You don’t have to decide. You don’t have to wait.
Buy Microsoft Office 2007 today, get Office 2010 free.
Purchase, install, and activate a qualifying Office 2007 product between March 5th and September 30, 2010, and you’ll be eligible to download Office 2010 at no addtional cost.
Please give First Service a call and we can advise you further on this special Microsoft offer.
We urge all clients with multiple servers to begin adoption of this network architecture upon their next server purchase. Increased volumes of data take longer to backup and restore, while clients expect faster recovery times than in past years. We are no longer able to provide the recovery times you expect of us without this technology. Network storage allows data to be accessed from multiple servers and restored much faster. Virtualization provides redundancy, load balancing, fewer servers, and improved performance. The importance of this technology cannot be overemphasized for multi-server networks and we welcome the chance to educate you on its relevance to your organization. The ROI is easy also.
Take advantage of the Microsoft Big Easy 4.0 promotion – January 1st – March 31st 2010. Ask First Service how we can help you subsidize your next Microsoft software purchase.
This has been one of the most beneficial promotions for our clients. Buy Microsoft software, and a rebate check is mailed to you in the name of First Service (everybody wins!). We apply your rebate for payment toward your next project.
First Service is pleased to announce we have been recertified by Cisco after completeing this year’s technical and sales competency training and testing. Our current authorization entitles us to sell and support a wide range of Cisco commercial products including IP Telephony products like the UC500 and UC520 systems, Cisco ASA security appliances, Cisco workgroup switches, Cisco Video solutions, Wireless, and Cisco storage. First Service and Cisco have already began our co-marketing plan for 2010, including pending additions to this website.
It seems every firm in our space is promoting “Managed Services”, including First Service. It also seems to mean something different to every firm.
I attended a 3 day training session in Montreal in 2006 to learn about managed services. Most sessions involved how we should re-focus our business model to have this capability as our core deliverable. If we didn’t change, we would become uncompetitive. This model had two aspects. First, installing monitoring and remote control software on client networks. Second, charging a fixed monthly fee for maintaining the software, it’s alerts, and associated telephone calls. Before this seminar and continuing now, we have monitoring and remote control capability, but we have always offered them as tools without the requirement of a fixed monthly billing.
I see several difficulties with “Managed Services” as predominantly offered by others as a fixed monthly fee.
1. The fixed fee requires the scope of work be defined narrowly to create a low price. That leaves many areas of general support unaddressed.
2. The offsite only capability tends to force a solution / answer to a problem rather than fully address the concern. Sometimes you must go on site. Often it is best to go onsite.
3. Over time, an offsite only approach loses touch with the customer’s needs. Technology enables people to work together best, and that applies to the technology support provider too. If your IT vendor only sees your computers and not your users, they are out of touch with your needs.
Monitoring and Remote Control are fantastic technologies that save our customers expense and allow us a more proactive approach. For now, we will continue to offer them as free tools as a part of our total approach.
Cisco has renewed their popular zero percent financing for their new fiscal year beginning August 1.
Purchases up to 55K of unified communications systems for businesses under 100 employees qualify. Smartnet services can be included. The term is 36 months, and you own the equipment at the end. Get the equipment you need now, but spread the investment over time with NO interest.
First Service completed 2 noteworthy projects in June:
Installation of a 50 handset IP telephony phone system for a law firm with 2 locations. By employing SIP technology and the Cisco 0% lease promotion, we were able to provide the system at a monthly investment roughly equal to the firm’s telephone charges alone prior to the upgrade. The firm will benefit from Cisco Unified Communications during the lease term and beyond, and significantly reduce their telepone expense.
The second project is the first phase of a disaster recovery plan utilizing an IBM Network Storage Array and IBM server with VMWare virtualization. By moving critical files from server storage to network storage, dependence on server hardware is eliminated. In conjunction with virtualization, recovery times for the mail server have been reduced from days to minuites.
We appreciate our clients trust in our recommendations and the work they have provided. Both installs would serve as good case studies for similar projects – contact us for details.
We are pleased to announce that Posiflex has selected First Service as their East Coast repair center. First Service will provide depot repair services for their product line for all locations in the Eastern US. Western US repairs will continue to be handled by their headquarters in Hayward, CA.
Posiflex is an industry leader for point of service (POS) terminals and platforms used in hospitality, healthcare, and retail. More information can be found at www.posiflexusa.com.
For the fifth consecutive year, First Service has participated in the North Carolina Advocates for Justice conference and tradeshow. The NCAJ convention was recently held at the Sea Trail Resort at Sunset Beach NC, June 20-24. Over 400 attorneys from North Carolina attended, including several First Service law firm clients.
First Service is a vendor at the four day tradeshow. IBM partnered with First Service and helped sponsor and man our booth.
Together, First Service and IBM provided demos on IBM small business network storage. IBM network storage solutions are flexible, scalable and affordable. They are designed to provide high performance and low total cost of ownership. Deployed with virtualization technology, First Service is offering our clients the best network solution and disaster recovery plan for their mission-critical data and email storage.
