Updates

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Michelle Kenny

 

It’s been an extremely busy and exciting year at Dyrand, hence part of the reason for the hiatus from writing. I’ve decided to make time for this once again and right now seem like the perfect time to start with all the exciting news we have to share.

This past year has significantly changed Dyrand’s profile, especially on our service desk across Canada. We went from having a standard 8-5:30 manned service desk to our currently manned service desk with hours from 4am to 5:30pm PST. We had a number of requests over the past few years to expand our hours to better service our clients that have offices out East, and we were able to take those requests a couple of steps further.

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Still Shifting -IT and Business Tips

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Michelle Kenny

 

I thought I would continue on my same train of thinking from my last blog since I just scratched the surface when it comes to focusing on your business. The idea of ensuring that any business owner focuses on the core of his/her business is crucial to the success.

IT is one very important factor when looking at ways to reduce wasted time, downtime, costs, etc. But as I have learned over the past few years, there are many types of ‘distractions’ that can take away from the focus a business requires. And while I do not profess to being an expert in this area (there’s always much more to learn), I thought I would share some of the key ideas that have helped me keep my own focus: (more…)

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Shift the Focus

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Michelle Kenny

 

I thought I would shift the focus a little away from the technical side of things and talk about the business aspects of IT. For many of us that run small and mid-sized companies, we are acutely aware of the importance of every minute of the day. Hence why it is very important to ensure the focus is spent on the core of the business instead of worrying about those pesky IT issues.

Having a full time IT Department is a luxury that very few small to mid-sized organizations can afford, and probably wouldn’t want if they could. What this too often means to those firms is they spend too much time having to worry and deal with IT issues that come up on a daily basis. And unfortunately it’s usually the owners, directors, CEO’s, CFO’s, etc. that end up getting involved and spending enormous amounts of their time trying to work through the issues. (more…)

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Backups and Disaster Recovery

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Michelle Kenny

 

Well, I know it’s not the most exciting topic but since it does seem to get discussed at most meetings these days more than anything else, I thought I may as well write a little about it. And I know I have been negligent in getting my posts going again since the holidays but fortunately for us, it has been an unbelievably busy start to the year! (more…)

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Standardization

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Michelle Kenny

 

While attending my annual (and favorite) conference, I realized that I missed one of the key elements to controlling IT costs in my last blog: standardization. And I think it’s an important enough component that I have to dedicate this post to just that topic.

Trying to support an environment where there is no standardization can be a very costly venture. I like the analogy that a colleague of mine used recently: imagine trying to repair and maintain cars and/or trucks of a particular manufacturer if they used different components for the same model of vehicle. Every time a car comes in for repair, you not only have to try and troubleshoot the problem, you also have to figure out what part the vehicle is in need of replacement and then determine which version of that part. (more…)

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Control Your IT Costs

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Michelle Kenny

 

For all small and mid-sized businesses, controlling all of the costs and expenses of running the business is very important. The IT costs of those businesses are often a topic of discussion and so they should be. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to keep those costs in check and ensure there is a budget in place so there are no big surprises along the way. Here are just a few ways to try and control your IT costs: (more…)

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