One of the most important decisions that every Small Business Executive makes is who to trust to manage and maintain their critical business information and technology infrastructure. Every day I hear horror stories of how their existing IT Services Company doesn’t pick up the phone when they call, or it takes 2 days to get someone to their location. Small Businesses have been putting up with this type of level of service for a long time. They have come to expect no better.

I am going to show you 3 simple things to look for when you are searching for an IT Services Company. Use these as an outline for the minimum acceptable traits needed to competently support a small business’ technology operations and end user needs. I don’t want you to think that you have to pay more for these characteristics. There are a select few professional IT Services Companies offer them and usually for the same price you’re paying now.

Firstly, the company should have more than one person on staff. While it is always nice to have a dedicated consultant who intimately knows your network, the truth is that one person cannot effectively provide IT Services to multiple small business customers. What will happen when your computer guy is servicing someone else and a problem arises on your network? You will wait until he is available to see you that’s what.

Secondly, they should always answer when you call their office. A true IT Services company not only has additional people on staff but always answer the phone when you call. Some go as far as having a 24/7 Help Desk to provide end user support for Small Business employees. These organizations are more suited to support companies that value employee time and do not wish to see computer downtime negatively impact employee productivity.

Lastly, make sure they are certified by Microsoft, Cisco, Citrix or any other major IT player. If a company is certified, this usually means that they employ multiple technicians whom have proven that they can implement or manage the technology in which they have been certified. This means that you can rest assured that trained and tested professionals are working on your network. But don’t forget to do your due diligence. Check up on the company, by going to the certifier’s website and verifying the IT Services Company’s membership in the parter locator section.

In conclusion, these three points seem like a no brainer, but you would be surprised as to how many organizations fall trap to an IT Services company that promises they have the technical acumen  and are only learning on your dime. So remember to always pick a company with more than one person on staff, whom always answer their phone, and are certified by the technology that they will be supporting. Consequently DataFocus is and IT Services company that plainly meets all of these criteria and more. Please feel free to visit our website – www.data-focus.com

Windows 7 is gaining ground these days due to advanced and improved technologies like handwriting recognition, Direct Access, virtual hard disk support, enhanced performance on Multi-core processors, better user account access control, transparent gadgets, raw image viewing etc. Support for extension of themes are also included in windows7.  Theme packs are cabinet files with an extension of .themepack, and consist of a theme as well as any number of image, sound, icon, and mouse cursor files. The default theme is WINDOWS AERO, in most editions of windows 7 and windows vista, giving a translucent feel to borders and margins. Users can still enhance their windows7 theme style by installing third party themes. Windows 7 recognizes this file format automatically and will switch the user’s theme to the specified theme.

The best performance of windows7 themes can be viewed only with following minimum hardware requirement.

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 GB of system memory (512MB sometimes works but not recommended)
•  DirectX 9 compatible graphics processor with a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver, Pixel Shade 2.0 , and a minimum of 128 MB of Video RAM
• 32 bits per pixel
• 40 GB hard drive with 15 GB free space

If your business’ existing systems don’t meet these requirements and would like to learn more about upgrading feel free to contact us by visiting our website at www.data-focus.com.  

If your hardware meets the minimum requirements you can download additional theme packs directly from your computer by going to your desktop, right clicking on it and selecting Personalization.  Once the window pops up, you can select ”Get more themes online”, its located on the far right. When the Internet Explorer window pops up you will have a large selection of different themes to quickly add to your computer or you can make your own.