We now are offering TechSiteBuilder at a discounted price for all ACRBO members. All members can see the package in the "Prefered Vendors" section of the site.

If you have not checked out this new package from Steve Cherubio over at Podnutz.com then you should. Great idea, great concept, and something everyone can benefit from.

Well after months of going back and forth with a local printer we finally have received our Association Membership cards. I am pretty impressed..

Very good read from the Global IT Community Association

Chapter 1:  “Choosing the Path to Windows 7”

 

A successful deployment of a desktop operating system begins long before the first client machines are touched. The collection of information about your client machines forms the basis for creating a successful deployment plan. In this first of three posts we’ll cover the first steps and the tools available to you as you start on the road to Windows 7 deployment.

 

The first step on the road to Choosing a Deployment Strategy is to gather the information needed to make informed decisions. Regardless of whether you are dealing with hundreds of client machines or just helping a friend, knowing the current environment is critical. Some of the basic information includes

·         Number of computers to deploy Windows 7 to.

·         What version of Windows do you currently have installed?

·         What hardware is in these machines?

·         …and finally what applications do you use.

 

Depending on the size of the organization some of these questions could be tricky to answer. If you are just working on one machine or a handful of machines you can use the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor; this will do most of the work for you, but it is not practical beyond just a few machines since you have to install it and run it on each machine individually. When you have hundreds of clients you need something a little more powerful and easier to run without much intervention. One tool is the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit. This solution accelerator that can be used to generate this inventory of assets for you, another is the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT), which we will come onto next.

 

Once you have a full understanding of what is in your organization you can then plan the deployment process. The asset list will help you determine which machines can run Windows 7 with none or minimal hardware updates and which machines will be unable to run Windows 7 and therefore require replacement.

 

Regardless of whether you plan to do a clean installation or an upgrade, the applications run that on these machines will need to be checked for compatibility. Application compatibility is always one of the top challenges organization face when changing a desktop OS. To help, there is the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) - this article talks in more detail about the toolkit and how to use it.  The ACT is a vital part of a deployment process, it can detect the applications running on client machines, and as mentioned above it also has the ability to report on hardware and devices that it finds on client machines. It provides you with a comprehensive list of what is out there, and don’t be surprised to be surprised about what you find. Getting this view of your environment is a major step towards a successful deployment. Once armed with this information then comes the real fun, rationalization.  You will have to look through all the applications on your list to determine if there is duplication, you could easily find there are 4 or 5 different programs just to read the same file format, then you need to decide which one(s) work with Windows 7 and then really which one to standardize on. The more thorough you are here could mean the difference between testing a 100 applications or testing a 1000 applications.

 

After the rationalization, that is not the end of the application story, even with say 100 applications each one has to be checked for compatibility with Windows 7. This may be as easy and looking on the ISVs site to see the compatibility information. You may also be faced with in-house applications that will need testing or modifications. Your deployment plan will then need to include the teams responsible for those applications so they can schedule time to work on them. You may also have applications that require you to manually try them. Some applications can have compatibility fixes – shims – applied to make them work. A large number of applications can be made to work very quickly and easily using shims, for example making an application think it’s running as an administrator when it’s not or that it’s running on Windows XP and has IE 6 installed. For those applications that the compatibility fixes do not work on, you may need to employ a virtualization technology such as using Virtual PC and running Windows XP Mode, using App-V or MED-V, maybe even using Terminal Services technologies. As mentioned before, there are ways to get most applications that are currently running in your environment to run while using Windows 7. The time, effort and cost to make that happen will govern the path you take.

 

Applications play a big part in the deployment story, even in an ideal world where all you applications run on Windows 7; you need to consider how to deploy them with your images. In the next post we’ll cover images and the tools for creating and deployment them.

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Twitter, etc. Sound bites:

1.       Choosing a Windows 7 Deployment Strategy

Looking to start you deployment of Windows 7? Not sure where to start or the resources available? Read this concise article on the recommended deployment strategies and the tools that support them.

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2.       Analysing you environment with Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

Do you want to know what is running in organization so you can plan a Windows 7 deployment? The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit is a free solution accelerator that can inventory you infrastructure.

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3.       Prepare your Applications for Windows 7

A key consideration when moving to Windows 7 is whether your applications will run successfully. Download the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) to access the necessary tools and documentation to evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues before deploying Windows 7

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4.       Five Steps to Windows 7 Application Readiness

Trying to decide if the applications you use in your organization will run on Windows 7? Follow these 5 steps to determine application Readiness.

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5.       Application Management and Preparing for a Windows 7 Deployments

Read this concise article that will walk you through the variety of approaches to addressing compatibility issues and the tools available to help you.

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6.       Commonly-used application shims here.

Watch this video and see how to apply commonly-used shims to legacy application to enable them to work on Windows 7.

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7.       Understanding Application Compatibility

Why might your application not work on Windows 7? There are a few reasons such as enhanced security or retired components. This article walks you through the areas that might affect your applications.

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Chapter 2:  “Building Windows 7 Images”

 

In the previous post we looked at the key information and first steps required to perform a successful deployment of Windows 7, we looked in some detail at one of the main concerns organizations have when deploying a new OS, application compatibility. In this post we’ll look at the resources available to help prepare for the actual deployment of Windows 7.

 

Efficient deployment of a Windows OS to many different machines usually involves using an image. Until very recently that image was a sector-based image and organizations usually had one for each type of client hardware they own.

 

Today we have file-based images in the Windows Imaging Format (WIM). This format offers a number of advantages over sector-based images such as being hardware agnostic within processor architecture, e.g. you will need separate images for x86 and x64 processors. WIMs are usually smaller than their sector-based image equivalent, easier to maintain and patch, you don’t need hundreds of them to support your client hardware base and they allow for more flexible deployment options. To go along with this new image format comes a slew of new tools and documentation to help create and maintain them. The main tool is the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7. I called it a tool; in fact it’s a suite of tools and documentation to help with the image creation and maintenance.

 

The one thing that hasn’t changed over the years is the concept; regardless of whether you use sector-based images or file based images you do start with a reference machine, prepare it for capture and then capture it. What has changed is the way you do this and the strategy you follow. In the article Choosing and Image Strategy and Building Windows 7 System Images, the 3 primary strategies for imaging are discussed. In brief these are “Thick”, “Thin” and “Hybrid”.

 

A “Thick” image is one that contains the OS and all applications you want to have available as soon as the imaging process is complete. As the name suggests it’s the bigger of the imaging strategies.

A “Thin” image is effectively the opposite of “Thick”, it contains the very basic information, and other items like the applications are handled at deployment time.

 

Finally “Hybrid” is a combination of the other two, core applications people need to be able to use right away are installed, and others are handled at deployment time or later.

 

Which one to use depends on your requirements, again either way the tools to create the images for the three strategies are the same. The core tools are Windows PE, SysPrep, ImageX, and DSIM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management). These tools – in order - allow you to boot a machine to install Windows 7, prepare it for capture and deployment, capture the image ready for deployment and then subsequently maintain it. I could write about the process, even point you at the training kit for Configuring Windows 7, (Imaging is approximately 13% of exam 70-680), but it’s better to see it in action, so first here is a video of Sysprep and ImageX being used to generalize and capture a custom and a video of DSIM servicing an offline mounted Windows 7 image.

The creation and maintenance of images these days is pretty straightforward and certainly a lot more efficient. If you are not using file-based Windows Image format (WIM), downloading the WAIK documentation will help you in switching to this deployment method. Once you have you images ready, the next step is to get them onto the clients. In the final post we will look at ways to get the image file onto a client machine.

Everyone says about New Year’s resolutions which I always find amusing that someone would have to wait for the New Year in order to make a resolution. Especially when I hear people saying things like "my New Year’s resolution is to stop drinking"...That is typically the best. My answer is "why"?....Why not just make a New Year’s resolution of "I am going to drink better liquor this year than in the past"....To me it makes no sense to make a resolution.

Why not add a resolution instead, such as "I am actually going to follow thru with the marketing that I have been putting off" or "I am actually going to follow up with "all" customers unlike in the past when I did it if I had free time"....

By now you should of already had planned on how you want to attack the New Year with our business. Do you want to grow your business? Do you want to provide better customer service? Do you want to add services to your business? All of these things should have been going thru your head all year long and now it's time to actually implement them. Start off 2010 on the right foot and do all those things that you have been putting off for one reason or another. Remember it's the little things that set you apart from the competition.

I would like to say Happy New Year to all the Association members and we are looking forward to a prosperous 2010 in the Association. We have allotted of plans and hopefully everything will work out and we can start to implement them. The Association has grown tremendously since we first started and it shows that there is a strong need for such an Association.

Numbers are important and if you look in history any time there is numbers in people it typically turns out good for that group. We have brought on some very good Vendors for all members to utilize throughout their business needs and look forward to bringing even more into the Association.

We also have other plans that will increase the exposure of the Association and that will in turn hopefully add more business to your already existing business. The site has finally been redone and all the bugs seem to be fixed for now. We have tried to implement things that members would like such as "forums", "blog", "chat" and other things. We will continue to build upon the existing format in any way that the members think will benefit the Association.

Since we have changed the format a bit to the "Premium" membership it has been accepted with great feedback. Remember the membership fee is only $25 a year and that money all goes back into the Association and possibly into your community in the form of "scholarship" monies you can use for marketing in your area to your school systems.

Join our new group on Plaxo here: http://acrbo.plaxogroups.com

Paradigm Shifts for Techs: Managed Services Part 1 by Derek R. Iannelli, IT Strategist, Progressive Integrations, Inc.,

When I ‘closed’ my first M&S agreement (maintenance & support), I thought I finally figured it out, and if I could sell enough of them, our business would making the American Dream come true. That was 10 years ago. Until this past year, I still had the same thoughts regarding M&S agreements until our economy started to affect our clients too. Instead of the fluidity or automatic renewal agreements (essentially blocks of hours for them to use whatever way they wanted), I noticed a change in our maintenance appointments first. They started to turn them down because they wanted to save their hours. What ended up happening, no matter what type of convincing argument I had, was it inevitably turned into a B/F (break-fix, one-shot, one-kill) situation, and in some cases I cannot get them back on the phone or to schedule an appointment to do much needed maintenance.

A friend of mine told me about managed services (he ironically was managing one of our clients – we also do AV work) and for him, it was cheaper to pay us for a block of hours to do hardware transitions and setups (because a plane ticket and his hourly rate were twice mine), so he actually made money on me doing his leg work. Long story short, he mentioned that for him to leave his desk cost him money and had I ever considered managed services. Our business models were different, he did SMB and ours are primarily SOHO. I was hesitant at first because most of our clients are high-end home owners and non-profits. I figured I might be able to roll out managed services to a few of the more extensive ones but was resistant in that, I did not see home owners paying a monthly fee, per machine to take care of their computers. Here is what I discovered. I was an idiot…but only for a short time.

Disclaimer: Because of my understanding of the ACRBO Code of Ethics, what I am about to share is based upon my personal experience and may not be the same results or even the correct perception as they occurred. This information is being offered as informational only and in the heart of SHARING to help you become successful by understanding a core issue: “No one gets extra credit for climbing the mountain when there is an elevator next door.” Essentially, what I am going to be sharing could potentially cause you to rethink your tech business and because of my mistakes, you don’t have to do them, your results maybe even better. There are no promises however. Background: I left full-time Christian ministry in 2007, one of the hats I wore was Technology Director. I have extensive experience with, owning a Computer Repair Business before ministry as well as some sales experience, and network marketing. I say all of this, because, it gives a foundation to where some of my thoughts are coming from.

When I came on staff with Progressive Integrations, Inc., I first was hired to set up and maintain their proprietary CRM solution. It was soon discovered that I might be able to fix a few other things too, while working on the database. LSS, I ended up taking care of the network. After I got the network to a manageable level, revamped their website, and installed a few consumer networks, I sat down with the owners and discussed adding another business unit, an IT Department. Progressive Integrations, Inc., was primarily an AV (audio-video) integrations company and I was discovering that more and more networking and pc/mac based devices were being asked for and implemented. We discussed the new IT Division, and I told them of my background with 2 other repair businesses I had, and said it had been a bit since then and I would need to do some research. They saw the need and told me to take it by the reins and let’s see what would happen. My research led me to Computer Repair Business Lessons Learned and Technibble. I devoured Daniel’s book and Bryce’s material, and for the most part, I knew and implemented already all of those things in my previous businesses and for me, I needed an out of the box kit, so I downloaded all the forms and customized them and started rolling them out. I also signed on with TechRepublic and about 6 other portal publications as well as the main AV publications and continued to monitor the industry.

At my 1-yr anniversary, I had developed roughly 100 clients with both B/F and M&S agreements and as a one man show, had the great asset of our AV installers who are involved in all 3 phases of construction (pre-trim, trim, final) and are cabling masters! I had set up VAR accounts with Cisco, Microsoft, Dell, and many others. Let me say, I am not a super sales guy. I just tell the people the truth and don’t ‘nickle-n-dime’, you either pay what we are offering or you go get it somewhere else. Most of our clients are willing to pay for the services and solutions and because of their demographic we do not have much comparison shopping. Also, I had a warm pool of over 1000 leads from the AV side and many of them have PC/Macs. Previously the owners had been referring to another local repair business, now we started getting flooded with people who were excited that they could have all their technology in their homes handled by one vendor. Because we have high integrity, are fair, and do great work, the homeowners of our area started talking; word of mouth advertising is the best marketing tool I have right now.

As you can imagine I stay pretty busy, but as I stated at the beginning of the article, I was an idiot. I am now at the end of my second year with Progressive Integrations, Inc., with roughly around 200 clients and looking forward, (actually about 5 months ago) I discovered that business was growing and that I would have to find some way to duplicate my time. Hiring a tech is not an option as I am just barely covering my salary, van, phone service, and an IT budget. We also informed all of our clients that we are shifting away from B/F and in January 2010, the only offerings (no more M&S agreements) we will have are managed services. We will still offer B/F services, but no discounted rates. We also have our AV side too. Already a little swarm has started (due to some marketing I did with ‘early adopters’ and ‘kudos’ to existing clients) and managed services is up and running. We also just started with our first SMB client. What I am going to share in the next series of articles is how I stopped climbing the mountain and started taking the elevator and managed services is key. Some topics we will be discussing are; educational marketing, daily intentional activities, networking (not the IT kind) to tap into knowledge pools and more.

For the past few years I have enjoyed using Microsoft's free accounting software for my small computer business. Though it took some getting used to at first I found it easy for me to use for the past few years. I planned on updating my main laptop, which I use for all invoices, and accounting for my business to Windows 7. Since I planned on doing a clean install I searched for a new copy of Office Accounting to re-install after I was done. I then found out that there are no more downloads, and Microsoft is giving up on providing a free alternative to Quicken and Peachtree. Bummed but thankful for the years of free service that I received from Microsoft I went out and bought Quickbooks Pro 2010. It was the one product that was listed an easy migration from Office Accounting. After doing a backup and installing Quickbooks, I found out that the migration is not easy and I was reminded why I left Intuit years ago. After 3 hours on the phone it boiled down to me having to turn off UAC in Vista to allow the transfer program run correctly.

So now I have Quickbooks and MS Accounting both up and running on my laptop still in Vista. I figured that I would get all of my data transfered to Quickbooks, then do a backup of it. I would then do my Windows 7 Upgrade and after I re-install Quickbooks Pro 2010 I could import my data. This would have been fine I think , but I decided to make sure everything was going to go as planned. I already knew that I would have somewhat of a learning curve to go through since I had not personally used Quickbooks for some time. I next went to import my bank records from my bank online into Quickbooks just as I had with MS Accounting and BAM! No can do. This led to another 2 hours on the phone with Intuit and a half an hour on the phone with my bank. It turns out that the checking account that I use for my business is compatible with Microsoft Office Accounting 2009, and Quicken but not Quickbooks Pro 2010. Quicken seems to be able to import from Microsoft Money, but it does not mention anything about Microsoft Office Accounting 2009. So my solution is to finish out the year with Microsoft Accounting 2009 on Vista.

In January I will get a new checking account that will import to Quickbooks 2010 and start over with the new software and operating system and bank account. I just thought that others may be facing this soon, and I wanted to let them know to check all of the details before moving away from the Microsoft Office Accounting solution.

Please sign up for the webinar that is going to be hosted next week. Will not cost you a penny but i've reviewed the material that is covered and well worth the 30-60 mintues of time that it takes. Look forward to seeing everyone online.
“3 Critical Marketing Elements Every IT Business Must Have To Finally Put An End To The Frustration, Struggle, And Up-Hill Battle of Generating A Predictable Flow Of New Clients, More Sales & Bigger Profits”
FREE Webinar With Technology Marketing Toolkit VP, Pamela Viveiros
An Exclusive Live Webinar Pamela E. Viveiros, Master Mentor, Technology Marketing Toolkit, Inc. When: Thursday, December 17th Start Time: 3:00 p.m. ET / 2:00 p.m. CT/ 1:00 p.m. MT / 12:00 Noon PT
REGISTER NOW at
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/797934265

The Association is growing and we would like to keep in touch with all our members in every way possible. Join us on: Linked In
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We now have a way to add your business to the Company Lookup if you had registered previously on the old site. So now when you login please look to see if your business is listed and if so you will be able to edit your entry. Feel free to put as much information in there as you'd like.