 In this Issue..
Making Life Easier for Organizations
By Mike Campbell, Director of Website Services
Great strides have been made in website technology throughout the last few years. In the beginning, websites were very one-dimensional; with limited user interaction. Current technology now provides companies and organizations with extremely powerful communications tools which can be built right into your website to enable your staff to access your company data from anywhere they have internet access.
Naturally, websites make excellent collaboration platforms, allowing a network of users the ability to share thoughts and ideas. Think of it as a virtual home base, from which individuals or groups can share notes, messages, documents, policies, schedules, events, photos and much more. A collaborative website approach helps you to become environmentally friendly too; eliminate paper-based newsletters, cut down on travel to and from meetings, and they can become a virtual information archive for all past communications.
More and more organizations have realized better communication through the use of interactive software. Below, we’ll take a quick look at some positive features and benefits.
Staff Portals
To ensure all staff are provided critical and up-to-date company information, a portal may be developed. Through secure user names and passwords, your staff will have access to schedules, new or updated policies, new product information, and much more. The portal can be an offshoot to an existing website, which is not accessible to the public.
Newsletters
Using email, groups can easily send messages to each member of an organization with a single click of the mouse. It’s a great way to keep all members up-to-date! Messages can also be broken down into member groups such as board members, teachers and students.
Discussion Forums
The use of a discussion forum allows members to start, and respond to various online conversations. Each member of your organization is provided with a login and password, which allows administrators to restrict the users to certain sections of the forum. For instance, board members can have private conversations in a hidden forum, which is off limits to regular members.
Posting News
A great way to spread news and events is the homepage of your website. Current up-to-the-minute information is made available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Photo Gallery
A Photo gallery can be a great addition for many types of community based websites. Users enjoy viewing photos of themselves as well as other members of the club. While professional organizations may not opt towards this feature, Sports teams, Hobby clubs, churches, and the like will benefit most.
The great news is all these features can be integrated into a single website. Micro Market’s Website Division can create a custom designed portal to suit your organizational needs.
Contact us today to discuss the possibilities!
Call 877-996-6622 ext. 20 to speak to our Website department.
Upcoming Training Courses
Ethical Hacking Security Course
The CEH Program certifies individuals in the specific network security discipline of Ethical Hacking from a vendor-neutral perspective. You will understand and know how to look for weaknesses and vulnerabilities in targeted systems, and use the same knowledge and tools as a malicious hacker.
Course is available: September 24th- 28th 2007
AutoCAD 2008
AutoCAD 2008 Fundamentals is to enable students to create a basic 2D drawing in AutoCAD® and to propel day-to-day drafting forward with intelligent tools and features. The Audience: This course is designed to bring the drafter, designer, engineer or new user to a productive level of experience.
Course is Available:
September 17, 2007 to September 21, 2007
November 26, 2007 to November 30, 2007
For more information regarding our training course offerings, please visit, http://www.micromarket.on.ca/training_home.asp or call 613-634-8125, to speak with a training professional.
Tips and Tricks
Every month we'll include some tips and tricks which will enhance your Windows experience.
- Save Energy: Put your Monitor to Sleep
Yes, you can now help the environment by allowing your monitor to enter low-power mode while you're away from your desk. When you return, simply touch your mouse or keyboard to wake up.
1. First, right-click on a blank spot on your desktop, and select "Properties".
2. In the display properties dialog box, select the "Screen Saver" Tab, then select the "Power" button near the bottom.
3. In the Power Options properties, click the "Turn Off Monitor" list and select a time to automatically turn off your monitor. 5 or 10 minutes is usually a good amount of time. If you have a portable computer or laptop, you can change the value for running on batteries.
4. When your satisfied, click "OK"
- Quickly Lock your Desktop
If you use the windows login screen to enter a username and password to use your computer, you can quickly bring your computer back to this screen should you need to step away.
1. Press the Windows Key and the "L" key at the same time.
(WinKey + L)
Note: If you do not use a username and password, this key combination will bring you to the Welcome screen where you can click your username to log in.
Client Profile: City of Quinte West
http://www.city.quintewest.on.ca/
The City of Quinte West is situated on the shores of the beautiful Bay of Quinte serving as the gateway to the world famous Trent Severn Waterway. Quinte West, formed through the amalgamation of the former municipalities of Trenton, Sidney, Murray and Frankford, offers its residents and visitors a unique and dynamic mix of rural and urban lifestyles. The exquisite natural features of Quinte West are complemented by a strong, vibrant and diverse economic base while also serving as home to Canada's largest military base, 8 Wing Trenton. Please invest a few minutes of your time to explore and experience all that Quinte West and their website have to offer.
The Need
The City of Quinte West had five different locations that needed to be brought together in a WAN (Wide Area Network). They required an integrated email solution; they needed to share various programs amongst multiple offices, and had to ensure that their network and connections were stable. They were also experiencing intermittent connectivity issues that were difficult to resolve.
A few years later, their Council decided to amalgamate the 5 local offices into one main office to coincide with the construction of their new City Hall. This involved relocating over 100 workstations, servers, and various printers within a fixed time period. It took strategic planning with Micro Market as the prime IT contractor to accomplish this in the given move period.
How did Micro Market Help?
Once the move to the new location had been completed, Micro Market proposed the OnServe program to help the City of Quinte West deal with their infrastructure in a proactive fashion, rather than the old “break and fix” service model. The staff at Quinte agreed that this proactive approach would be a great asset to the City as they had a limited IT department
“OnServe provides 24/7 monitoring of our critical servers, and we have taken advantage of their proactive approach to our needs. They have designed and implemented a solid backup procedure, and now that we are including workstation imaging, they are also providing higher than expected service levels in disaster recovery.
OnServe has been a great fit to the organization by providing a level of security and reliability that we're struggling with.”
Steve Doidge, Network Administrator
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Remote Backups
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