TubbBlog

A shout out to Andy Parkes of iBIT Solutions and Guy Gregory of Peak Support who a couple of months ago took over from the departing Steve Wright of BMS (who is devoting his attention to his new Microsoft Partner Area Lead role) as the new Group Leads for AMITPRO – the Midlands Association of IT Professionals.

Andy and Guy are simply two of the nicest and well thought of people you’ll meet in the Small Business Specialist Community within the UK – regularly contributing their time and effort to community events both on-line and both in person.

In the short-time they’ve been joint group lead, they’ve already made a positive impact on AMITPRO – putting on a couple of great and well attended meetings, re-vamping the organisation web-site at www.amitpro.org, and taking surveys from their fellow members to help form a fresh direction for the group going forwards.

If you’ve not already checked it out, take a look at Andy’s blog over at http://www.andyparkes.co.uk/blog/ – it’s one of my personal favourites for its mix of news and observations.

Both Andy (pictured left) and Guy (pictured right) can also be found on Twitter.

AMITPRO meets the second Tuesday of every month at the Arden Hotel in Solihull. If you’re involved in the IT Business within the Midlands and have never attended before – why not reach out to Guy or Andy and come along for our next meeting?

(I thought twice before posting this article as my fear is it might offend someone I’ve interacted with recently. If you read this and have a sudden feeling of “Oh! He’s writing about me!” then please believe me – I’m not writing about you! If this blog post *was* aimed at you, I’d have approached you directly to talk about it before now. OK? :-)

It’s well documented that British actor Stephen Fry is a big user of the Social Networking site Twitter. Fry (aka @StephenFry) has almost 1 million followers on the site, and is the first name that the British Press and Media use when they are talking about Twitter.

With so many followers and members of the general public to interact with, Mr. Fry must get all manner of feedback – positive and negative. As a high profile figure, I’m sure he generally shrugs off the negative comments, but do they ever get to him? Fry is a sufferer of Bi-Polar Disorder, also known as Manic Depression, a condition where his mood can become ultra-negative very easily – so surely reading negative feedback affects him occasionally?

A couple of weeks ago, it did – a fellow Twitter user made a negative comment to the effect of he found Stephen Fry’s updates boring, and Mr. Fry reacted.

The whole thing blew over within 24 hours, with the respective parties apologising – but not before the story had made news on the BBC News Web-Site, amongst other media outlets. A storm in a tea-cup perhaps, but one I followed with interest and in fact a genuine concern for both parties as I watched the story unfold on Twitter. Fry was obviously feeling low and overly sensitive (although this is debatable) and his detractor, who seems a good sort judging by his usual behaviour, probably never expected Fry to read his comments, let alone get a response, let alone become Public Enemy Number One as a result.

It’s obvious that the higher your profile is raised, and the more you share of yourself with people, the more likely you are to attract negative feedback. It’s seemingly unavoidable.

I’ve been blogging for 5 years or more now, and using Social Networking sites for many years too. Whilst I’m no Stephen Fry, in terms of either talent (sadly) or profile (thankfully) – the visitor statistics for this blog reveal to me that it gets read by many hundreds of people each day, and there are probably around 300-500 people that I regularly communicate with via sites like Twitter and Facebook, both personally and professionally, each month.

Up until recently, I’ve been more than fortunate to not receive any real negative feedback whatsoever. In fact, the opposite is true. I regularly receive e-mails and messages that are really positive – thanking me for sharing my experiences, writing articles on the blog, asking my advice, or generally just being friendly. This is the stuff that brings a smile to my face and put a spring in my step without fail.

This year I’ve grown my company Netlink IT, rode out the recession, travelled a lot to some wonderful places, found a fabulous new Business Partner and team, spent time with amazing and talented people who I’ve learnt a lot from, and generally been very happy with my lot in life. I post about my experiences regularly on Social Networking sites, not to brag, but to share with my friends and colleagues because, well, this is my life and what else would I talk about, right?

However, recently I’ve noticed something. Whilst I’m hardly receiving hate mail, people are taking the time to leave comments and send e-mails that aren’t exactly positive. In fact, I’ve read a few of them and actually wondered why they’ve taken the time to write the comments at all. What response did they want from me, if any?

• Perhaps (and most likely) is that I’m being over sensitive. I don’t deal with non-constructive criticism very well and know I need to work on my emotional toughness both personally and in business.
• It could be that the medium of electronic communication isn’t conveying the senders intended message. Perhaps they didn’t intend on being so negative, it just came across that way.
• It’s a strong possibility that people think I’m being arrogant or showing off. If somebody’s view of me is based on what they read about me on-line, they’ll probably get the impression I never do any “proper” work, that I spend all my time travelling and doing cool stuff with interesting people. The reality is, I just don’t tend to post the boring and negative stuff – who wants to read that stuff?!
• It’s possible that the messages are meant teasingly. I’m famous for winding up friends and the people who are closest to me, so I probably (no, definitely!) need to realise when others are giving me a taste of my own medicine and winding me up in cyberspace as they do in real life!

But there’s another darker thought that lurks into my mind – that the people who send those negative messages do so because they are simply arseholes (or ass-holes, if you’re reading this from the United States…).

In “real life” I’ve come across folk who try to pull you down, never have a kind word, and are generally so self-absorbed that I’ve made sure to exclude them from my personal and professional life. One of my personal drivers in life is that by associating with positive, successful people, I’ll be more likely to be positive and successful myself. Life is too short to spend it with the moaners and the takers! I’m sure the same is true in the virtual world.

I’ve had this blog post in my head for a week or more now after I recently had my “Stephen Fry” moment. Some negative on-line feedback genuinely made me question whether I enjoyed my on-line life, and made me consider closing my Facebook account down, giving up Twitter and not writing any more blog posts.

I haven’t, of course, and realise that just like in “real life” I’ll need to build some personal strategies for dealing with negative people in the virtual world – but there are times when you wonder if it’s worth it or not!

I’m undecided. I think the reality of this situation lies somewhere between the above points. I’m probably a bit too sensitive, that messages can be read wrong, that I’m a bit arrogant and that people are trying to take me down a peg or two, but at the same time, there are plenty of arseholes who like nothing better than to take a pop. :-)

I’d be interested in hearing your views and thoughts. This, of course, opens me up for all sorts of personal abuse – but hopefully in amongst the slanging there will be some positive feedback! <grin>

In an attempt to curb the multiple scare stories around AVG withdrawing their popular Free Anti-Virus software that usually emerge around the time of these upgrades, here’s a heads-up that version 8.5 of the popular free AVG Anti-Virus will be expiring on December 1st only to be replaced with a free edition of the latest version, v9.

After December 1st, v8.5 or below of the software will still run, but will not update it’s virus definitions leaving you at risk of infection by new viruses, and you’ll be “nagged” by a pop-up asking you to upgrade to AVG version 9.

Clicking the nag pop-up will take you to a web-page where you’re encouraged to buy the full version of AVG Anti-Virus (which may not be a bad thing, as the full version includes a ton of features the free version does not) – but if you’re happy with the free version, then good news – a free edition of version 9 is also available. Look at the smaller print at the bottom of the page to find a link to upgrade (see screenshot right).

Alternatively, you can visit this link directly to download v9 of AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is totally free for non-Commercial use. That means if you’re a small business, you’re breaking the terms of the license agreement by using it – you should contact a reputable AVG reseller for a low-cost upgrade to a Commercial Edition which will protect your business. Trust me when I say it’s worth it!

If you’re a home user and don’t have an Anti-Virus solution in place – then what are you waiting for? Go and download AVG Anti-Virus Free v9.0 straight away!

A quick shout-out for my friend and fellow HTG member - “Mr. Virtualization” (with a “z”) Dave Sobel of Evolvetech, who is running a must-see Webinar on Virtualisation next Wednesday 18th November 2009.

When I call Dave “Mr. Virtualization”, it’s with good reason – he’s the author of the excellent “Virtualization: Defined. A Primer for the SMB Consultant” book, and delivered one of the best break-out sessions at WPC 09 recently, focused around SMB Virtualisation. Dave *is* the Subject Matter Expert on Virtualisation in the SMB Space, and Evolvetech are making a great deal of money in that area thanks to his knowledge of the field!

You can find more details at http://www.smbvirtualization.net/drupal-6.4/node/90, or here’s an overview:-

“I'm presenting a newly updated version of my presentation from WPC as a 5W25 webinar, and wanted to let everyone know about it. This is going to be a good one, and contain new material!

Go visit http://www.mssmallbiz.com/training/ and sign up for my session (or follow the direct link below).

Virtualization is becoming mainstream, and are you ready with your practice? Learn from Dave Sobel, author of “Virtualization: Defined. A Primer for the SMB Consultant”, how to build your consulting practice, get trained and offering solutions, and solutions you can start delivering right away. Learn about server consolidation assessments, Virtual Desktop Infrastructures, and how to deliver high value solutions to your customers.

I'm going to show a presentation that WORKS, that drives customer understanding, and has helped one partner sell more than $300,000 in projects around virtualization.

This is one of my best presentations, and so I highly recommend signing up.”

I’m pleased to say I’ve been fortunate enough to be nominated for the Computer Weekly Blog Awards 2009 as a nominee in the IT Consultant and Analyst Category!

From the web-site:-

IT Blog Awards 2009: IT Consultant and Analyst

Consultants and analysts provide useful insight from their vantage point of working with numerous companies. If they share that insight online in a blog, this is the category for them, whether they are part of a big set-up such as Gartner or Forrester, or a sole trader.

***

If you’re a reader of this blog and would like to vote for me, then you can visit http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/11/03/238190/vote-in-the-computer-weekly-it-blog-awards-2009.htm and select my name from Category 2 – IT Consultant and Analyst.

Thanks for the nomination, and the huge amount of support I’ve already received from friends and colleagues on Facebook and Twitter – win or not, I’m touched and I really appreciate it. :-)

Our Office Manager Sharon has recently started visiting a number of local business networking events, meeting and greeting fellow local businesses, chatting about work, life and the universe, and (hopefully) putting down the building blocks for a business relationship that will be of mutual benefit for both parties for a good time to come.

But once the networking event is over – what then? Sharon has been returning to the office with a fistful of business cards – and the easy thing to do would be to start building a nice pile of cards in the corner of her desk as a very efficient dust-catcher.

But really, what should Sharon do with all those business cards that she’s collected?

Here’s the system we use at Netlink IT to try to maximise the benefit out of all those business cards we collect:-

1. Within 48 hours of attending the networking event, schedule 30 minutes to follow up on the business cards you’ve collected.
2. Input the business cards as a new Contact into Microsoft Outlook so they can easily be referenced for the future and shared with others.
3. Send a follow-up e-mail to the person – I often reference a specific conversations (not always business related!) that I’ve had with that person at the networking event. If you’ve got a terrible memory, like me, then carry a pen with you to the event and make notes on Business Cards received after each conversation.
4. Connect with that person on Social Networking sites such as LinkedIn and Plaxo.
5. With their permission, add that person to the companies e-mail newsletter list – we use a service called Constant Contact to manage these details.
6. Be “The Connector” – if you know of somebody who would benefit from being introduced to the person you’ve met – make that introduction!
7. Finally – if there is a genuine potential need from the new contact for your businesses service (and I should stress that going into a networking event looking to SELL is a very bad idea! However sometimes you meet someone at just the right time when they need your services and it’s worth discussing further) then add the details as an “opportunity” in the CRM system and follow-up by telephone.

Do you do things differently to the above? If so, how do you approach things? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts – leave a comment or e-mail me. 

However you do things, make sure you have some sort of system in place for collecting business cards – otherwise all that time you spend at those networking events will be nothing more than time spent having a chat with a fellow local business, and a pile of cards gathering dust on your desk!

Whilst attending the Phoenix Networking Lunch in Birmingham yesterday I met Di Lamb of the Royal Air Force Aero medical Evacuation Cell. Di is one of the people who has the tough job of flying from Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham to some of the troubled places you regularly see on the news – Afghanistan for instance – and help care for and bring home injured Armed Forces personnel.

Di is organising an event tomorrow (Saturday 31st October) in Birmingham called “Peddle a Poppy” to help raise funds for The Royal British Legion, so I promised Di I would help promote the event to the Geek Community. :-)

Full details below – if you aren’t able to attend, why not make a donation at www.bmycharity.com/peddleapoppy – otherwise, get on your bike and take the Peddle a Poppy Challenge!

***

Peddle a Poppy Challenge

The poppy is perhaps the most poignant reminder of the sacrifice made by servicemen and women who have fought in wars both recent and long past, and a Brigadier and his medical team will cycle across Birmingham this weekend to raise money for the Royal British Legion.

The cycle ride on 31 October, starting at Birmingham International Airport, will etch an outline of a Poppy around Birmingham and the journey taken by patients to each of the city’s main hospitals at which they might receive care for their injuries, finishing at Selly Oak Hospital.

The Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM) team based at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham will be led by RCDM Commandant, Brigadier Christopher Parker and will comprise many of the departments instrumental in repatriating casualties from Afghanistan and will be augmented by members of Defence Supply Chain Operations and Movements based at Andover and 2 Group Air Operations based at RAF Brize Norton. Brigadier Parker said: “The Royal British Legion does a tremendous job for service personnel past and present, and this fund-raising cycle ride struck us as being a novel way of supporting the organisation at a time of year when we remember those who have given so much for the nation.”

Local businesses have also given their support by donating very generous gifts to be raffled at a social function that evening. Among others, Fletchers Autostore in Birmingham donated a mountain bike and The Old School Bed and Breakfast in the Cotswolds donated a luxury weekend for two including a spa package and dinner at a local restaurant.

This event will also serve to thank University Hospital Birmingham Foundation Trust staff, military personnel and Birmingham Emergency Services for the endless care they so diligently provide in support of casualties and their families at such a difficult time.

The aim of the event is to boost funds for the valuable work carried out by the Royal British Legion in support of Armed Forces personnel and their families. You can help us to remember those that have given so much by making a poppy pledge online at: www.bmycharity.com/peddleapoppy

It is quick, secure and attracts an additional 28% tax relief for UK taxpayers.

For further information, please contact Squadron Leader Di Lamb on 0121 627 8386

***

I’m temporarily handing over the blog for a Guest post from Netlink IT’s Office Manager – Sharon Howard.

Sharon has been with Netlink IT since January 2009 and has been hugely instrumental in helping reform our financial processes to see us through the difficult recession, manage our clients and suppliers, keep the office premises running smoothly and general act as what Karl Palachuk would refer to as our $200 miracle!

Sharon will be remaining with us as Office Manager during the merger with JamesCash.co.uk – as we announced last week – but judging by her blog post below, I can guess at one supplier we’re unlikely to be using post-merger…

I’ll hand things over to Sharon!

***

It’s been a month since I arrived at QA-IQ’s Birmingham office for a course only to find it had been cancelled and I still haven’t heard back from our account manager…

When I started working for Netlink IT I was registered for ten training days via a Training License with QA-IQ to build up my skills with Microsoft Office Applications. The first few days went smoothly; I registered for my classes, received confirmation of my booking, went along and sat through my first four classes. Then the next three were cancelled due to low fill, which was fair enough as I was notified and I went along to the rearranged dates without a problem. Now I just had three days left to complete before our training license ran out in May. So in April I went along for my 8^th session only to arrive and find that my course had been cancelled yet our account manager had failed to inform me, this then happened again the following week. I was notified of a third cancellation and finally had my eight training day in may. Our account manager had apologised unreservedly for not informing me and assured us that he would inform me if there were further cancellations, our training license was extended to allow me to complete all the training and we were given one complimentary training day.

Now you would think after this QA would be more careful about keeping us informed of any changes or cancellations but no…

At the end of May it happened again, I arrived for a class only to find they had booked me in for a Microsoft Office 2003 course when I was supposed to be doing 2007, even though I had e-mailed before to check that the course was running. I had received no reply to my e-mail, and as no news is usually good news, I had to take it that no reply meant everything was okay, as surely given the past mistakes they would have replied if there was a problem!?

I finally managed to complete my ninth training day in June so just one left which was booked for 24^th August…

I travelled back early from my weekend away at V-Festival so I could get to my course on time on the morning of the 24^th. On arrival I found that yet again the course had been cancelled, but not only had it been cancelled but this time my place had never been booked by our account manager at all! I returned to our office to find an e-mail sent by our account manager at 9.55am on the 24^th August informing me the course was cancelled, a totally pointless message seeing the course was due to start at 9am! In addition the message went on to offer two alternative dates for the training, but one of these was not even for the right course!!

I replied politely with the following message:

“Unfortunately your message arrived too late to be of use, I had already gone to the centre to be turned away again, they also informed me that even though the course was cancelled I had never been booked on to it in the first place. We are obviously not happy that this has now happened several times with courses where we have not been informed that they were cancelled. Please can you advise me how many training days we have left to use as a result of the complimentary days offered due to the previous mix-ups and also can you provide me with full contact details for the Birmingham office so I can double check with them prior to attendance that courses are running.

As for the dates you have provided only the 30^th November is for Outlook 2007 Level 3, the other date being for Level 1, please can you book me in for the 30^th November in Birmingham and confirm this booking for me. Should the course be cancelled I would appreciate notification as early as possible so as to not waste any more time and expense travelling to attend courses that are not happening.”

To do date I have still not received a reply to this message…

So just a suggestion to anyone looking for training for Microsoft Office, I would recommend finding another training provider, while QA-IQ are one the largest providers of classroom based training this level of customer service is appalling! Personally I intend to opt for online training in future, this suits me better due to increased access and flexibility, and after all it wouldn’t cost so much in time or travel expenses if a course was cancelled.

To QA-IQ: Good Customer Service doesn’t cost the earth, or even significant effort. It is in your interests to retain your customers, so do something about this!

Having a standard pre-prepared e-mail to send out a week before a course either confirming or cancelling the date is easy to set up, and being providers of IT training you should know this anyway… or would you like me to come in and show you how its done?

Click here to connect to Sharon via LinkedIn

Click here to follow Sharon via Twitter

A snappier title to this blog entry might be “Cash and Tubb”, evoking images of a ‘70s Cop Show, but I decided to keep the more straight forward headline…

The title of this blog post says it all – my company, Birmingham based Netlink IT, has merged with nearby Dudley based JamesCash.co.uk – owned by James Cash!

Netlink IT started in 1999 as “Netlink Trading Ltd”, essentially a vehicle for my 9 to 5 IT Contracting at companies such as Ernst & Young, GE Capital and the NHS. By 2004 I was regularly undertaking out-of-hours projects for those clients and other small businesses, and so I took the plunge to give up the IT Contracting and work for myself.

I continued as the “IT Guy” until 2007 when I became aware of something called “Managed Services” and so sought more information – then stumbling across the Microsoft Small Business Specialist Community. I attended the Microsoft SBSC Symposium in Manchester where I listened to people like Susanne Dansey, Gareth Brown of Sytec, Vijay Riyait and Steve Wright of BMS speak on the subject of SMB and Managed Services. This had a profound effect on me – suddenly my eyes were opened to a whole community of IT Professionals and Business Owners who faced the same challenges as me.

I visited my local user group, AMITPRO, where I was made to feel welcome by everyone. I also met a couple of folks there called James Cash and Mark Poulding. More on them later!

Visiting AMITPRO each month gave me the opportunity to discuss the challenges I faced as a “one man band” with my peers. I took on board the advice given by them and other people I’d been introduced to within the Global SMB Community, people such as Tim Long, Vlad Mazek and Karl Palachuk.

By the end of 2007 I’d moved Netlink IT from being “The IT Guy” doing break/fix IT Support in to a pure Managed Services Provider. But the problem remained that I basically still owned a job, and not a business. I no longer wanted to be a “one man band”. I read “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael E. Gerber and decided that the best way to grow my business was to systemise and automate it. 2008 became the year I really concentrated on this – and pretty soon Netlink IT had offices in Weoley Castle, I’d employed an Office Manager to manage all the admin and other chores that stopped me from getting out and earning, and built strategic alliances with other local trusted IT Consultants who I made sure to treat as employees of Netlink IT – sharing our goals, ideas, training, resources, best practices and processes with them. Huge thanks to Mick Davies of MAD Computers, Rob Savage of RobSavage.com and Rob Franklin of JPT Solutions – they all “got it” around the idea of tight collaboration and enabled me to stop being a Technician and start growing a business.

Thoughts then turned from fixing Technical issues to adding new clients, and then meant me taking off my Geek hat and putting on a Sales hat. Uncomfortably territory! I discussed the issue with James Cash (who was growing his own business 8 miles up the road from Netlink IT at a fantastic rate) who suggested I come along to a Sandler Sales Training event with him. I stretched my comfort levels and went, and soon I was attending a bi-weekly Presidents Club hosted by the fantastic Steve Wright (a different one to the BMS owner mentioned earlier!) which focused my business brain on generating sales.

In mid-2008 I also made a trip to the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, TX. Much like that first SBSC Symposium, this was a real eye owner for me. I sat in on seminar sessions delivered by Arlin Sorenson, Stuart Crawford and others which I found genuinely inspirational. I also sat in on a get together of something called HTG – Heartlands Technology Group. The conversation blew me away – here was a room full of around 100 business owners who were REALLY good at what they did.

At WPC 2008 I also met a chap by the name of Dave Sobel, owner of Evolve Technologies. He discussed with me the idea of starting a HTG group in the UK. “Would I be interested?”. You bet! The resulting HTG 11 group became a major influence in my business life, the “Virtual Board of Directors” concept really driving me forwards, and Dave (the Facilitator) of that group becoming a good friend and a great advisor, along with the other fantastic members of HTG 11.

January 2009 saw a reward for our drive towards systemising the business. Netlink IT were awarded an Accreditation by Accredit UK for General Business Processes and Network Design and Installation. I also took on a new Office Manager, a fabulous lady named Sharon Howard. Sharon was hugely instrumental in overhauling our financial management processes – and the timing couldn’t have been better as the UK went into recession.

Fast forward to July 2009 and thoughts had turned to taking on more Technical Staff and improving the Sales process. Just before I was due to fly to New Orleans for WPC 09 I had lunch with James Cash. “How do you feel about talking about a merger with Mark and I?”. When I’d been approached on the subject previously I dismissed it out of hand, but this time around we chatted it over and something blindingly obvious became apparent - the main challenges JamesCash.co.uk were facing, Netlink IT had tackled, and the main challenges Netlink IT were facing, James and his partner Mark Poulding had dealt with. Why not pool our resources, lower our costs and accelerate our mutual growth?

I took my thinking hat to NOLA with me to mull over the options and sat with the people who’s opinion matters most to me – my HTG 11 peers Dave Sobel, Raja Pagadala, Malcolm Diack and HTG’s Stuart Crawford. I came back with a decision.

Since WPC 09, James and I have been planning how to merge our two companies, and boy, there’s a lot to plan! We’ve been lucky enough to have a great Business Mentor in John Shufflebottom to help us along the way. We have closed down the Netlink IT offices in Birmingham and taken on larger joint offices in Dudley, begun migrating data and processes, notified clients and suppliers, financially valued our two companies for the split of shares and undertaken the necessary legal steps, and just last week prepared the Public Relations (there are articles in the Birmingham Mail newspaper and Midland Business News already) There’s still a ton left to be done, but we’re now together in one building and pulling in the same direction – I’m sure we’ll get there.

So going into late 2009 I’m no longer “the boss”, but “a boss” – something that I’m sure will take time to come to terms with but with the benefit that I no longer feel like I have the whole world resting on my shoulders – and together with Mark and James we have a whole new set of goals and a plan for the next 3 years and beyond for the newly merged company!

With huge thanks to everyone I’ve mentioned above (and those many others I’ve not) who helped me grow Netlink IT to the stage where we’re ready to face this new challenge, I hope you’ll wish James, Mark, Sharon, Ian, Alex, Ian, James, Rob and I all the very best of luck for our endeavour!

A quick plug for Erick Simpson of MSPU’s new book “The Best NOC and Service Desk Operations Book EVER” (great title!) which is available for pre-order today, saving $50 off the cover price! Erick’s book, The Guide to a Successful Managed Services Practice, was a big influence when I took Netlink IT down the Managed Services road – so I’m always one of the first to grab Erick’s new books for a good read.

“Following in the footsteps of the last 3 books in our Managed Services Series: The Guide to a Successful Managed Services Practice, The Best I.T. Sales & Marketing BOOK EVER! and The Best I.T. Service Delivery BOOK EVER!, this new publication continues our goal of documenting best practices for each and every area of a successful I.T. and Managed Services Provider's practice.

The Best NOC and Service Desk Operations BOOK EVER! reveals how to build, staff and maintain a NOC and Service Desk effectively and profitably, along with best practices and techniques to increase efficiencies and net profits for these critical business units of your IT practice. Whether you are looking to build out your NOC and Service Desk from scratch, are interested in learning how to effectively outsource and manage specific components of these units, or simply wish to evaluate the processes you currently employ in your own NOC and Service Desk, this reference guide will teach you how to improve processes, maximize efficiencies and increase client satisfaction - all while improving your bottom line!

Ship date for The Best NOC and Service Desk BOOK EVER! is October 31st, 2009, but we are now accepting pre-orders at a $50 discount over cover price!

Click here for more information, and to pre-order now for only $99.99* - and save $50 over the cover price!”