February 2012 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

Did you get your flu shot this year? How about your computer? At Computer St. Louis, we know how important it is to maintain the health and safety of your computers and software. Virus protection is perhaps the most important aspect of computer ownership. No matter what you use your computer for, it is vital to use some sort of virus protection to protect your valuable information. Strong virus protection has always been an important consideration, but perhaps it has never been more important than it is today. Spyware potentially steals credit card and bank account numbers, passwords, and personal information. Spyware can take over your Internet browser and pollutes your computer with pop up after pop up.

Also, no matter what type of virus protection you use, it is vital to keep it updated. While in the past updating virus protection software once per week was the standard, these days it is essential that the virus protection software be updated once a day if not hourly. However, most solutions out there will do this automatically for you. Don’t let your computer get sick with a virus! Stop all this with a checkup from Computer St. Louis!

 Click here for the Febuary 2012 Newsletter...

January 2012 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

Thanks again to everyone that attended our Ribbon Cutting.  We had a great turnout and couldn’t be more excited about starting the new year in our new space.  2012 is here and I hope you had a great close to this past year. There were plenty of challenges to overcome in 2011, but now we are headed into a new year and can begin to execute on our business plan and strategies for this year.  If enhancing productivity is one of your goals, it’s a lot simpler than you think. Begin with what is working. Don’t fix what is not broken; simply keep it up and fine tune it. This simple idea will ensure that you continue to get results in those areas.  At Computer St. Louis, we specialize in work flow management, business process analysis and custom technology applications.  We help businesses such as yours cut down on expenses, streamline employee productivity and facilitate growth.  Thank you again for the continual support and feel free to contact us today so you can draw closer to reaching your goal through technology.

 Click here for the January 2012 Newsletter...

December 2011 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

It’s official, we are settled in our new location. A big thank you to all our employees and volunteers that helped with the moving process. Please join us on December 16th for our Grand Reopening/Ribbon Cutting. We’ll have plenty of refreshments and some exciting giveaways, not to mention a couple Senators and the Mayor present. Thank you again to everyone and feel free to stop by anytime for a tour of our new location. We are excited to serve you in this new space!

 Click here for the December 2011 Newsletter...

November 2011 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

By now you’ve probably heard, flooding in Thailand is wreaking havoc on hard disk drive manufacturers. While vendors are expected to keep their most valuable customers - computer system manufacturers -- supplied with inventory, the consumer retail market will likely be hit hard by shortages and price increases. Two industry research firms, IHS iSuppli and IDC, have predicted that the overall market shortage due to factory flooding in Thailand will reach 25% to 28% over the next six months. The largest producer of hard drives, Western Digital is expected to be hit the hardest as IDC predicts that up to 75% of its production will be temporarily shut down. So what does this mean for you? Not much, just a slight price increase. The more important underlining issue is Disaster Recovery, do you have a plan in place? A sound disaster recovery / business continuity plan is essential to protect the well-being of an organization. This cannot really be over emphasized... yet many businesses still side step the issue or hold plans which are clearly out of date or inadequate. Make sure your data is safe and you have a disaster plan in place, there are plenty of tools to help you reach this goal. Feel free to reach out to us to see our disaster recovery plan or talk out some ideas with us.

 Click here for the November 2011 Newsletter...

October 2011 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

It’s official, we are moving our offices to a new larger location to satisfy our current needs and to facilitate more growth in the future. Mid-November our new address will we be at 9282 Watson Road, just 1.3 miles East from where we sit currently. We couldn’t be more excited about the opportunities that this new space brings, as well as optimizations we get to make by having the opportunity to redo anything and everything we can imagine.

There is also a lot of planning that is involved with moving not only with the physical layout, but also the IT based logistics of servers and phones to make sure that we don’t miss a beat for our clients. This will be time consuming for us in the next 45 days or so, but it will be well worth it when it is all done.

Stay tuned for more updates about our new location and the move. And as always, thank you for all your support and trust and we look forward to serving you in our new location.

 Click here for the October 2011 Newsletter...

September 2011 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

Everyone is looking for cost savings these days in their businesses, especially monthly re-occurring costs, like payroll, utilities, etc. One way that we have found to help our clients reduce costs is through our relationships with Internet Service Providers. Searching for a high speed internet provider in your area can be challenging. Whether you’ll looking for new service or wanting to audit your existing service, which we recommend doing yearly. Not only do you need to research the different types of delivery options – satellite internet, wireless or mobile internet, DSL, cable internet, fiber-optic connectivity – but then you need to find out if they provide service to your business. There are a myriad of internet service providers (ISPs) that you have to sort through. Many times, finding a high speed internet provider involves hours of research, looking at the different types of broadband internet connectivity, identifying ISPs that might serve your area, and then calling the companies to find out about service areas and pricing and package options, asking: Do you provide high speed internet service in my area? This process can be both lengthy and frustrating. Not to mention you’ll want a company that has the support behind them.

That is where Computer St. Louis can help: we partner with multiple ISPs that serve in Missouri so we can find you the best, most reliable service as well the most economical solution. Again, teleco audits are a great way to make sure you’re in the right product for your business needs. Often times getting in the right solution can not only save you the headache of internet down time but also save hundreds of dollars. Give us a call if you would like to start your audit today!

 Click here for the September 2011 Newsletter...

August 2011 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

Missouri's Tax Free Weekend for back-to-school supplies runs from August 5-7, 2011 and gives you the opportunity to purchase computers and equipment under $3500 dollars without paying state, county, or city taxes. It’s extremely importantly to keep in mind that not all cities and counties in Missouri participate in the annual tax free weekend event. Crestwood and Sunset Hills are some of the few surrounding communities to participate this year. So make sure to stop by for all your computer needs, where our truly knowledgeable staff can help put you in the right computer for your needs and at the right cost with our guaranteed competitive prices. Again our hours are Monday – Friday 8am-7pm, Saturday 9am-6pm, and Sunday 10am-5pm (special hours Sunday for the event). For more information please give us a call (314) 821-3237.

 Click here for the August 2011 Newsletter...

July 2011 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the impacts of a disaster can result in loss of or lack of access to data, applications, and work facilities. Hurricane Katrina's devastation of the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005 impacted countless businesses, from retail stores and hotels to major corporations. Those with disaster recovery plans in place fared much better than those without such contingency plans.

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June 2011 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

Is a Remote Workforce the Right Solution for Your Business?
used with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Site

Ask yourself the following questions to evaluate whether a remote workforce suits your business.

1. Are you in a client-service business?
2. Do your employees spend more than 50 percent of their time at client locations?
3. Do most of your employees have laptop computers?
4. Do you have employees who travel frequently as part of their jobs?

 Click here for the June 2011 Newsletter...

May 2011 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

7 Reasons Small Businesses Switch to Cloud Based Software used with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center.

Small business owners often have big dreams. Whether that dream is to keep your business small or to grow it into a big business, you want your business to run as smoothly as possible - every step of the way. You might start your business as a sole proprietor with just a laptop and a few software programs. As your business grows and adds employees, you have to start thinking about security, backup, remote access, and coordination of effort.

 Click here for the May 2011 Newsletter...

April 2011 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

Carole Martin has a marketing expert upon whom she relies for sharp ideas and provocative sales angles.

What's interesting about this is that the two have never met face to face. Their business relationship is truly "virtual."

"It takes many skills and personality types to run a business, even a small business. You really can't do it alone," says Martin, a Burlingame, Calif., writer and coach. "It's a strange world we live in."

 Click here for the April 2011 Newsletter...

March 2011 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

What do you consider when you're buying new business software? How well the product addresses the needs of your organization? Naturally. The cost per seat? Sure. The ease of administration and maintenance? Of course. The tax implications of the purchase?

If you're not thinking about taxes, you should be. The green-eyeshade gang in your finance department will thank you for it, and heaven knows we could all use a friend or two in finance. So, sharpen your pencil and grab your abacus, and let's take a look at some of the tax implications of software licensing.

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February 2011 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

Your laptop was built for doing work away from the office. Making sure your self-discipline comes along for the trip is something else.

Many business owners and executives associate an office environment with the will to work. As a result, they fret that they—or their employees—may be less than diligent when working from home or a hotel room

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January 2011 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

Companies today have too much information. What companies don't have enough of is intelligence - and no, we're not talking about your staff. Business intelligence refers to the insights you discover when you turn all that data into something that your employees can use to make smart business decisions.

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December 2010 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

VARs have a variety of perceptions about them. Some of these perceptions are right on. Some of them completely miss the mark. The truth is the right VAR can help most businesses more than they realize. Can the right VAR help you?

Technology is critical to run almost every business today, and in most cases, can offer both competitive and strategic value to your business. The problem is many businesses don’t think about their PCs, printers or servers as providing a competitive advantage or as strategic business tools.

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November 2010 - Virtual Advisor Newsletter

The importance of the Internet to the daily operation of businesses and organizations has increased significantly over the past few years. Most companies have one or more critical business functions that depend entirely on the speed and availability of their Internet connection. Ensuring a reliable and fast Internet connection has become an almost universal priority for companies.

Unfortunately, many new recreational (or non-business) uses of the Internet have been developed that compete directly against a company’s desire for a fast Internet connection. Streaming music or audio, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, on-line banking, fantasy football, among others, consume the bandwidth intended to run critical business applications. Recent studies have shown that even though bandwidth has increased substantially in recent years, actual Internet speed experienced by companies today is more comparable to the Internet speed of five years ago – a time when connections were smaller and slower.

 Click here for the November 2010 Newsletter...

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