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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

It's 1984 and George Orwell was right

All the latest revelations from the deep, dark world of the spies in the United States government has made me rethink many of my assumptions about Internet privacy.

Here's what has changed. We are in the era of Big Data with all the cheap storage and fast networks proliferating around the world. Combine that with the Patriot Act, the War on Terror, FISA courts and the NSA monitoring "foreign" communication and we now have a terrifying witches brew of capabilities that could make the US government come after any one of us when we least expect it.

A decade ago I was unconcerned about anyone monitoring my daily activities in the Internet. I figured with all the trillions of data packets flying around the Internet, someone would have to be particularly interested in me to find out what I was doing. I assumed that if I was the target of a criminal investigation, then a law enforcement agency could get a subpoena and my ISP or email provider would give up the goods. I assumed that without a subpoena, all of the bits I generated on the Internet would fly off into the proverbial bit bucket when I was done with them.

Now, it would be a mistake to think that the government needs a subpoena to check up on me. What seems to have happened over the last 10 years is the government has developed the ability to collect large amounts of real-time data from the Internet and store it in huge data warehouses. They may be scanning real-time for keywords or nefarious activities, but the real scary part is that they could go back and see what data was going back and forth to Google or Yahoo at any point in time.

That means that if I were to come under the scrutiny of the government for any reason, it is possible that they could go back and look at traffic attributed to me and look for anything even slightly illegal or improper.

What does that really mean for me and you today? We don't know because all of the Government's spying capabilities have yet to be revealed. We have to assume that we are only starting to get the facts. So, it's probably worse than what we know now.

If you are concerned about the government collecting your Internet data, what can you do? I don't have any answers yet, but there are implications for how we treat cloud computing and whether one really wants to put your entire life online. Encryption may help, but that may also be a red flag in the data stream that just makes the government more interested in your data.

For me, I am willing to wait for more information before I recommend pulling back from the Internet or discontinuing the use of cloud-based services. Hopefully, democracy will work in the United States and we will get some public debate on this subject that may translate into further disclosures. I would like to see a rollback of some of the legislation that has permitted these abuses, such as the Patriot Act.

But, things will never the same. My naivete about the government's capabilities has been replaced the realization that while they probably aren't watching me today, they can go see what I have been doing for the last five years with the click of a mouse.

In other words, it is 1984 and George Orwell was right.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Windows 8 Is Bad For Business, and Microsoft

Microsoft is in deep trouble, and if you run a business or enterprise you should be concerned. They have apparently suffered a fatal case of iPad Envy. In a failed attempt to thwart the iPad, the momentum of Microsoft's bad decisions now threatens to destabilize the 30-year-old Windows ecosystem.

The short version of this post is that business and enterprise computer buyers have no reason to prefer Windows 8 over Windows 7. There are very few new features worth chasing, and the training and support costs required to roll out Windows 8 don't make sense.

Berkeley Logic customers should avoid buying Windows 8 computers for their businesses. Customers should continue to order computers from resellers like Berkeley Logic, since we can get new Windows 7 computers from the big distributors until the end of 2014. Online shoppers can find Windows 7 computers today at Amazon.com and directly from the Dell, HP, Acer and Lenovo websites.

This is a change in course for me. Throughout my career I had regularly been a proponent of buying the latest versions of Microsoft OS and applications. But, the problems are so serious now that I strongly advise against Windows 8 at this time. It is disconcerting to me to break a decades-long recommendation because now I cannot give a good prediction of what my customers will be buying for IT solutions five years from now.

Microsoft’s reaction to Apple's iPad tablet computer is what is killing them. The three-year-old iPad has the momentum to replace Windows as a preferred platform for IT in the home. Only Google's Android, and its cousin Amazon Kindle Fire, has gained headway into the home tablet market.

While its days in the home may be numbered, Windows still matters plenty in business and enterprises like governments, schools and nonprofits. The world has spent the last twenty years investing trillions of US$ into IT, much of it going into Windows clients and servers. This investment has yielded tremendous productivity gains in businesses and enterprises of every size. There are now tens of trillions of US$ in global and local economic activity being facilitated by Windows computers every year.

Despite this success in the enterprise, the PC industry in is crisis over a lack of growth. In the last decade the PC  industry went from a growth industry to a commodity durable goods industry. Except for China, India and Africa, it seems like of the rest of the world has bought all the PCs they will need. Today the PC industry is all about replacements and incremental improvements. We aren't even sure if next-generation IT will even need a PC or if those emerging markets will make do with mobile platforms.

Even if the PC market is not growing, IT departments and small enterprises are happy with Windows as a platform, even as a desktop client. Even with flat growth, the PC industry is huge, at over $800B in revenue and 361 million units shipped in 2011 according to IDC (see this Guardian article for a great analysis of IDC research). The problem is the PC industry isn't growing in North America, Europe and Japan. This is a problem for the big hardware makers because Wall Street and investors don't care about industries without a growth trajectory.

The fact the PC market isn't growing can explain why we are four months into the Windows 8 era, and this new OS has barely made a dent in the IT world. Unfortunately, the lack of adoption could be due to a bigger problem. In an effort to appease itself Microsoft has made Windows 8 unattractive to their core audience: enterprise IT departments.

How did all this happen? It started when Microsoft took much too long to react to the quantum leaps in touch and mobile computing made by Apple and Google in the late 2000's. Android, iPhone and the iPad quickly made Microsoft's phone and touch solutions seem pathetic. Instead of reacting to touch and mobile innovations like Bill Gates reacted to Netscape's Internet innovations in the 1990's, Microsoft's CEO Steve Balmer allowed infighting, politics and lack of focus take over.

While we don't know the real inside story, there is evidence of discord in the ranks. Soon after the November 2012 launch of Windows 8, Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows division, resigned with little explanation.

The result of Microsoft's machinations has given Windows 8 a dualistic view of IT. One view, Microsoft claims, is the future. This future consists of a touch interface with active tiles and device independence through use of the cloud. Previously known as Metro, the new official term for the tiles interface is the Modern UI.

The other view is the familiar desktop. And never the twain shall meet. You have to flip your screen back and forth between the desktop and the tiles. Yes, there is a way to park tiles next to the desktop, but practically speaking, most Windows 8 desktop and laptop users simply stay in the desktop mode to use their familiar applications. We have yet to see if Windows 8 tablets will gain any traction in the home, much less the enterprise.

The dualism is where the problem lies for enterprise users of Windows desktop computers. All business users care about is using their familiar applications. Whether it's Quickbooks, Adobe CS, Microsoft Office, or even Internet Explorer, the introduction of the Modern UI does nothing to enhance the use of those applications. In fact, all the tiles do is get in the way of using productivity apps. The Windows Modern UI is decidedly anti-productive.

The biggest anti-productivity feature of Modern UI is what IT departments have to do integrate Windows 8 into their enterprise. They will need massive training and help-desk programs to support the introduction of a radically new user interface. And for what? To help users learn how to get back to the desktop so they can get work done?

The Modern UI is so useless to enterprise IT that it threatens to bury all the good things about Windows 8, and there is plenty to love about the goodies in Windows 8 and Server 2012. Windows 8 is faster, more reliable, very compatible, and quite a bit more manageable. Windows 8 and Server 2012 are designed to work together very well for large enterprises, and there are a ton of new storage management and remote access features that could be worth deploying.

But why ship what is clearly a dual-mode UI, even on Server 2012? Microsoft decided to stand up to the iPad in order to maintain their relevance in mobile platforms and the home market. My guess is that Microsoft finally saw what the iPad and Android were doing, and decided it had to finally react.  This is when they had their all in moment, and decreed that the Modern UI had to be on everything. Unfortunately for the IT world, it looks like the decision to graft Modern UI on top of planned major upgrades to Windows OS was a huge mistake. 

When Ballmer and Sinofsky approved the plan to have Desktop and Modern UI in Windows 8 is when Microsoft management started to make their fatal errors. Their next major mistake was the introduction of Windows RT.

Now, four months after the introduction of Windows RT, this ARM-based version of Windows is an afterthought. In fact, it damaged the Windows brand by introducing another set of complicated explanations of what Windows really is. Right at the launch of a new touch UI, they had to explain why you couldn't run x86 applications like Adobe Flash on a Windows computer. It looks like Microsoft botched a few billion in R&D making Windows run on a new CPU/APU architecture.

The Microsoft Surface hasn't done anything to help Windows 8 adoption either. Surface is another multi-billion dollar mistake.

How is the failure of Windows 8 relevant to everyday business owners and enterprise managers? The answer is simple and unnerving: uncertainty is entering the PC business. Up until now, it seemed reasonable that we could count on Microsoft being relevant by advancing the state-of-the-art in IT. We were counting on that leadership to help leverage the trillions of US$ invested in an enormous, global infrastructure that impacts billions of lives. 

Instead of leadership, Balmer and Sinofsky have delivered uncertainty. Microsoft literally bet the farm that they could make a difference in mobile and touch computing. Instead of making a difference, they diluted and damaged the Windows brand. Their failure to make any impact at all in touch or mobile computing means that leadership is now compromised. 

Take the simple premise of how to advise your friends and relatives about what PC to buy for the home. I’m sure many of you steer people to Apple products, but I’m also sure you also know plenty of happy Windows users who don’t want to convert. 

What do you tell someone who has an old Windows XP or 7 computer and needs an upgrade? Do you tell them to buy a Windows 8 laptop at BestBuy or Fry’s? I am now wary of telling individuals to invest in Windows, because I can see how it could become a dead end choice. Take the sum total of mistakes and one has to conclude the Windows 8 launch is totally botched and a major setback. This new uncertainty about Microsoft worries me.

If Microsoft’s leadership is diminished, this means we will depend more on vendors who will see the light and help to maintain the status quo for IT departments. I am encouraged by Dell’s move to go private because, in theory at least, that will allow them to focus more on customers.

Hewlett Packard's CEO Meg Whitman, on the other hand, has recently stated that tablet computing and Windows 8 is their future. If you follow my logic, that could be a fatal choice for HP too. Perhaps getting out of the Wall Street spotlight is what this industry needs to help with further consolidation of Windows investments. Maybe we will get lucky and Dell will ship an OEM version of Windows 8 without the Modern UI. 

The story of Microsoft's failure to maintain its relevance as a new technology vendor is a familiar one in American business. Once, Microsoft was a leading catalyst for wealth creation and the spread of the information age. Today, instead of innovating the company bears the yoke of supporting a huge installed base. That limits Microsoft’s ability to react quickly and effectively. It's not unlike what has happened in steel, railroads, autos, telecom and other big American innovations that bestowed monopoly-status upon a revolutionary innovator.

In the mid-1990’s Microsoft under the leadership of Bill Gates managed to “turn the supertanker on a dime” by quickly adopting Internet Explorer as a response to Netscape. Will this latest attack by Apple and Google, Microsoft under Balmer’s leadership has failed to react in time. As it stagnates, Microsoft is now not a single entity but competing technical, political and business interests.

There is no doubt we have entered a new post-Microsoft age of uncertainty in IT. For now, businesses and enterprises should continue to buy Windows 7 and invest in 2008-era Microsoft technology. Enterprises should hold dearly to their investments and hope that vendors like Dell will come to their rescue and keep things afloat. And, hopefully we can look to innovators like Apple and Google, plus others yet unknown, to continue the advance of the information age.


Friday, March 8, 2013

Berkeley Logic is now a Carbonite Reseller!


We are proud to offer this popular and affordable online backup service to small business customers.

Berkeley Logic offers customers the ability to buy Carbonite service using our normal accounts payable methods. Plus, we offer all nonprofits and schools a 10% discount off of normal Carbonite prices.

Carbonite gives you secure, automatic offsite backup that protects your files from accidental deletion, spills, theft and just about anything else that could harm your data. Once installed, Carbonite backs up your files to the cloud – so you can get them back when you need them most. Because Carbonite works continually, backing up new and changed files whenever you’re connected to the Internet, you can rest easy knowing your backed up files are always protected. 

Product Highlights
  • Set it & forget it. Carbonite backs up your files automatically to the cloud - so you never have to remember to back up. No hardware required. 
  • Continual Backup. Whenever you’re connected to the Internet, Carbonite backs up your files – eliminating potentially costly backup gaps created by daily or weekly backups. 
  • Secure transmission. Carbonite uses the same encryption technology used in online backing and e-commerce transactions.
  • Safe offsite storage. Your backed up files are stored in one of Carbonite’s highly secure state-of-the-art data centers which are guarded 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • Easy file recovery. If anything happens to any file, Carbonite finds it in your backup and puts it back in its original location on your computer – in just a few, simple steps.
  • Anytime, Anywhere access. You can access your backed up files from any computer connected to the Internet ― or even from your iPhone®, Android™ or BlackBerry® smartphone.
The Plans

With 5 plans to choose from, you can find the Carbonite subscription that’s right for you. From individuals, families and students to home office users and small business professionals, Carbonite has a plan to fit every backup need.
  • Home - With the Home plan, you'll enjoy all the essentials of unlimited online backup. Subscribe today and your irreplaceable files on your computer - like photos, documents and music - will be backed up automatically, and accessible at anytime, from any computer or smartphone.
  • HomePlus - Using the HomePlus plan you’ll receive all the benefits of the Home plan, PLUS additional features that make your backup more complete. With HomePlus, you can include your external hard drive in your online backup, so you can rest easy knowing that all of your important files are backed up safely, offsite. In addition, you also get Mirror Image backup, which creates a local backup of your entire hard drive - including your operating system and software programs.
  • HomePremier - HomePremier is the most comprehensive backup solution of the Carbonite Home plans. In addition to all the features of Home and HomePlus, you'll also get automatic backup of your video files (instead of having to add them to your backup manually). In addition, you'll have the option to use Courier Recovery - a Carbonite service reserved exclusively for HomePremier customers. Courier recovery allows you to have a copy of your entire backup shipped directly to you – which may be the fastest way to get your files back, when you need them most.
  • Business - The Business plan is geared toward those looking to backup an unlimited number of computers, external hard drives and NAS devices. Using this plan, you receive 250 GB* of backup space.
  • BusinessPremier - Using BusinessPremier, you’ll experience all of the same benefits you receive from the Business plans. Now, in addition to backing up all of the computers, external hard drives and NAS devices in your business, you can also backup your Windows Server.  Using this plan, you receive 500GB* of backup space.
* Additional storage packs are available for both Carbonite Business plans

Saturday, June 23, 2012

How Storage Area Networks Can Save The Day!

Being responsible for running a company network is usually smooth sailing, but there are a few situations that will make for a very bad day. A critical component of your server will fail and all of your applications and file servers will be down. Then you will be at the mercy of a computer repair man who may or may not be able to get your systems up in a day or two.

Don't you wish there was a way to keep that from ever happening again? Big companies and service providers can't afford to have any downtime, so they have elaborate systems of redundant hardware that automatically take over when something goes wrong. Until recently, smaller businesses couldn't easily afford redundant systems. Now there are plenty of affordable options that can harden a small business network.

Divide and Conquer with SANs


The first step in hardening computer networks is to take a divide and conquer approach. This is where you separate the file storage from computing power through the use of Storage Area Networks, or a SAN.

A SAN presents persistent storage to a Windows or Linux server completely transparently. Both Windows and Linux effectively use a SAN just like how an operating system uses a local hard drive.

With a SAN one may easily create backup computer resources and even have off-site backups. With a full SAN deployment it only takes a few keystrokes and mouse clicks to recover from a hard drive failure. A SAN recovers from hardware and software failures within minutes instead of days.

I Want a SAN Now!


Sounds exciting, but how exactly does one buy a SAN? Just a few years ago, the answer would be "call up a SAN vendor and pay a whole bunch of money." The reason was that the SAN computer interconnects and networks were specialized products. The computer boxes that were sold as SAN storage servers were also specialized and commanded a high price to guarantee compatibility.

Berkeley Logic Small Business Storage Area Network Design


Fortunately the march of computer technology has make everything cheaper, so that even SAN technology is now affordable. Through the use of standard network and computer equipment, the cost of a SAN has come down nearly ten-fold in the last five years.

Two factors share the honor of bringing SANs to the masses: iSCSI running on Gigabit Ethernet and Free Open Source Software (FOSS). Cheap and fast gigabit Ethernet replaces the specialized computer interconnects sold by SAN vendors. The FOSS stacks FreeNAS and OpenFiler both turn standard computer server hardware into SAN storage servers using a TCP/IP protocol called iSCSI. FreeNAS and OpenFiler used the tried-and-true FreeBSD and CentOS operating systems, respectively.

My NAS must do iSCSI?


Servers built with FreeNAS or OpenFiler are called NAS devices, where NAS stands for Network Attached Storage. NAS devices are standard computers configured as a server, with persistent, redundant storage being fast hard drives or maybe SSDs.

As a Dell Partner, Berkeley Logic has found an extremely practical way to create an OpenFiler or FreeNAS server is to order a low-end Dell server with the necessary storage. We make it a single-socket system with 16 GB of RAM. The R310 has worked fine for us. We prefer to use hardware RAID with the PERC controllers, but OpenFiler and FreeNAS are perfectly happy without the extra card. Use a 4 GB SATA DOM (Disk On Module) to install the NAS operating system. Set the server to boot to the SATA device, and away you go!

If you don't feel like rolling your own NAS device with FOSS, there are plenty of affordable iSCSI NAS devices are coming onto the market all the time. Many of them are based on the same Linux and FreeBSD kernels as OpenFiler and FreeNAS.

Be careful, though. Most NAS devices on the market are not iSCSI-compatible. One of the latest compatible market entries is the Buffalo TerraStation iSCSI, which comes in 4 TB mini tower and rack-mount configurations for well under $2,000.

How do I recover with a SAN?


A SAN gets its power by switching connections between servers quickly and easily. Here's a scenario on how a SAN works. A basic SAN configuration is to segregate all of your file shares into an iSCSI volume on a NAS. A separate server computer has Windows Server 2008R2 installed and running. The Windows server attaches the iSCSI volume and publishes the file shares using enhanced Windows DFS file sharing.

Suppose your Windows file server goes down due to a new malware infection. A backup file server can be brought online and attach to the same iSCSI volume and take over where the old server left off. The advanced capabilities of Windows DFS (Distributed File System) makes the server switch invisible to end users.

NAS devices are much more reliable than standard Windows servers due to their small attack surface and advanced security capabilities. Nevertheless, it is reassuring to have a backup NAS sitting around somewhere ready to take over if the main server goes down or needs maintenance.

The combination of Windows DFS replication and iSCSI makes is simple to make an exact, dynamically-updated backup of one iSCSI volume to another iSCSI volume. This backup can be made even better by putting the backup NAS at a branch office location connected by the company Wide Area Network (WAN), thus helping to implement a sophisticated disaster recovery plan.

Sounds Good, What's Next?


Upgrading to a basic SAN architecture mainly involves carefully reviewing all of your file shares and organizing them into a Windows DFS hierarchy. After you've implemented DFS, then it's time to bring your new NAS online. Configure the NAS to publish an iSCSI volume, and attach it to your server. Copy all of your files into the new iSCSI volume, move the DFS targets, and your're in business!

DFS can be quite an undertaking in terms of learning Windows. Be sure to check out some links at the end of this post for some resources to get you going.

But, Windows DFS isn't technically needed to get going with iSCSI. DFS is strongly recommended, however, because it implements fail-over transparently to your users. DFS has the added bonus of making iSCSI volume replication a snap.

You may also be wondering how to affordably have a backup to your Windows and Linux servers. One way is to use a Virtual Machine Hypervisor like VMware or Windows HyperV and "physical to virtual" tools to create a backup of all of your servers and keep them on stand-by in your hypervisor host. More on the power of virtualization in hardening a small business network in a future post!

Good Luck!


Affordable SANs are now within the reach of many small business network owners. Best wishes as you undertake this exciting upgrade that makes sys admins sleep easier. If you're in the East Bay be sure to give Berkeley Logic a call to help you with your SAN network needs at 510-228-4500.


Vernon Keenan -- June 23, 2012


Resources

  • SAN Vendor: EMC - web
  • SAN Vendor: Dell - web
  • SAN Vendor: HP - web
  • NAS Software: OpenFiler - web
  • NAS Software: FreeNAS - web
  • FOSS: CentOS Linux - web
  • FOSS: FreeBSD Unix - web
  • Microsoft DFS How It Works - web
  • Microsoft DFS Step-by-Step Guide - web
  • Microsoft DFS Replication Overview - web
  • NAS Vendor Information - WhichNAS - web



Thursday, May 3, 2012

Enterprise Computing

Berkeley Logic sells and installs a wide range of laptop, desktop and server computers suitable for organizations of any size. We can meet or beat advertised prices for many business-class computer systems, plus we will deliver and install new equipment at your business location.

Berkeley Logic recommends some of the features found in business-class computer brands. For example, when one compares business-class computing brands like Dell Optiplex and Lenovo Thinkpad to more consumer brands like HP Pavilion or Acer Aspire, a big difference is the length of time a particular model stays on the market.

The short lifespan of IT products is one greatest frustrations of business computer buyers. The rapid rate of change means it is usually impossible to buy a new version of the same computer you bought only six months ago.

Being able to buy a computer that has the same basic architecture, but has all the latest and greatest processors and memory components, allows Berkeley Logic to use advanced system management techniques to greatly streamline buying new systems. The is a leading reason why we recommend Dell Optiplex and Latitude for business computer buyers.

When building a business network Berkeley Logic uses disk imaging and network profiles to cut-down on per-computer setup chores. Estimates for installation and setup charges for business network installation vary according to individual customer requirements.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Cloud System Integration

Today we're starting a new series where we are posting some of newest pages from our updated web site, www.berkeleylogic.com.

To kick it off, here's a very timely subject: Cloud Computing. -- Vern Keenan

Cloud System Integration

The Cloud refers to any Internet-based service that performs a business or personal information function. Yahoo Mail and Hotmail were among the first cloud-based services introduced in late 1990's.

Today you can use the Internet to run practically your whole business with services ranging from Box for file sharing to Salesforce.com for a sophisticated customer relationship management system.

Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Windows Azure has taken it a step farther by offering pure-platform solutions. Today it is possible to have a new Windows or Linux server up and running on the Internet in less than 10 minutes. With this type of service, one may run any type of application. The only bottleneck will be the speed of your Internet connection.

Small enterprises have mixed feelings about the cloud. On the one hand, it's great to not buy servers and other computer gear for the office. On the other hand, one can worry about the security and performance of data stored on someone else's server.

The reality is that a hybrid system of having some of your data stored in a server in the office, and other data stored in the cloud is the best solution. Berkeley Logic helps you evaluate available cloud-based services and create a hybrid environment tailored to your requirements.

Berkeley Logic integrates the business operations of our customers into the cloud in several key areas of technology.
  • Email Migration. As a partner with Google Apps and Microsoft's Office 365, Berkeley Logic helps customers find the best way to move from an in-house email server to a hosted service. Every migration is different, and they vary according to usage patterns.
  • Advanced Cloud Backup. Keeping backups at an offsite, professionally-managed data center is becoming the norm in IT best practices. Berkeley Logic works with your existing IT infrastructure to install automatic and continuous backup mechanisms. Plus, we can help you re-architect your existing server setup into a Storage Area Network (SAN) that integrates with advanced backup tools like the Amazon AWS Storage Gateway.
  • New Application Deployment. Berkeley Logic can help you create a private cloud that makes your proprietary applications more usable, scalable and safe. When you buy a software product from a vendor who doesn't have a hosted version, Berkeley Logic can use Amazon AWS or Microsoft Windows Azure as a platform for your new software instead of buying a new sever.
  • Application Migration. If you have Windows or UNIX applications running in a server you own, you may avoid upgrading that server by migrating the applications to the cloud. Berkeley Logic can take those applications and move them to the cloud, and ensure that all your users still have the same functionality they had before.
If you're thinking about making the leap to cloud computing then give Berkeley Logic a call at 510-228-4500 for a free consultation on what combination of on-premises and cloud-based services would work best for you.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Gaining Productivity In Your Business With Information Technology

By Vernon Keenan
August 17, 2010

Let's face it, the economy is still miserable and many small business owners are struggling. While the Bay Area may not have been hit as hard as other parts of California, we are still trying to claw our way out of a hole dug by unemployment rates over 11%.

With this kind of uncertainty, business owners are reluctant to hire new employees even when faced with increased demand. Fortunately, when applied correctly Information Technology (IT) improves worker productivity, helping to stave off the need for new employees.

Top Small Business Productivity Boosters

  1. Break out of Email Jail with cloud-based services. If you still download your email to a desktop program like Outlook or Thunderbird, and you cannot view those emails when accessing your web mail, then you are trapped in email jail. Consider switching to a service like Gmail where all of your mail is stored online. You can continue to use Outlook to work with your mail, the only difference that your mail is now stored safely online.
  2. Use email instead of fax or letters. Have you ever wished you could simply email a document to someone instead of faxing it or stuffing it in an envelope? You can do it if you have a PDF print driver installed in your computer. With a free tool like PDFCreator anything that prints can be sent as a PDF document. Other tools like Adobe Acrobat or Nitro PDF allows you to create PDF forms that are filled out by your customer and emailed back to you.
  3. Upgrade or replace computers. Don’t let frugality in computer buying impact your customer service. Focus on computers that support “customer-facing activities” like a cashier, service ticket writer, or customer service agent. A new computer increases worker productivity, especially if the old computer has been in service for five or more years. Replace customer-facing workstations first and then delay upgrades for back office workers. 
  4. Use business-class printers. Nothing ruins a day more than a dead printer, especially when that printer works as your cash register receipt printer. Replace inkjet printers with higher-end laser models that include onsite warranties. Focus on those printers used for customer service to shave seconds off of customer waiting times. Always use original equipment manufacturer toner supplies to avoid glitches from remanufactured cartridges.
  5. Make better use of your smartphone. There are several ways to make that iPhone or Android device an even more useful part of your business life. Start with synchronizing your calendar and address books. Learn how to use financial services apps to keep up with your banking and credit card activity. You can even use your smartphone for remote access to your work computer.
  6. Use your web site to communicate with your customers. Do you still have a form on your web site that people fill out and fax back to you? Does your “Contact Us” page have a spam-proof form where people can reliably get in touch with you? Do you service customers calling in to check the status of their order? Consider using secure web forms to collect and store customer information. Web forms collect legible order information, validate and process credit card orders, and give your customers ways to perform self-service when making order inquiries.
  7. Access your work computer from home or the road. Think of all the times you had to go into the office to retrieve some information you left on your work computer. Or, when you are traveling and play "blind man's bluff" with someone in the office to look up information for you. Remote access solutions range from a monthly service like GotoMyPC, configuring a router, or setting up a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
I hope these Berkeley Logic tips for small business productivity help you make more with less. Please allow me to invite you to give us a call in case you need some assistance putting these ideas into action. Or, you might be interested in trying some of these ideas on your own. In any case, best wishes in your business ventures.