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) [+]

US Commerce Association - Ashley Carter As you can see we have won an award!!!! But, WAIT so did a million other people..haha This has got to be one of the best deals going and here is how it works. They  send out a million emails to different businesses and claim they won the award. Then they tell them they can use the pictures and even get a press release to go with the award...So far so good....... Now the good part For $79.99 I can get the award in a plaque...Or for $179.99 I can get the one in the picture and lastly for the package price of $199.00 I can get both.... Now it's not worth trying to contact them and get some verification because all e-mails come back with a generic response. I asked [+]

As some of you know I have written in the past about forums and the benefit of them. But, then out of nowhere Bryce Whitty from Technibble comes up with an amazing contest. Simple contest, just answer some general questions and the winner(s) get: Instant Housecall – Remote Support Software CommitCRM – Client Management/Relationship Software Podnutz Laptop Repair Video Collection – Training Videos to Repair Laptops and Podcaster SUPERAntiSpyware Professional – Anti-malware Software And to makes things even better there was not just one winner but three. Congrats to the winners and congrats to Bryce for putting on such a great contest. [+]

The Association of Computer Repair Business Owners new site is now online. Company Lookup – This is for Association Members to list their business and also for consumers to search for Members. Plus, it has “waysearch” built into it so it opens a map for the customers to find you. Make sure you use the “meta keywords” and “meta description” when submitting your business. You need to submit your own listing otherwise I would do it. But, if you do your own you can edit it whenever you'd like. One issue is the module is called SOBI and you can only submit thru Mozilla. Hopefully a fix is in the works. Blog – A blog has been incorporated into the site and like other blogs it has meta tags incorporated into it so feel free to fill them out if you decide [+]

A personal story I created and administer my website using a program called Rapidweaver. It’s a low-cost alternative to Dreamweaver on the Mac; at least, it starts at a low-cost. The application itself retails for $79, and it does a lot of what you need it to do. And then it doesn’t do what you need it to do, as its simplicity makes it rather limited in its scope. You need to purchase plug-ins to do everything else, as well as additional themes. Of course, the Rapidweaver plug-ins require a serial number to activate and use. I reimaged my Mac a few weeks ago, and loaded up Rapidweaver to make some changes to my website. To make all the appropriate changes, in fact to actually load my local copy of the website, I have [+]

Sometimes you just run across a product and think to yourself  "Why could I of not found out about this sooner"....Well that is the case with the Laptop Repair Videos that are done by Steve Cherubino. Having this asset available to you in this industry is outstanding. The videos are done in HD and are the work of an expert in the industry. Some of the things covered are: *How to replace a motherboard *How to fix DC power jacks *How to solder Now if you are in business and you shy away from the laptop repair world due to maybe not having the technical knowledge to do the jobs, then your problem is solved. The Laptop Repair Videos will make it so now you can offer this valuable service work to your customers. Check them out today Laptop Repair Videos [+]

“This makes me want to participate even more in distributing pirated movies and never again pay to watch one.”

Recently did an interview with Steve from Podnutz and we talked about everything from the book Computer Repair Business Lessons Learned, Pc Dice, Nationwide Computer Techs and the Assocation of Computer Repair Business Owners. I think it went pretty well, but I could be a bit bias...Steve from Podnutz is a great guy and really nice to talk with. Also, if you are not aware of this, Steve has created some great videos on laptop repair. These videos are extremely high quality and full of information. Check them out here. You can listen to the episode here. [+]

Am going to be doing a website for a business and they had the Domain registered through Network Solutions. They did not personally register it they had the person that was going to build the site awhile ago register it for them. Well now the time comes I need access to change the name servers and low and behold he can't access the site to change things. Few e-mails go back and forth and the answer ends up being "I will not transfer the domain, you will have to contact Network Solutions". Now this is crazy on a few levels. First, when the domain was first registered it should of been done in the name of the owner of the business. They should of had records showing the registration, access information, etc. But, I have found in this business quite a [+]

In listening to the feedback of our valued Maintenance & Support clients, Progressive Integrations, Inc., makes a bold move with managed services Johns Island, SC, October 28, 2009: For 2 years, Progressive Integrations, Inc, saw a need for its client to have a source for IT (Information Technology), whereas previously much of it was outsourced. It became imperative that better service to the client consisted of having total system integration with one vendor. Thus the Progressive Integrations IT Division was born. Since that time, we have been primarily an installation and B/F (break/fix) shop for our clients and that has gone well for us, but our clients started asking for more. Our clients requested a more proactive approach to IT considering such items as the economy and ROI (return on investment). Thus managed services were [+]