaction levels have increased, because now they are able to send us an email with their problems, which get tracked in the ConnectWise Ticketing system so they know exactly what is happening with the call every step of the way.

One of the greatest things about ConnectWise which differs dramatically from their competitors is that ConnectWise is and IT company in their own right. They have designed the product around their own IT business, and so they understand our business and know the pains that we go through.

Before deciding on ConnectWise, I looked at competitive products, but did not find them to be a good fit for my business for a number of reasons, but mainly because they did not have the option to host the software in-house and not as feature rich as ConnectWise.
If you are looking at PSA applications in your own business I would wholeheartedly recommend ConnectWise, after all when last did you see the CEO of the competitors being interested in what is happening with their partners businesses, no matter how small they are. We are not a large company with a large number of licences but Arnie, was interested in how I am using the product and how it is helping my business. Their visit to the UK, really shows that they are committed to this UK market.
For more information about ConnectWise why not visit www.connectwise.com and have a look a demo..

If you decide on the product, remember to tell them Chris sent you. :-)

Introducing the Macbook Wheel

2009-01-10T09:08:00.000-08:00

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Don't Miss A Great Microsoft 5w/50 Webinar

2009-01-08T23:52:00.000-08:00

Three HTG members have teamed up to present some great ideas on positioning your company for success when everyone seems to be tightening their belts.

Microsoft 5w50 Webinar - Maximizing Success in Troubled Times
January 12th - 9:00 AM Pacific

- Karl Palachuk, KPEnterprises Business Consulting, Inc.
- Scott Mallet, Network Technology Solutions
- Tavis Patterson, TAZ Networks

Register at:
https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=259605

Please join me and two successful SMB Consultants as we explore some of their great ideas for what may be a tough year ahead. This is part of Microsoft's 5w50 seminar series.

Scott does a great deal of training in his business. We'll talk to him about how Microsoft Training can be a major boost for your business in the year ahead.

Tavis has a unique approach to sales promotion. He committed to a program a few months ago. We'll check in to find out what he learned and what lessons he has for us in the months ahead.

Karl will talk about some ways to improve cash flow and safeguard against sudden turn-arounds.

What's in a name

2009-01-02T10:21:00.000-08:00

So for those people who have seen any of my posts on the forums that I frequent, you would have noticed I generally use the log in of "Tegwin". Many times I have people ask me the reason for this, so I figured why not write a blog and explain the reasoning behind this.

Well, I was born in a place called Durban, which is on the West Coast of South Africa in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

The official language in KwaZulu-Natal is Zulu which is spoken by the Zulu people who inhabit the area. The official Zulu work for Durban is "eThekwini", which loosely translated, means "The Bay".

For the last 11 years, I have been living in the UK, which of course is an English speaking country and so I decided to anglicize the word, hence "Tegwin" which sounds a lot more English and therefore easier to pronounce.

So there you have it !!!

Below is a Map of South Africa, with Durban highlighted on the Map

The Traveling Cooler...

2008-12-31T00:11:00.000-08:00

As the year draws to an end, I thought I would have a bit of fun, with this being last post of the year.

Do you have a cooler bag ? Does it come with you on Holidays ? Well my good friend Stuart Selbst has a traveling cooler bag, its called Otto Taskler. Otto travels everywhere with Stuart.

Otto has his very own blog, and you can follow him on his travels around the world. If you would like to see what Otto gets up to on his travels, click here to enter his blog.

We would like to take this oppourtunity to wish everyone a very happy and prosperous New Year.

Dave Sobel's Virtualization Tour

2008-12-29T13:31:00.000-08:00

Dave Sobel, the king of Virtualization in the SMB space is coming to the Uk (well actually only England) to do a tour of the user groups and talk about Virtualization. If you want to come and see him, you would be more than welcome..

As far as I know the dates are:

Monday 12th January 2009 - London SBS User Group - Contact Ian Watkins for more information on dates and times

Tuesday 13th January 2009 - Thames Valley SBS User Group - Contact Mike Bryett for more information

Wednesday 14th January 2009 - Thames Valley SBS User Group - Contact Richard Tubb for more information

If you would like to see a video that Dave did in Chicago on Virtualization, which I attended, you can get the DVD here http://www.smbbooks.com/products/dvd_virtualization.htm

Christmas is a time for giving

2008-12-16T08:20:00.000-08:00

This year, instead of sending out Christmas cards to our customers, we have decided to give money to charity instead and will contiune to do so thoughout the course of next year.

We have elected to give money to the "Make a Wish" foundation which is a very worthwhile charity , you can check out their website here http://www.make-a-wish.org.uk/

Look out for further information next year when we will be lauching news of our charity initative for Make a Wish, this is what we call the "50/50" challenge. intrigued ? ... More information to follow in 2009.

We would like to take this oppourtunity to wish all our customers, partners and friends a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous new year.

XP AntiVirus 2009 now AntiVirus Plus

2008-12-09T00:23:00.000-08:00

The Antivirus 2009 that we have come to "hate" so much, which has caused problems for a lot of our customers, is back.. This time is wearing a new hat.. Have a look at this article...

http://www.nogeekleftbehind.com/2008/12/08/antivirus-xp-now-antivirus-plus/

Dont Say I didn't warn you

SMB Nation Europe

2008-12-05T15:45:00.000-08:00

Today was the SMB Nation Europe Event at Microsoft's London office. The legendary Harrybbb (Harry Brelsford) and Jeff Middleton, came out to present at the event.

The format of the day was slightly different to the main SMB Nation events held stateside, as this was only a 1 day event, whereas the US events are 2 days.

Harry Started the day with a very interesting talk on Blue Ocean /Red Ocean, entitled "How SBS 2008 Saved the Economy".

After Lunch was another very interesting talk about Essential Business Server (EBS) Deployment and Migration which was provided by Robert Adie, MCSE, MCTS : LCS, OCS, EBS, Hyper-V, CCNA is IT Director for leading Scottish IT and telecommunications solution provider Digital IP. With 10 years experience working with SmallBusiness Server and involvement in EBS for over two years, Robert bringsa breadth and depth of knowledge on both the technical and businesschallenges surrounding SME IT. Having implemented the first productionEBS deployment outside the US and two others since, Robert will sharehis hints and tips for a successful deployment and discuss some of thepitfalls.

Robert provided an overview of the new Essential Business Serverproduct, discussed planning and hardware selection and then discussed ind etail the unique EBS installation process. Migration and deployments were also covered, along with some insights from his experience in the field with real world deployments.

Up next was Jeff Middleton, who did 2 sessions around Swing Migration, as ever the sessions were delivered brilliantly !!! If you would like to know more about Jeffs Swing Migration, why not head over to www.sbsmigration.com

After all the presentations for the day, we all headed to the PUB, to consume copious amounts of alcohol. After the drinking at the pub was over, and all the part-timers went thier own seperate ways, a few of us went out for dinner, those present were Vijay, Richard, Linda (aka GG), and Raja, of course a lot more alchol was consumed .. if you would like to see some pictures of evening, why not head over to Richard Tubb's blog at http://www.tubblog.co.uk/

Birmingham

2008-11-28T09:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I came up to Sunny Birmingham to spend that day with my fellow HTG'er, Richard Tubb of Netlink-IT. I am in a great position now where the business is growing and who better to learn from , than someone who has done it already. Richard very kindly gave up his time to spend the time with me and show me his business processes..I learnt an aweful lot about how he did things and how his business has grown. During the day, we also met up with fellow HTG11 member, James Cash as well as Rob Savage and we went out for a "business lunch"

Richard and his partner Linda, took me out for dinner to one of the local curry houses, where we met up with one of Richard's friends, Tim Carr. Birmingham has some great curry houses, and the biggest ever cheese NAAN bread I have ever seen.. In fact it was the only ever Cheese Naan Bread I have seen. They do some crazy things in Birmingham.

All in all it was a really good day and I have some great things to take home from it