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pcAmerica Announces Web Based Reporting Go and Wake Up Your Luck What Laptop Manufacturers Don't Want You To Know 10 Computer Software Programs You Really Need (#6) Contacting pcAmerica
Web Portal, from pcAmerica, is an Internet based system that allows users to run reports, change prices, create purchase orders, manage employee labor and several other back office tasks from a web browser on any computer with Internet access. This is the perfect solution for small retailers or restaurant owners looking to easily monitor and manage their business from a remote location. 1. Access Information Anywhere and at
Anytime 2. Remotely Manage Inventory and
Pricing 3. Remotely Manage Your Menu,
Inventory, and Ingredients 4. Run Web-Based Reports 5. Employee Management and Labor
Scheduling To subscribe to Talk Pos go to:
A good quote appearing in Doug Fleener's January 31, 2010 newsletter.
Do you sit around waiting for sales to pick up? Or, are you taking control of your business?
For more information about Doug Fleener and for a FREE subscription to his weekly newsletter (highly recommended) go to:
http://www.dynamicexperiencesgroup.com/
Laptop demand is outpacing the demand for desktops. Unfortunately reliability is not getting better.
According to PC Magazine, 22% of Windows business laptops require repair in any given year. This is the fifth straight year where the average was between 22% and 24%.
The number is really worse than it sounds given that many laptop owners keep their laptops on desks and never tote them around.
I've had pretty good experience with my laptops but have heard many horror stories. Most people I know with laptop problems don't have problems causied by dropping or mishandling a laptop. Although some people have problems like broken keys on the keyboard or battery problems, half of the problems I heard about are due to manufacturing problems that can't easily be resolved. I've heard of many video card failures and other hardware failures. The remaining problems are due to driver incompatibilities and problems updating Windows.
Personally, I use my desktop computer most of the time. It doesn't move. It always works. However, if you need portability, laptops are great. I suppose your best defense is to buy one of those service contracts. Laptops are likely to have a three year life (on average). You may want to purchase one of those three year contracts with your next laptop.
On the other hand, laptops are coming down in price. Most laptops already come with a three year guarantee. You may want to self insure and just buy a new laptop should it fail after the first year. Your laptop is more likely to fail in the first year of use.
Here's my rule of thumb. If you are purchasing an under $1,000 laptop, I would turn down the extended contract. Given the high rate of repair problems, I would probably pay for the extended contract on over $1,000 laptops.
Typically, it is going to cost you about $350 to fix a laptop problem without a service contract so you need to weigh the cost of repair vs. the cost of the extended service contract. Buying a service contract on a $900 laptop may cost you about $300. That's about what you are going to pay for a one time repair. So, you need to decide to either go with the insurance or bet on beating the odds.
To read the complete laptop repair article that appeared in Integrate Solutions magazine go to:
http://fieldtechnologiesonline.com/download.mvc/What-Laptop-Manufacturers-Dont-Want-You-To-0001
Mozy is my #6 of computer software programs you really need.
In my opinion, Mozy is the best of the companies that offer online backup of your data.
Here's the scenario you should be thinking about. You have lots of documents, photos, music, and other data on your computer. Your data is very important to you. Should your information be stolen or destroyed, you can't get it back.
You should be making daily backups of your data. Where do you keep those backups? Most people making backups keep them right next to their computers. Should something happen, it is likely that both your original data and backups will be gone.
Some people move their backups to another location. Perhaps you backup your computer and take your data on a portable USB drive to another location. Most people don't do that, but let's say you do. A flood, nuclear explosion, global warming, or other catastrophe may make this data unavailable.
OK. I may be exaggerating a little, but automatically storing your data at another location on a daily basis is an extremely important precaution in an emergency. Backing up your data to an external USB hard drive is a great idea but most of us do not transport that drive. Mozy is your solution.
Mozy is a software program that sends your data to an external computer. The external computer is a computer owned and retained by Mozy. Should your computer be lost or stolen, and should you not have a copy of your data on an external USB hard drive (or equivalent), you can recover all of your data from Mozy.
The cost is FREE for less than 2 GBs of data or $4.95 per month for unlimited data. You can also choose to pay $54.95 per year (that's $4.95 for 11 months plus 1 FREE month).
Your data is safe and automatically encrypted before it arrives at Mozy. Theoretically, no one can ever get hold of your data. I don't worry too much about having my data stolen. Most of my data are word documents and spreadsheets that no one wants to steal. I have thousands of photos that I backup that can never be replaced. I do have some spreadsheets that I would not like to share with others. My private spreadsheets are already encrypted and it is that encrypted information that gets sent to Mozy.
I'm just not worried about someone at Mozy getting hold of my data. In order to use it, a Mozy employee would have to be a genius and spend a hundred years or so to break the Mozy encryption and another hundred years to break my spreadsheet encryption. Yes. It's possible, but not likely.
The idea is that backing up your data to the Mozy computers is probably a smart thing. It's fairly inexpensive and the prudent thing to do. Mozy is owned by EMC Corporation (a Fortune 500 company).
Mozy has competitors. I believe that Mozy is the easiest and most efficient online backup system available. It's a good place to start especially since you can backup 2 GBs of data for free.
If you have questions about Mozy, go to their FAQ (frequently asked questions) at:
To learn more about Mozy go to:
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