QeH2 Business Intelligence

Welcome to the Future of IT Support... INFERNO

2011-03-18T16:25:00.002-06:00

No technology plan? Does your organization lack a strategy for how technology can best serve it into the future?

Stuck in a break-fix nightmare? Many service providers just address the symptoms of downtime, and not the root cause!

Lack of urgency? Are incidents that occur off-hours often left until the next business day regardless of the business impact?

Total network peace of mind. Your time is precious. You have more important issues to deal with than your computer network. It is, however, a critical enabler to your business and in need of attention to ensure it’s running predictably, optimally and securely. Our fully managed solution is the ideal program for an organization like yours, an organization that demands the utmost in network reliability and quality service.

Total IT support and management for a fixed monthly price – it's that simple. We provide all of the benefits of an internal MIS department for a fraction of the price of staffing one yourself. We reduce the business impact of IT failures by minimizing their occurrence, and any unforseen issues are dealt with as a top priority. All aspects of your network are covered: security, data protection applications and hardware.

When you outsource the management of your important IT resources to us, we look upon this as a partnership. Our comprehensive and professional approach means we are your IT department. By optimizing your network's performance, it will work at the peak efficiency and reliability levels that your business demands, allowing you to focus on running your business, not your network. Security, networking, data protection and user support - we handle it all for a single, predictable price.

Program Advantages:
Lower support costs through our preferred customer rates: Through participation in our managed services program, for any service work performed, you receive access to our preferred service support rates.

A single monthly price for superior network care: No more guessing what IT support will cost. Receive guaranteed predictability of your IT support costs and avoid high emergency fees. One monthly fee covers all support.

Unparalled transparency and accountability: Regularly scheduled IT consulting sessions provide a level of guidance, transparency and accountabilty that you cannot get from other IT service providers.

Strategies for Conserving Battery Power

2011-01-31T12:39:00.004-07:00

Have you ever run out of battery power on your mobile PC during a meeting or a class? Have you worried about running out of power while waiting to meet with a client? Have you asked yourself how much longer your battery will last? Sufficient battery life is a persistent challenge for mobile PC users. But Windows offers several ways to help maximize the battery life of your mobile computer.

Optimize your power settings
The display and hard disk on your mobile PC are the two biggest consumers of battery power. By choosing a power plan (called a power scheme in Windows XP) you can extend your battery life. A power plan is a collection of hardware and system settings that control how your mobile PC manages power.

Sleep (Standby)
In a sleep state (standby), your display and hard disk turn off, and all open programs and files are saved in random access memory (RAM)—your computer's temporary memory—rather than to the hard disk. Information stored in RAM is cleared when the computer turns off, so it's a good idea to save your work before placing your system in standby mode. Otherwise, you may lose data if you lose power, you swap batteries, or your system crashes.

Sleep (standby) is particularly useful when you're using your mobile PC intermittently during the day. For example, when driving between clients' offices during the day, put your computer to sleep or on standby to maximize the life of your battery and maintain quick access to open programs, files, and documents. When you want to use your computer again, it wakes up quickly, and your desktop is restored exactly as you left it.

Hibernation
In hibernation, your computer saves everything to your hard disk and then shuts down. When you restart the computer, your desktop is restored exactly as you left it. Hibernation uses less power than the sleep state (standby), but it takes a bit longer to resume.

Hybrid Sleep
Hybrid sleep is a power-saving feature designed primarily for desktop computers. Hybrid sleep saves any open documents and programs to memory and to your hard disk drive, and then puts your computer into a low-power state.

Adjust screen brightness
You can also conserve battery by reducing the screen brightness. To adjust your screen brightness, refer to the instructions from your mobile PC manufacturer. Every computer is slightly different, but you can usually use a combination of keys, a function key, or a software tool to dim the screen.

Even better than dimming the screen is blanking it completely when you're not using your computer. You can further minimize power consumption by reducing the amount of time the computer is idle before the screen goes blank.

Turn off wireless
Another significant drain on your battery power is your wireless card. You should turn off your wireless device when you're using your mobile PC but are not connected to a wireless network. You can either remove your Wi-Fi card or press the manual hardware button on your computer if you're using a Centrino-based mobile PC. Refer to the instructions from your mobile PC manufacturer to learn where the manual hardware button is.

These are just some tips to keep you operational any time any place. We all know the chaos that a dead battery or cell phone can create. Make sure to check out additional power saving techniques by clicking on the title link.

10 Cyber "Threat" Trends

2011-01-11T16:24:00.002-07:00

1. Attacks via USB drives: as these types of drives become cheaper and more ubiquitous, malware and Trojans will spread on them. Many companies hand out USB drives at trade shows.

2. Large-scale, targeted botnet attacks.

3. Denial of service attacks, like those that affected San Francisco-based Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) in the Wikileaks fiasco.

4.More attacks via social networks like Facebook Inc. Future viruses will likely be designed to steal or delete users’ personal information, which can be sold in numerous black markets.

5. Click jacking and cross-site scripting. This is similar to social network attacks. Criminals use fake web pages to trick users into giving away passwords, account numbers, etc.

6. Phishing attacks from “trusted” third parties. Emails will come, ostensibly from banks or other well known companies, asking users to click on a link.

7. Online fraud and money mules. These are active attempts to enlist people to transfer illegal funds from credit card thieves.

8. Cloud computing concerns. As more data is distributed around the Internet in the so-called “cloud,” opportunities for data infection or theft will grow.

9. Data exfiltration and insider threats. People will always find ways to anonymously leak private information.

10. Attacks on mobile devices and wireless networks. This fast growing area of technology provides unprecedented opportunities for cyber criminals. Phones and mobile devices can be specifically targeted in denial of service attacks, and criminals will also try to exploit mobile banking apps and similar programs.

Read more.

Future-proof your data archive

2010-12-31T10:01:00.003-07:00

It's easier than ever to make sure copies of your most important records, documents, photos, videos, and other personal data will be readable/viewable/playable long after the hardware and software used to create the files have bitten the dust.

The four keys to safe data archiving are to choose file formats that won't become obsolete, use storage media that won't deteriorate or become inaccessible, make multiple copies stored apart, and check your archived data regularly to ensure it's still readable.

Don't get stuck with outdated data formats
Most of the files you want to archive are likely in proprietary formats, such as Microsoft Office's .doc, .xls, and .ppt for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, respectively. Despite the ubiquity of software and services that let you read and edit Office files without the Office app used to create them, these formats will become obsolete one day--perhaps sooner than you may think.

Find a storage medium with legs
If you're wondering how long the data on your CDs and DVDs will last, you're not alone. Even the experts can't agree on the expected longevity of optical media--and the same is true for magnetic tapes and disks. (The X Lab offers a detailed discussion of optical media longevity, including a brief description of the ISO standards for testing optical media.)

More than one archive, more than one place
Storing your data archive online violates two rules of safe storage: you don't have physical access to the hardware the files are stored on, and you're susceptible to the financial health of the service you're using. If the service goes under, there's no guarantee you'll be able to retrieve your data, and you have to trust in the service's ability to maintain and back up its storage servers.

Schedule regular archive checkups
For the last couple of years I've been spending a good chunk of my spare time using the free Audacity audio software to convert several thousand songs on several hundred audio cassettes to MP3s. Some of the tapes were made as far back as the mid-1970s, but most date from the 1980s and early 1990s

Generally, it is very hard to keep up with each one of these tasks. QeH2 partners with many small-to-medium businesses to eliminate these pain points and helps to make you feel safe and secure. QeH2 has the proven track record and data recovery team in place to partner with your organization, protect your data from disaster and take your business to the next level this coming year.

To read the full article, click here.

Are Hackers Putting Your Business in Danger?

2010-12-13T10:01:00.002-07:00

by Eric Pratt

With the Wiki Leaks drama of the past week it seems there is a lot of speculation circulating as regard to who's at risk, what can be done, and who to turn to for support. That's where QeH2 Business Solutions and IT Support comes in! With a host of Disaster Recovery, Internet Security, Network Security and protection for the small business.

With fear comes rash decisions however (exactly what hackers want). Look to avoid some of the many scares that are crippling businesses and causing them to over spend. For example, see this recent email I received from our tenant regarding just this issue, and QeH2 Partner Ian Holt's thoughts following...

WARNING: Internet usage and DoS attacks

With the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange the largest hacker group in the world right now (Known as "Anonymous") is doing major attacks on many financial institutions like Paypal and Mastercard and internet providers like Amazon. These attacks also known as DoS (Denial of Service) attacks are usually performed by sending out massive amounts of malware which hijacks people's machines and disseminates the attack from unknowing victims machines. Occasionally these malware include Trojans and worms which will damage your machine.

As an added precaution beyond normal virus and malware protection we want all of our customers to know about this and would ask that you limit internet usage over the next three days to curtail any hijacking of your equipment. By all means, do not stop using the internet altogether but please limit your usage as much as possible for the next three days. The government is fighting back against these hackers and the major companies are working on patches to block the malware dissemination but it will take time.

I sent this to my Partner and friend Ian, he replied with the following....

"This sounds like a hoax. It's not like there is a limited amount of internet to go around. If you try to access one of the websites they attack it will be slower, but your internet usage will not affect nor increase your ability to be attacked or hijacked.

The government does fight back against hackers, the FBI has 1 (that's ONE) cybercrime expert in the state of Colorado and he's woefully behind the times. Private companies being attacked will update their security policies and block offending traffic and may experience a few hours of downtime until they control their own sites.

Erroneous parts of this email include - The Paypal BLOG site was down, not paypal. Amazon is NOT an internet provider, they are an online retailer.

This whole thing reeks of cyberhoax."

Hopefully this proves as an example that you never know what to believe, especially given the various sources. Someone played a simple hoax here but the results can and will be lost productivity, etc. When a question comes up just contact your QeH2 IT Support Technician, that's what we're here for!

Are you Ready for Cyber Monday?

2010-11-22T15:37:00.002-07:00

by Ian Holt

With nearly every retailer from Costco to Amazon advertising Cyber Monday, when do you suppose busy employees will get their online shopping done? In 2002 a survey of 2000 US companies nationwide found that half of all employees with online access planned to do holiday shopping from their company computer. We suspect that number has grown over the years as one third of those employees volunteered that they would knowingly violate their company’s Internet use policy prohibiting shopping at work. Another 20 percent of online employees had no idea if their company had a policy or not. And this was before the term "Cyber Monday" was even advertised!

Since the enterprise reaches into the employees personal time, the employee may feel justified in extending his or her personal life into the enterprise. Activities like online shopping, vacation planning, gaming, personal e-mail and social media are considered quid pro quo by the employee.

Your company's Internet Use Policy must be flexible enough to coincide with actual behavior and the flexibility needed to manage your workforce. Something with configurable time controls would allow you to easily restrict the days and hours during which users can access the Internet. You can also allow free access with or without monitoring during specified time periods so shoppers can shop away on Cyber Monday at lunch or after work.

QeH2 can help your company create a company Internet Usage Policy that fits your actual internet usage.

Ways IT Can Waste Money

2010-11-08T20:39:00.004-07:00

We will look at 6 ways your IT may be letting precious dollars slip away. Some of these may just be common sense but there are a lot of organizations out there that are wasting money in these ways.

1. Wasted energy
The electric bill is still a large cost for companies and the IT department is a big user of energy. By adopting some energy-saving policies, you may be able to save some money. Members of your office stay may leave their computers on when they leave for the day or substituting the use of a screen saver as opposed to turning off the monitor (you should do both). With the advanced technology we have, using power settings available may pay off. Turing off lights in the server room and around the office when you leave for the day as well as using Energy Star rated equipment will help to save over the long run.

2. Spending too much on mobile technology
Mobile phones and devices are great toys, but company-provided equipment may be costing more than necessary. Using policies regarding mobile device use may help to determine what the right levels of minutes are appropriate for your organization.

3. Not allowing employees to telecommute
Management sometimes fails to recognize the cost savings for both the employee and employer associated with telecommuting on a regular base or part-time. One of the biggest issues companies have with telecommuting employees is the security threat it presents. With the advancement of technology, software allows IT departments to ensure remote systems connecting to the company are properly configured and protected and that connections are secure. Allowing employees to work from home can save on areas like office/parking space, heating/air conditioning, etc. It even saves employees on clothes, lunches, and transportation. They even tend to enjoy work more, putting in extra hours and raising the level of productivity.

4. Hiring full-time employees when an outside company could be more cost effective
Bringing on full-time employees to handle a workload that's meant to be temporary leaves employers with idle workers, costing more money due to no economy of scales. When you don't have the expertise for a specific project, it is more cost effective hire the expert. This keeps you from having to pay benefits such as insurance, vacation time, and sick time. Another plus is not dealing with all the paperwork and overhead that's associated with regular employees.

5. Make unnecessary upgrades
It's great to have the latest and greatest technology but can really take a hit to your bank account. Focusing on hardware and/or software upgrades that allow users to do their jobs more efficiently makes sense. Purchasing new hardware/software every couple of years or upgrading to the newest software so many months after it comes out may not be the best use of resources. Evaluating your current infrastructure and how users interact with their equipment allows the company to only replace or upgrade in areas that absolutely need it.

6. Failure to upgrade old, inefficient hardware
On the flip side, some companies are trying to squeeze every last drop out of their current systems. If you continuously repairing old, outdated equipment, putting 'Band-Aids' on your network every time it crashes because of energy inefficiencies, or putting your data at risk with ancient software, it's time to stop. It makes sense to invest some capital to lower operating costs and save money over the long run.

These are only some of the ways to conserve your IT budget. With the economy still trying to bounce back, conserving in areas and investing in other areas will allow you to move your business forward.

Email Security

2010-10-28T15:11:00.002-06:00

by Colin MacDonald

I have noticed the past few months a lot of clients getting viruses on their machines.There hasn’t been the usual scare of “OH NO! Look out, there’s a worm virus attack happening!!” and everyone freaks out, it’s just a normal day in the virus world. As it affects me and the amount of work that I do, I wanted to find out how they were getting these viruses and then come up with a few easy ways to prevent them. I decided to look at their emails, all these steps I have implemented at at least 1 company, with most of them scattered throughout other clients.

1. Problems

Attachments – Of course everyone should be wary of opening attachments in emails. If it’s a video or pictures, it may be infected with malware or a virus.

Forwards – The funny jokes and touching stories that people share online. You can tell that you’re getting these by the “fwd fwd fwd fwd…..” in the subject line. I personally don’t read forwards. It’s that easy of a choice to make. For the 30 seconds that I may chuckle or feel good about reading what the story was, it’s not worth the 3 hours worth of work that I must do to clean my computer of infections

Fake Emails – Is your brother the kind of guy that would write you an email that says “Hello. Check this out! www.infectmypcbecausethisisafakeemailwithafakelink.com”? Or would your brother be more like mine and say “Hey punk. I saw this video and thought of you and that time when that basketball hit you in the face (note: that totally never happened in our childhood, I was a way better ball player than he was) and I laughed until I couldn’t breathe. www.realvideobutIwasnotthebrotherwhogothitintheface.com. Which one of those links would you click on? Figure out what is real and what isn’t. Spammers will try and trick you into opening their emails by sounding legit. Subject lines will say things “Good seeing you the other day” “Want to do lunch tomorrow?” “Check out this website that I found!”. Some will go as far as to enter in your name to try and personalize it even more, thus getting you to click on it.

With all the social networking sites out there, you are bound to be one of the millions using them informing the world of your thoughts in up the minute broadcasts. These sites have a system where notification emails can be sent to you. Spammers will try and mimick these also. Facebook will send you a notification using the email address notification@facebook.com. Spammers will use the address notifications@facebookmail.com. The trick is to know which of these are real and which aren’t.

2. Solutions

Outlook Reading Pane – Outlook has a function where it will automatically open your individual emails when highlighted. This can pose a risk in the sense that highlighting an infected email will automatically open it thus infecting the computer. My advice is to turn it off. That way if you need to read an email, you must double click on it.

Setup an alternate email address – Don’t ever sign up for anything using your business email. There are plenty of free email sites out there to use. Some of the more popular ones: www.hotmail.com, www.yahoo.com and my personal favourite www.gmail.com. Tell your friends to send forwards (if you’re one of those who absolutely needs to read them) to it. That way if your email account starts to spam, it won’t be from your company email (your system administrator will thank you for that).
When signing up for other things (such as Facebook, fantasy football, software trials) use this email address, if you’re added to a spam list, you don’t see all of the messages about getting Viagra that are gonna come to you, because you’ll get enough of those already from that sales guy you upset that one time who uses your email address to sign up for every credit card and magazine offer he gets.

Notification emails – In regards to the Facebook notifications, it’s simple enough. If you get an email from Facebook saying how Aunt Peggy just commented on a photo of you (hopefully not the photo of the last party you went to…) delete the notification email, open a new browser window and log into your Facebook account through it’s main page. Sure, that email has a link in it, but what if you were too late to see that it was from a fake email address?

Now these aren’t going to prevent any user from ever getting a virus or malware on their machine. However, these are just a few of the little things that I have seen from my years in the IT business. In the end it boils down to common sense about what you do online and what you open in your email

5 biggest items to keep in mind when building a budget for the next 1 to 5 years?

2010-10-18T08:32:00.000-06:00

1: Review.
Review Your past IT budgets and compare what you planed verses what you spent. This will help you get a good idea of what to expect, and where you can plan better for the years to come. If you are in the first year of business and do not have any data to review, you’re not out of luck but you might need some help with this step. Not to plug QeH2 but you can talk to us about this and we can help you know what to expect.

2: Know the Company Plan.
Know what growth plan the company has projected over the next 1 to 5 years. Are they looking at adding 5, or 10 new employees a month or are they planning on keeping head count the same. Are they planning on moving to more of a remote work from home model or move jobs overseas? All of this can have effect on your planning. Estimate how much each person on your staff will cost to give them the needed computer and set up of applications. This also might include having multiple positions costing models. Production workers normally do not cost as much as an executive position will.

3: You are here--->
Know where you are and where you want to be. If you have 25 computers that are all 7 years old and they are running windows 2000 and you want to be running Windows 7 with office 2010 then find out what it will take to get there and make that a part of your plan. Make an inventory of each computer and the software licensing you have and make a plan for when it needs to be upgraded. Look at your servers and ask yourself the question. Will this server work for my company in 12 months? Most computers have a life span is 3 to 5 years. Servers are any ware from 4 to 7 years depending on who you talk to. Most important is can you get parts? If you cannot get parts or it is no longer covered under a warrantee then maybe you should consider the risks and what you are running on that server.

4: Did that Expire?
Know your expiration dates. This is simple make an excel document that has some basic information on it. Track What, When, Cost, and what is affected. This is more than just your simple antivirus and support contracts. This is a warning list of any and all items that will need to be renewed over the next 1 to 5 years. Then I like to set up outlook appointments to remind me when I need to get a quote or fill out the purchase request for that item. This is a simple way to make you look like the hero.

5: RFP’s are your friend.
Scope out any new projects over the next 12 months, and list out all the details of your projects. This will help you understand what cost they might have on your budget. It will also help you understand how long those projects will take. Remember you are not only budgeting your money but also your IT resources, and time. You only have so many hours in a day. Will you need to bring in any assistance to meet your goals? Is this something that someone else can do for less or complete faster than your recourses can? Building all of your RFP’s will help even if you are going to keep this as an internal project.

QEH2 Celebrates 4th Anniversary With Castle Rock Chamber Ribbon Cutting Event

2010-10-13T17:45:00.003-06:00

by Alex Repola

Over the past year, QeH2 has focused some of their attention on reconnecting with the Castle Rock community. After almost four years of business and expanding into many of the small-to-medium business markets along the Front Range, QeH2 invited the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce to their downtown office to celebrate their fourth anniversary with a ribbon cutting event.

“QeH2 is very proud of their Castle Rock roots and we believe this event further solidifies our appreciation and dedication to this community,” said Eric Pratt, Director of Sales and Marketing. Pratt, who has been with QeH2 since early 2009, understands that building long-lasting relationships through associations like the chamber and the Castle Rock Economic Development Council, is essential in building trust.

The name, QeH2, is an acronym made up after the four owners of the company; Quentin Jaksch, Darrin Eisele, and brothers Ian and Jim Holt. With a century of technology and business experience among the four of them, producing results and growing the organization by leveraging technology in every aspect of business, is proving to be a very successful way of building a business.

QeH2 was created based on some revolutionary principles; the first being ‘Say-Do’ which literally translates into, if they say they are going to do something, they do it. QeH2 prides on always delivering solutions on time and to specifications. Another distinguishing principle is that they DO NOT make clients sign contracts. Their services provide clients with a limited risk engagement; this revolutionary one-week agreement empowers clients by providing flexibility to focus only on priorities. Additionally, QeH2 provides premium documentation on everything they work on with clients. Focusing on providing clients with detailed, clear documentation helps to promote trust and creates a map of where QeH2 can help organizations improve business processes through leveraging technology.

This past year, QeH2 was named one of Denver’s Fastest Growing Small Businesses by the Denver Business Journal. In the past two months, QeH2 has opened offices in both Colorado Springs and Highlands Ranch, giving them even more of local presence in Denver and Southern Colorado. 17 employees, 15-plus in-house skill sets, over 100 clients; QeH2 isn’t going anywhere. Their continuous devotion to building and leveraging relationships is an important part to how QeH2 does business.

For more information on services, the business process, or to follow the QeH2 blog, visit www.QeH2.com

10 Easy Steps to Share Your Outlook Calendar

2010-10-11T10:50:00.004-06:00

A helpful tip by the QEH2 IT support staff.

Outlook 2007 and 2010 have made it very easy to share your calendar via E-mail. Embedding your schedule right into an email message allows you to show your availability to others in your organization and clients. Follow the steps below and eliminate the hassle of coordinating and arranging meetings over the phone or through multiple E-mails.

1. Create a new message and address it appropriately.
2. Click the insert tab.
3. Click Calendar in the Include group. The Send A Calendar Via E-Mail dialog offers a number of ways to customize just how much (or little) the recipients see in the embedded calendar.
4. From the Date Range control, choose a specific date, a predefined range, or specified specific dates. That way, you send only the days relevant to the event you're trying to schedule.
5. From the Detail section, you'll probably want to retain the default, Available Only. You can send more information, when warranted.
6. Depending on the situation, you might want to check the Show Time Within My Working Hours Only option. You might not want to share non-work related activities. Outlook's default working hours are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Click the Set Working Hours link to customize your work hours if necessary.
7. Click the Show Advanced button for more customization (it toggles between Show and Hide).
8. Click OK when you're done and Outlook will embed your calendar, notify events and other information (as required by your settings).

9. Finish the message and click send.

Recipients can quickly discern times when you are both free and suggest a reasonable time for your meetings. This makes setting a meeting so easy, even a caveman can do it!

Still Throwing Money at Old Technology?

2010-10-01T12:24:00.002-06:00

By Alex Repola

Businesses and IT support specialists are notorious for continuously shoving money into old and outdated technologies. I believe that the real problem is that the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" has been passed down generation by generation.

What business owners everywhere aren't realizing is that putting a band aid on a machine that you rely on to assist in running your business is a horrible idea. We all know what happens after a few days, the band aid falls off and we are stuck searching for another band aid that sticks better or we say screw it, I'll work through the pain. This is no way to run a business, and eventually it will hurt your organization.

QeH2 has taken a century of IT support and business experience and built a model completely different than anything in the greater-Denver area. Designed from the business owners perspective, QeH2 has created a very different way of doing business. By leveraging and implementing best-of-breed technologies within every department, QeH2 has set the standard by taking a proactive approach to IT support in Colorado. Being on-site, working right along side the business owner and the employees, QeH2 is able to address issues and concerns before it effects business. Instead of putting out fires, we are preventing fires. This is where the majority of IT support companies fail to deliver. Stepping outside of basic maintenance and preventing technical issues from hindering day-to-day business transactions is how QeH2 does business.

Stop shoving money into old and outdated technologies. Let QeH2 come in, no obligation, to assess areas they can work with you to improve on your business processes and really, let you do what you do best. QeH2 has the proven track record within the IT support industry to truly grow your organization.

For more information, visit us at QeH2.com.

Customer Satisfaction is Worth Fighting For

2010-09-17T12:11:00.003-06:00

by Alex Repola

Anymore, business owners are watching the way they spend money; that's obvious. When we decide to make a purchase or enlist someones service, our experience is what may make all the difference. Bad experience may mean a complaint call, a bad online review... or two, maybe even lose a customer. A good experience results in much more desirable results. Ongoing business transactions, long-lasting relationships, and word-of-mouth referrals are all be tied to customer satisfaction.

We all like to think that customers only remember the good experiences they have with us and share those with their friends and family, but that is no always the case. Far too often, consumers remember the times you forgot to hold the mushrooms, correct that billing error, or respond in to an emergency later than expected.

Instilling a revolutionary customer service model and using it day-in and day-out, sets the tone for all customer transactions. Part of why the QeH2 "formula" is so successful has to do with our continuous focus on customer service. The QeH2 model was created by looking at everything that was wrong and negatively associated to the IT support industry. After four years of business, we have joined the ranks as one of the top, smallest businesses in the Denver-metro area.

By continuously evolving our model to fit changing technology trends and more importantly, budgets, QeH2's service is hard to match. Our guaranteed response time, free break/fix, and exceptional customer service is what's setting us a part in the IT support industry.

With no contracts, stop paying for crappy IT support and allow us to partner with your organization and get business done.

The Opposite of Say-Do

2010-09-08T11:21:00.006-06:00

by Alex Repola

I recently went through the process of planning a wedding, something that is very special and will be remembered by many as one the most important and pivotal times you will ever experience in your lifetime. The dress, the location, the weather, the flowers, the food, the music, and don't forget the cake; weddings are remembered for different reasons by each person.

Leading up to the wedding, something that was very hard to ignore was the level of follow-through and communication by some of my vendors. You would think that within the wedding industry there is extra attention put on every little detail and if something changed it would be communicated, not true. I can think of a handful of things before the wedding that could have gone a lot smoother had the vendor or individual simply communicated with me. Even if the issue could not be avoided, had the vendor communicated with me about it and options for moving forward, the outcome would have been much different. This is the opposite of Say-Do.

In the service industry, specifically the IT support industry, communication between the IT company and the business owner is close to non-existent. Follow-through can be seen in the same light, easier said then done.

When it comes to IT support here in Colorado, specifically along the Front Range, QeH2 is setting the standard. We are setting the standard because so many other companies in the area are dropping the ball, and business owners think that is normal. Lack of communication and any sort of ownership when dealing with an outsourced IT company is unacceptable. Before the conception of QeH2, the four owners saw an opportunity to provide CIO level Denver IT support to small-to-medium businesses in a way that no other Denver based IT support company was. The model was built on two words; Say-Do. If we say we are going to do something, we actually do it. We are not afraid to communicate with the client and we leave that line of communication wide open, all the time. QeH2's level of detail and ability to follow-through is no match for your current Denver IT support company. We do things better, faster, more efficiently, and continuously raise the bar.

If you are tired of paying for crappy IT support, give us a trial run. We have a proven track record of success with all types of companies and we want to add you to the list of companies who are no longer struggling with all that's wrong with IT.

What's Driving Your Company?

2010-08-25T22:23:00.008-06:00

by Eric Pratt

Which came first, the donkey or the mule? Who drives your company bus, you, your systems, or your employees? Better yet, do you empower your employees or do you cripple them?

I doubt that you think you are crippling your employees but I’m here to tell you that many of the clients I meet with are doing exactly that. Not purposely of course, in most cases not even knowingly. How? Horrible, outdated, poorly constructed technology. The best way to limit your team’s productivity is to limit them from the many great tools out there in today’s completely mobile and technologically advanced world.

The best thing you can do is invest in your employees and their success and I believe the best way to do that is through tools and business information technology that make them better, faster, more productive, and possibly most importantly more satisfied. Technology, if used properly, can be a weapon for your team to wield in its pursuit of competitive advantage and superior production. If you aren’t giving your people the tools then you aren’t enabling them to succeed. You aren’t empowering them to compete on a higher level.

How much effect can the right tools have on production? I could argue up to 50% productivity increase but for example’s sake let’s use 10%. So by providing your people with newer, faster computers, a better intranet in the office, mobile tools for the sales force, you should be able to compete at least 10% more effectively then without. That’s a no-brainer.

How many employees do you have? How much do you pay them? Let’s take another example, say 10 employees with an average yearly salary of $50,000. Again, these are conservative numbers by all accounts, most of you probably have more people with higher averages. So take those 10 employees at $50 grr apiece and make them 10% more productive by giving them some better tools to work with. The result? $50,000, the amount you are currently spending on an average employee.

My point? Simple, the next time your staff is getting overloaded and you are about to throw another employee blindly at the problem…. DON’T. Take a better approach, invest in what you have. Free up some time. Free up their minds. Give your best people the best business information technology tools on the market and watch their productivity go through the roof. Spend a little money investing in your most valuable resource instead of hiring another resource. Don’t think it will work? Think again. It’s probably working for your biggest competitor and that’s why they are kicking your butt.

If you're not changing with the environmnet and challenging the way "you've always done things" then you are moving as fast as others and you will get passed by. What are you waiting for?

Dealing with the F Word

2010-08-24T12:56:00.003-06:00

by Eric Pratt

I’m a big fan of Seth Godin. His books are great, easy to read, easy to comprehend, easy to pick up a concept and run with it. His inspirational writings have really given me direction and focus with my changing role in our companies. Mostly he just makes sense.

Sometimes a writer is obviously coming from another planet or such an opposite point of view that I have a really hard time connecting. Not Seth Godin, he says what I would say if I had more experience, more knowledge, and more talent. At least I’d like to think so....

While reading my third Godin work Tribes (I’ve completed Big Red Fez and Purple Cow with The Dip on my to do list). I read a passage today on a plane from Denver to Boston that I thought I would share.

In my career I’ve been blessed with several great opportunities (such as QeH2) and of course a couple not so great. I have taken pride in my ability to capitalize on the good ones (like Revenue River) and move on from the others. More importantly I’ve had the courage to take the risk in leaving the wrong opportunity for the next, whether that be better or worse. Call it faith, call it my temper and ego, call it what you will I’ve left a few organizations before most of my peers after concluding that there was no carrot for me there.

Not that I’m proud of leaving but I’m proud of where I’m at now and know that if I’d accepted mediocrity or stayed where there was no real future I’d still be there.

Seth Godin hit on what I would agree is the reason many of my peers stayed and why they may still be on a dead end career road working for people who just don’t get it. People who manage instead of lead. People who set their employees up for failure every day and blame them when less then the best is achieved.

Here is an excerpt from Tribes by Seth Godin:

The F Word

"So if tribes reward innovation…
….and initiators are happier….
….then why doesn’t everyone do it?
Because of fear.

I’ve encountered thousands (it might be tens of thousands) of people walking around with great ideas. Some of the ideas really are great; some are mearly pretty good. There doesn’t seem to be a shortage of ideas. Ordinary folks can dream up remarkable stuff fairly easily.
What’s missing is the will to make the ideas happen.

In a battle between two ideas, the one doesn’t necessarily win. No, the idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it.

A lot of us would like to believe that there’s a Bureau of Idea Approval, or the BIA if you like acronyms. The BIA sites in judgemnet of ideas and blesses the best ones. Go ahead and hone your remarkable concept, submit to the BIA, and let them do the rest.
Alas, its not going to happen like that any time soon.

Thinking Your Way Out of the Fear

Fear’s an emotion, no doubt about it. One of the strongest, oldest, and most hardwired.
Mr. Godin goes on with some really powerful stuff from here, if you haven’t read this or his other works you really should.

What I take away from this is that you have to take a chance. You have to be willing to take the leap. Leave what’s comfortable for the unknown. Go for it without worrying about what will happen if you fail… you can always go back to another company that will let you fly under the radar. Jobs like that are everywhere."

Maybe I’m a gambler and like the volatility but I’ve always had a go-for-it approach. There is a slim line between "confident risk taker" and reckless I suppose but I’ve always thought that the line was a little further off then most of my colleagues and competitors.

Moral of the story? I don’t know for sure, probably just my rambling and inspiration from Mr. Godin. I guess it’s either go buy all of Mr. Godin’s books or don’t be afraid to take a chance. Either way I don’t think you can lose.

QeH2 Reviews Digeus System Optimizer 8.2 by Digeus, Inc.

2010-08-22T20:16:00.003-06:00

by Ian Holt

Digeus System Optimizer is a waste of money from an IT support standpoint. All these functions and capabilities are covered by free software from Microsoft (Windows Sysinternals). Granted, Digeus simplifies the interface, but in some cases either doesn't warn of the sever implications of changes being made or over-inflates the value of their software with impressive numbers of "bad" files/entries that really have little to no impact on machine performance. A couple of examples, the registry cleaner looks impressive when it found hundreds of "bad" entries, but running this program did NOT make my computer any faster (the registry is made of millions of lines of code, what impact, statistically, can even a few hundred entries make?). Process Manager classifies some VITAL Microsoft processes as superfluous because even Microsoft doesn't use the signature process correctly - use at your own peril! An over-simplified bubblegum interface hides some dangerous applications that the average user should NOT play with.

IT Support vs. Tires

2010-08-17T17:01:00.006-06:00

by Alex Repola

I recently went through the process of selecting tires for my '05 Outback but caught myself shopping the tire company itself instead of for the cheapest tires. Of course, I hopped online to find local tire shops here in Castle Rock for a set of inexpensive tires. I had a budget and I wanted to sick to, a very tight schedule to work around, and a level of service I expected. I gathered a few online quotes as well as some in-store estimates. focusing on my budget. I was in the neighborhood of the Goodyear tire center Coloradoland Tire & Service on the north side of Castle Rock and stopped in to get one last quote. These guys were friendly, competitive, quick, and trustworthy. They were able to work with my budget but made sure to bring to light the fact that tires are an investment and cutting corners could end up costing more down the road. I had them put tires on my car and walked out of that shop this afternoon knowing I paid for great service and a great product.

For small-to-medium businesses, investing in things that will elevate your company's production capabilities is not something you think twice about. Implementing best business practices and solutions that move your organization forward can really set you apart from your competition. QeH2 has been providing business IT solutions along the Front Range for the past four years. With a very similar customer service experiences as Coloradoland Tire & Service, QeH2 provides friendly, honest, and revolutionary IT support with your entire buiness in mind. Looking at how technology can help, and hinder productivity and efficiency around the office, is a daily routine for the QeH2 team. Our Say-Do philosophy keeps our focus on performance and reliability, a defining characteristic of QeH2. We have the rack record to prove it.

How do you chose who your going to pay for service, whether it's IT support or tires?

QeH2 Interviews Strategic Local Partner Seogon Technologies

2010-07-12T14:35:00.025-06:00

by Alex Repola

Up until just a few years ago, very few people knew what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was. Up until even a year ago, people that had heard of SEO didn’t even know what it meant. Seogon Technologies, a Denver based SEO and Internet marketing company, has spent the last year changing the way businesses reach out to prospective clients through the World Wide Web. With nearly a decade of Internet marketing experience in various industries, co-owner Stephen Christopher prides himself on ethical business practices and customer service when designing marketing campaigns for organizations. I have worked with Stephen on many occasions and have learned there are right ways of doing SEO and there are wrong ways; Seogon Technologies takes those extra steps to ensure complete customer satisfactions through ethical business practices.

Q: Tell me a little about yourself, Stephen.
A: I grew up right on the water in Pensacola, FL; went to school at the University of Florida, home of the Gators; excited that the Denver Broncos picked up Tim Tebow. I fished a lot growing up and enjoy being outdoors camping and sitting by the pool since its summer.

Q: What past experiences and knowledge led you to Seogon Technologies?
A: In 2003-2004, when SEO really started to hit the market, I co-owned a mortgage company for real estate investors. We had a really great website and a ton of clients but couldn’t figure out how to get people to find the site, specifically, new customers. We started to do some research and found this thing called SEO. We Google-ed it and saw how cool this tool really was. People find you; there are ways to move up pages on Google for specific terms. It’s great. At this point in time, in 2004, a lot of people didn’t know much about SEO. Even today, a lot of people really don’t know what SEO is or that it even exists. If they have heard the term before, they generally attribute it to the Internet. Rarely do they know what it actually does. We realized we needed to be found for these specific terms that we were marketing for within the mortgage industry. We ended up hiring this one guy that worked out of his basement and he did a few things to our site in regards to optimization. I watched him for a month or two and started to pick up on it; I noticed how many things this guy was missing. I started to learn more and more about SEO and we shot up to the first page of Google for terms like ‘investment property mortgage’ and ‘income property mortgage’ after some time. We were beating out companies like Wells Fargo, Countrywide, and other big-name organizations. We did great for a couple years then the whole mortgage industry bottomed out.

That’s where I gained the majority of my SEO training. I then went into the data recovery industry and did SEO; I knew what I was doing, which was more than most people in the SEO industry. Studying new SEO trends, testing it, implementing it, and figuring out which word should be bold or italicized and how that impacts results. A number of my colleagues started to ask me to optimize their sites on the side, I began to see a niche for SEO and no one was doing it correctly.

Q: What is the premise of Search Engine Optimization?
A: It can be defined as being able to manipulate the rankings in an honest way, promoting your business or a client’s business online. That’s it in a nutshell; it’s not a difficult concept to grasp. Raising your organic ratings for certain key words or key phrases is all it is.

Q: Can you elaborate on why it’s so important to perform SEO in an ethical manor?
A: There are a lot of unethical SEO companies out there; we happily take business away from these companies every chance we get. They are doing the industry a disservice by overpromising and under delivering. These types of companies will get you blacklisted on all the search engines, Google being the first that picks up on unethical practices. Once you are blacklisted, you have to manually submit request to Google to be removed from this list. Generally, we’re able to submit a letter saying we’re a new company handling SEO, hand them the revised code, and hope we can get things back on track. There is a correct way to do things, a right way to do things, and if it’s not followed, there are repercussions.

Q: What search engines are seeing the majority of internet traffic these days?
A: Google, Yahoo, and Bing (formerly MSN) are really the top three search engines that get the most traffic.

Q: If you aren’t ranking well on these sites, what does that mean?
A: It can mean one of two things; one, your site is not built correctly and/or being optimized incorrectly. Two, you did something unethical and you’re not showing up because you’ve been blacklisted.

Q: What is the correlation between keywords and content?
A: Search engines are looking for relevancy. For example, if QeH2 wants to come up for ‘I.T. Support Denver,’ that would be your keyword. QeH2 wants to make sure the search engines can read through their site site, find plenty of relevant content that helps them get found for ‘I.T. Support Denver.’ QeH2 doesn’t have to have massive amounts of text, but the site does need to have a decent amount of content so search engines can see how relevant the site is for those key words.

Q: Is all the SEO done on your client’s, site or do you use other outside resources to help optimize?
A: There are two broad areas for SEO; onsite optimization, where everything is done to a customer’s physical website; things like Meta tags, making sure content is spread properly throughout the site and ties to the keyword strategy.

Onsite optimization accounts for about 20-30% of SEO rankings with search engines. Onsite optimization helps, but it may take 6-8 months to show up for certain keywords, and that’s only if they are non-competitive keywords. The other 70-80% of SEO is offsite optimization. These are things done out on the internet, or on other sites. You may have heard the term ‘link building’, which can be described as a popularity contest.

The more popular your website is, the higher you are going to show up on search results; links, referrals, anything that has a description about your site on someone else’s site is very helpful. Go do that a couple hundred times and that’s great for optimization. This is where the meat of SEO takes place. With link building, it makes a difference as to what site you’re linked to. If you have a link on Amazon.com, one of the largest websites out there, it’s going to hold a lot more value than 100 links on 100 no names sites. If you are linking to a blacklisted site, it’s only going to hurt your rankings.

Q: What are the benefits of Seogon Technologies SEO services?
A: We separate ourselves from our competition with our customer service and level of communication. A lot of companies say they focus on these aspects of business, but they really don’t. We have the referrals from clients that stand by the work we’ve performed. When we bring on a new client for SEO, we give weekly updates for the first 60-90 days. We are constantly communicating with the client what we are doing, what the next steps are, and even things we need from the client. Professional SEO is a very interactive process; we need participation from our clients. Outside of that reporting, we do a monthly tracking report update which includes a detailed written explanation of each aspect of Seogon Technologies' work. Too many times SEO and marketing companies will just hand you these large reports and expect you to decipher what it means. This is integral in assisting our clients with seeing the areas there has been movement and growth.

Q: With a lot of small to medium sized businesses turning to the internet to drum up business, are you seeing more business owners shifting towards helpful tools like search engine optimization?
A: There is a huge increase in the number of people that are learning about SEO, learning more about how it can help business, and starting to realize that it’s more beneficial to spend $2000 on professional SEO a month than $4000 in Yellow Pages pay-per-clicks. A couple of years ago, and even up to a few months ago, it wasn’t that uncommon for businesses to spend four sometimes five thousand dollars on Yellow Pages; that’s just not where online advertising is anymore. SEO lets the consumer find you for the specific product they are looking for. Lots of companies are starting to realize that they desperately need it. We are getting more calls now than this time last year of people asking questions and educating themselves on how professional SEO can help them.

Q: Where did you first hear of QeH2?
A: I heard about QeH2 through two different sources right around the same time. A close friend of mine mentioned Seogon Technologies and QeH2 as having very similar business models in the same industry. Not a week later, I was in a friend’s office and QeH2 was onsite providing I.T. support in Denver. I asked my friend about QeH2 and he had only great things to say. I called Eric Pratt, Director of Sales & Marketing, right after and we got together and talked. It’s all history from there.

Q: What is something that really sticks out about QeH2’s model and how they conduct business?
A: QeH2’s level of customer service really stands out to me. The ability to live and work in a technology-based industry and communicate with people outside the information technology industry is a skill that so few people and so few companies can do. Your entire staff can communicate on different levels depending on who they are talking to. I.T. support and providing solutions is no different than SEO. There are a lot of people that are good at it, but there are also a lot of pieces that need to be in place to be a successful company. I have heard only good things from your clients.

Q:What do you see the future partnership between Seogon Technologies and QeH2 looking like?
A: I see you guys getting a lot more leads through the QeH2 website. Our services perfectly complement each other. It will be a long-lasting partnership where we can continue to grow businesses within I.T. and SEO.

Denver Business Journal Recognizes QeH2 as a Fastest Growing Private Company

2010-06-29T07:59:00.005-06:00

QeH2 will be recognized on July 15th as a Denver Business Journal Fastest Growing Private Company for 2009. The leading Denver IT support company, QeH2 will be ranked by the greatest percentage growth in five different tiers based on revenue at an awards banquet.

Internet Usage Monitoring

2010-06-23T10:37:00.009-06:00

Presented by Ian Holt

According to Computerworld, Internet Monitoring has become a bigger part of IT support professional's job responsibilities. The magazine reports of a typical company spending one full day per week reviewing web logs to see if there's any activity that needs to be exposed or discussed.

A comprehensive reporting module is a must-have with any employee Internet management solution. The reporting modules purpose is to synthesize raw data and turn it into information that can be easily understood and used by managers to manage their employees. The amount of time and labor cost a user spends at sports related Web sites is an example of an informative report.

The number of violations to your organizations Internet Acceptable Use Policy is another. Reports should provide information graphically and numerically and should be able to be scheduled to be run and distributed automatically. Advanced features like report customization and distributed reporting can also be beneficial.

The last thing you want is for your IT support staff to babysit an employee Internet control system and become the Internet police. Your employee Internet monitoring solution should be easy to configure, automatically maintain its list of Web Filters, update itself with new program patches and automatically generate and distribute reports to managers and key stakeholders.

Cisco Predicts Double Digit Growth on the Internet by 2014

2010-06-03T06:55:00.008-06:00

Posted by Denver Business Journal

According to a report release yesterday, June 2nd, California based Cisco Systems Inc. is predicting growth to be fourfold by the year 2014.

How much growth is fourfold? Well, they are expecting 64 exabytes of IP traffic, equivalent to 16 billion DVDs, 21 trillion MP3's, or 399 quadrillion text messages.

Improvements to Internet bandwidth capabilities and Internet speeds , along with the popularity of HDTV and 3DTV, are key factors in the prediction of massive growth of the Internet by 2014.

Interested in learning what regions are expected to see the most growth or why videos are playing such a big role in Internet growth? click here.

WordPress, Limited Only By Your Imagination

2010-05-19T16:22:00.014-06:00

by Alex Repola

The philosophy of WordPress has been and always will be, keep the code light and fast all the while providing a rich framework for a huge community and expanding what WordPress can do.

WordPress, which first started in 2003 with a single bit of code and fewer users than I have fingers and toes, has grown to become the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and seen by tens of millions of people everyday (WordPress.org). From the documentation to the code, WordPress was created by the community for the community. It is an Open Source project, meaning there are literally hundreds of people working on it all over the word.

WordPress started as a simple blogging tool but has evolved into a full content management system and much more through the thousands of plugins, widgets, and themes; WordPress is only limited by your imagination.

If you would like to learn more about this revolutionary tool that is completely free, click here.

QeH2 has been implementing WordPress as a blogging tool and as complete content management systems for our Denver web development clients for a quite some time now (and by quite some time I mean the last 6-8 months). This has given our clients a number of helpful tools and capabilities to manage their site effectively and reach their target audience much more efficiently.

Purchases of New Technology Require Extra Consideration

2010-05-14T13:51:00.005-06:00

by Mitch Bryant

It’s critical that your business continually leverages IT solutions to provide as sound of an ROI as advanced technology allows. New tech advances not only affect the way you do business but they will shape the way you’ll do business in the future.

At the same time, new IT support investments must be leveraged to ensure your company maintains the edge to stay competitive. The IT department needs to weigh all purchases to ensure that the proper usage of any new technology falls within pre-established guidelines and or polices.

Each purchase should provide as many of the following basic elements as possible:

Higher productivity

Greater efficiency

Increased profits

Reduced operational overhead cost

Improved IT infrastructure

Alignment of business practices and strategies

Increased competitiveness

Higher customer satisfaction (both internally and externally)

Of course, new introductions of technology into a system come with a degree of risk. That’s why one IT leader shies away from what’s considered cutting-edge technology.

Kathy J. Markham, VP of IS planning & architecture at Kindred Healthcare, explains that while her department doesn’t employ cutting-edge technology in a production mode, it does stay current with new hardware technology.

“Pursuing cutting-edge technology would mean that we are willing to risk the usual instability and interoperability problems…. Frankly, we can’t afford to jeopardize our production environment, which is critical to business performance, nor do we have the resources to exhaustively test such scenarios,” she said. She added that she relies on industry experience to overcome the early difficulties of cutting-edge solutions.

Staying current but avoiding risks

When it comes to bringing new technologies in-house, CIOs first need to examine several project-related questions and technology issues:

What are the pros and cons of purchasing a new application vs. modifying a current tool?

Will it be a standalone or integrated technology, and what are the implications of this status?

Should it be implemented in-house or with external support, and what does that mean for cost and staffing?

In addition, issues such as programming requirements, integration hurdles, and benefits in the short and long term must be evaluated. The key to avoiding risks is looking before you leap into a new technology.

“New technology should be routinely investigated and tested as it becomes generally available. It should not be employed in production environments until such time as the marketplace has ‘blessed’ its stability and interoperability,” said Markham. A product vendor’s stability also requires examination, she noted.

“New technology may be innovating and exciting; that is not sufficient reason to embrace it. Equally important, if not more, is determining whether the company is standing behind the product. If the company is poorly positioned to introduce and support the new technology, it is not worth the risk,” she said.

New technology, she said, must also be considered in the context of finding necessary skills to support the products. “If products are too ‘niche,’ then the best technology can falter due to lack of trained resources.”

Nothing worthwhile comes easy

The introduction of new technology brings with it new stress factors not only on the IT department but the end users, customers, and business managers. As well as identifying all the issues related to the introduction of a new technology into your current system, it is very important to identify the stress factors that can make or break the project. This aspect must be factored into the overall potential success of any project, because the most successfully integrated new technology must ultimately work for the end user that will use it every day.

Sales Projections Drive Me Nuts

2010-05-08T10:43:00.006-06:00

by Eric Pratt

Does your company do projections? QeH2 does, and I hate it.

Don't get me wrong, I completely understand the value and necessity of accurately projecting sales, expenses, and profits. If your company isn't doing projections you should, it's the only way I've been taught to uncover and address issues before they get out of hand. Plus when you're growing they're fun to look at and dream right?

What I don't understand is how anyone can reasonably expect me to forecast how many new clients our sales department will bring on this month or next week.

Long term forecasting is much more realistic in my opinion as you can use trends and history to forecast your average number of new clients, dollar volume average, routed hour average, etc. It's no different than gambling odds, over the long term the law of averages plays out but in the short term huge variance is possible. Probable actually.

What drives me nuts is figuring out how to answer..."How many clients can you sign in May?" I usually don't give the answer being sought because I kinda have a smart mouth. Here's a short recollection of a recent conversation we had in our weekly executive meeting while going through our financial.

"How many hours are you going to sign in May?"

My Mind: "What a ridiculous question"
My Mouth: "Why do you keep asking me that?"

"We need to know for the projections

Mind: "If I knew who was going to sign the line and when my life would be easy"
Mouth: "I can guess if you'd like, but that's all it would be"

"Well, what did you sell last month?"

Mind: "What the hell does that have to do with this month?"
Mouth: "More than you thought I would sucker"

With a hint of frustration....."Help me out here Eric"

Mind: "Oops, I did it again"
Mouth: "How many hours do you need?"

"Well we have some open route to fill, I think 12 hours is a good number"

Mind: "Piece of cake, they should of asked for more"
Mouth: "That would be great, I'll get it done"

Another Partner: "Don't you two think we could be more accurate with these projections?"

"Yes"

Mouth: "No"

After some research at this point we determined that our average was nearly 9 hours per month over a reasonable period, projection adjusted from 12 to 9 moving forward...

Other Partner: "So 9 is the projection but we should try 12"

Mind: "Why stop at 12 if you're dreaming?"
Mouth: "My goal is 30, while we're setting goals let's aim high"

What was really accomplished here? Actually something good came out of it for the sales department (monthly projections at 9 instead of 12) but the point remains I have no idea which clients in my sales pipeline are ready to come on, which will drag it out a few weeks, and which will never sign. I think I know, I'm actually pretty sure about a couple.

Bottom line is you never know until they take the cap off their pen. Some months we will blow those numbers away and some months we'll miss badly. Over time the numbers will average out and my guess is we will actually average 12 or more moving forward as factors have changed vs the period we built that average over. From that perspective something bad came out of the discussion, our projections could actually be less accurate. Best part of that meeting for me, expectations went down and our ability to exceed expectations went up. If you're in sales you know well that exceeding expectation is what it's all about.

Colorado's 2010 Best Large Community for Economic Growth Awarded to the Town of Castle Rock

2010-05-07T06:46:00.013-06:00

by Alex Repola

This past week, the Economic Development Council of Colorado awarded the Town of Castle Rock an annual award presented to a "community with more than 20,000 people in population in population demonstrating the best support for economic development through an organized economic development program and strong leadership."

Organizations that played key roles in attaining this honor include the Castle Rock Economic Development Council (Castle Rock EDC), the Town of Castle Rock, the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce, and the Castle Rock Downtown Development Authority (DDA). These organizations together form the Castle Rock Economic Partnership.

When I sat down with Frank Gray, CEO of the Castle Rock EDC, a month or so ago, he spoke a little about the importance of not only being a point of contact for new businesses, but also sustaining relationships with current businesses in the local market. One of many unique things about the Castle Rock Economic Partnership is the developer round table concept, allowing dialogue to take place between key Town of Castle Rock officials and the partnership between the development community.

Read more about the partnership that the Castle Rock EDC and Denver's leading IT support provider - QeH2 have created to continue to bring new and innovative ideas the the workplace, helping in growing the local economy.

QeH2 Fulfills Sponsorship Agreement with New Website!

2010-04-30T08:00:00.005-06:00

by Eric Pratt

Rocky Mountain Spine & Sport has been a client of ours for a long time so when they came to us with an offer to sponsor their Cycling Teamwe jumped at the chance to help Vint Schoenfeldt and his team.

When they chose us to build their Cycling Team website we were determined to provide them with a great product they could use not only to promote their team and recent events but to provide a resource for team members to communicate.

The site went live yesterday and finishing touches are still being applied, the Rocky Mountain Spine & Sport cycling team finally has a home!

As one of 13 great team sponsors including Giant Cycling World, Skullcandy, Jumex, Power Bar, Max Muscle, Harvest Group, BioFit Cyclist, Practical Coaching, Giro, Spinal Solutions, Aveda Institute of Denver, and of course Rocky Mountain Spine & Sport we are honored to be included in such a prestigious lineup.

As an added bonus we were selected to be featured in the first Monthly Sponsor Spotlight, please check us out there, on Facebook, LinkedIn, or at our website.

Thanks again to Vint and the Rocky Mountain Spine & Sport Team, we appreciate our relationship and thank him for this great opportunity.

QeH2, What’s That?

2010-04-28T14:23:00.010-06:00

by Eric Pratt & Alex Repola

This is a question we always enjoy answering. It’s an acronym for the four owners of the company (Quentin Jaksch, Darrin Eisele, Ian Holt and Jim Holt), that’s how we got our name.

As for what we do, we are an IT company in Colorado. We provide a level of service that small-to-medium businesses here locally have never experienced. We use technology to help companies create a better product or service, at lower costs, higher efficiency, and with better overall results. We follow through on what we say we are going to do and standing behind our work to ensure your company runs at an optimal level, all day, every day. . By Focusing on solutions instead of symptoms, implementing Intelligent solutions that produce extraordinary results, operating within a Revolutionary business model, and Empowering our clients to make critical decisions that provides a positive return on investments we become much more than your IT contact when something breaks, we become your partner and information source. That’s Revolutionary, that’s QeH2, and that’s our F.I.R.E approach to help you Ignite Business.

Are we a fit for your Organization?

Ever wish your IT support provider was there when you needed him? Feel like you don't have control of your environment and data? Worried you have gaps in network security, putting your systems and data at risk? Tired of paying by the hour for service that never solves the issue? Are your IT costs an inconvenient expense to your business, growing every year?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then QeH2 is the answer. There is a better way to do business.

Our History

It was almost five years ago that Q, Darrin, Ian, and Jim sat down and came up with a business plan, combining over a century of true business knowledge and real word experience as business owners and technology specialists. With Q, Ian, and Jim’s IT experience ranging from help desk support and system administration to large company CIO, network engineering and consulting services coupled with Darrin’s entrepreneurial expertise in building multiple successful companies they built the foundation of putting technology at the forefront of your organization. The result is a company that can leverage your technology to bring extraordinary value and return on investment.

The Solution

Our revolutionary business model and the realization that people are one of our biggest assets keeps ownership’s focus on providing training and insight with real life experience. Prescribing to best practice methodologies to ensure that we outperform our competition in addition to allowing time to build and nurture our people, helps to balance QeH2 team’s lives in and out of the workplace with on the job performance. We work with each individual in the organization, focusing on the things that they wish to pursue and the initiatives that drive business forward.

Through an innovative approach to IT support, we considers ourselves geeks with social skills. Having experienced real life business pains in a rapidly growing company we understand the necessity of information technology in the workplace. If your business needs IT solutions instead of excuses, call us today for a no obligation analysis of our systems.

10 Tech Certifications That Mean Something

2010-04-21T07:39:00.020-06:00

Presented by TechRepublic

1: MCSE

The Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification suffered a bad reputation several years back when numerous people were memorizing the answers to exam questions from “brain dumps” posted by test-takers on the Internet and obtaining the certification without any real understanding of the technology.

Microsoft responded by replacing the knowledge-based multiple-choice questions with a variety of performance-related scenario questions that make it much more difficult to cheat. The difficulty level of the questions was escalated, and the number of exams required to obtain the certification was increased to seven.

The MCSE has consequently regained respect in many corners of the IT support community and is a useful certification for demonstrating your expertise with Microsoft server products.

#2: MCA

In addition to making the MCSE exams more difficult, Microsoft has created many new certifications. The Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA) is the premiere Microsoft certification, designed to identify top experts in the industry. To obtain the MCA, you must have at least three years of advanced IT architecture experience, and you have to pass a rigorous review board conducted by a panel of experts.

There are a number of MCA programs. The infrastructure and solutions MCA certifications cover broad architecture skills, but there are also more technology-specific programs for messaging and database skills. There are currently fewer than 100 MCAs in the world, making this an elite certification.

#3: CCIE

The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) is widely recognized as one of the most difficult to obtain (and expensive) IT certifications. Like the MCSE/MCA, it’s a vendor-sponsored certification, focusing on Cisco’s products.

The CCIE requires that you pass both a written exam and a hands-on lab. To sit for the written exam, you must pay $300 and choose from one of several tracks: Routing and Switching, Security, Storage Networking, Voice, and Service Provider.

You must pass the written exam before you’re eligible to take the lab exam. This is an eight-hour hands-on test of your ability to configure and troubleshoot Cisco networking equipment and software. The lab exams cost $1,250 each. This does not, of course, include travel expenses that may be necessary since the labs are conducted only in certain locations.

As if all that weren’t enough, you don’t get to rest on your laurels after obtaining the certification. CCIEs must recertify every two years or the certification is suspended.

#4: CCSP

Another Cisco exam that’s popular with employers in today’s security-conscious business world is the Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP). It focuses on skills related to securing networks that run Cisco routers and other equipment.

You’re required to pass five written exams and must recertify every three years by passing one current exam. Before you can take the CCSP exams, you must meet the prerequisites by obtaining one of Cisco’s lower-level certifications, either the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) or the Cisco Certified Internetwork Specialist (CCIP).

#5: CISSP

Security certifications confer some of the highest-paying jobs in IT today, and one of the most well-respected non-vendor specific security certifications is the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). The organization that grants the CISSP is the (ISC)2, which was founded in 1989 and has issued certifications to more than 50,000 IT professionals.

Exam candidates must have at least four years of direct full-time work experience as a security professional. One year of experience can be waived if you have a four-year or graduate degree in information security from an approved institution. Another unique feature of the CISSP is that you must subscribe to the (ISC)2 code of ethics to take the exam.

Exam fees vary based on geographic region. In the United States, standard registration is $599 ($499 for early registration). You must recertify every three years by obtaining at least 120 hours of continuing professional education, and you must pay a yearly fee of $85 to maintain the certification. The exam is a six-hour test consisting of 250 multiple-choice questions.

#6: SSCP

For those who can’t meet the rigorous experience requirements to sit for the CISSP, the (ISC)2 also offers the Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP) certification. SSCP candidates need have only one year of direct full-time security work experience. The exam consists of 125 multiple-choice questions, and you have three hours to complete it.

Those who pass the written exam must be endorsed by someone who holds a current (ISC)2 certification and will attest to the candidate’s professional experience or by an officer of the corporation or organization that employs you (owner, CEO, managing partner, CIO, etc.). As with the CISSP, you must recertify every three years by submitting proof of continuing education credits and paying an annual maintenance fee.

#7: GSE

Another popular and well-regarded security certification is the GIAC Security Expert (GSE), offered by the SANS Software Security Institute. Before you can attempt the GSE, you must complete three lower-level certifications: GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC), GIAC Certified Intrusion Analyst (GCIA), and GIAC Certified Incident Handler (GCIH).

The lower-level certifications require passing multiple-choice exams, and at least two of the three certifications must be at the “Gold” level, which requires that in addition to the written exam, you submit a technical report that’s approved to be published in the SANS Reading Room. A personal interview is also part of the GSE qualification process.

Pricing depends on whether you take the exam as part of SANS self-study or conference training programs or challenge the exam. Without the training, each lower-level exam costs $899.

#8: RHCE/RHCA

Many companies are looking to save money by switching to Linux-based servers, but they need personnel who are trained to design, deploy, and administer Linux networks. There are a number of Linux certifications out there, but the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification has been around since 1999 and is well respected in the industry.

The exam is performance-based. You’re required to perform actual network installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and administration tasks on a live system. You have a full day (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) to complete it. The cost is $749.

The Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) is an advanced certification that requires completion of five endorsement exams, each of which costs $749 and range from two to eight hours. Like the RHCE exam, they are hands-on skills tests. You must have the RHCE certification to take the RHCA exams.

#9: ITIL

For those who aspire to management positions in IT services, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) certifications provide demonstration of knowledge and skills involved in that discipline. There are three certification levels: Foundation, Practitioner, and Manager.

The Manager level certification requires completion of a rigorous two-week training program, and you must have the Foundation certification and five years of IT management experience. Then, you must pass two three-hour exams consisting of essay questions.

#10: Certifications for special situations

Many specialist exams are available in IT subcategories that can be helpful to those who want to specialize in those areas. Some of these include:

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance certification
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance certification

Database administration certification

Wireless networking certifications

Voice over IP certifications

In addition, for those who have little or no experience in IT, entry-level certifications such as those offered by CompTIA may help you get a foot in the door as you start your IT career

10 Free Or Cheap Mobile Marketing Tools

2010-04-20T22:12:00.003-06:00

April 19, 2010

by iphonejim

In case you didn’t already know, mobile is without a doubt ‘the next big thing’ when it comes to marketing and advertising. As smart phones like the iPhone and Nexus One become more and more popular among consumers, the potential for marketers is also growing rapidly.

The smart phone is like all of the other advertising mediums rolled into one pocket sized device. It’s a television, a web browser, a radio, a newspaper, a magazine, a yellow pages, a catalog and of course a telephone, and it goes wherever the consumer goes.

No matter which way you look at it, the mobile phone simply can’t be beat from a marketer’s stand point so I’ve put together this comprehensive list of mobile marketing tools that won’t break the bank.

1. SMS Text Messaging

The oldest and most widespread from of mobile marketing is the humble text message. By collecting the mobile phone numbers of your customers using surveys or competitions, you can build your own SMS mailing list and send your customers text based coupons, offers and incentives to visit your business again and again.

Star Mobile offer a Free Trial or alternatively you can download bulk SMS software such as Mobile Marketing Pro and manage the whole thing yourself.

2. Social Networking

These days, Social Networking is a huge component of most business’s online marketing strategy, and as the internet becomes more and more accessible to mobile devices, so too do the popular social networks. By creating profiles, networking and connecting with your customers you can stay in constant communication with them and build rewarding relationships.

Update your Facebook page regularly with offers, info, fun facts, videos and event information to keep your customers entertained and in the loop.

Use Twitter to send out tweets to your followers with promo codes, discounts and links to good reviews or articles about your business. You can also search particular key words relating to your business and respond to anyone tweeting about those topics. E.G. If you sell car tires, search for keyphrases like “flat tire” then respond to those tweets with a special offer.

The following social networks may also be worth building a presence with: Meebo, Fring, Nimbuzz and Ebuddy.

3. Mobile Directories

There are hundreds of mobile directories out there, most catering to a particular niche. The most popular of these niches are restaurant guides. If you are promoting a bar or restaurant, make sure you list your business with the following directories. For other types of businesses there is bound to be a directory to suit you, but there are way too many to list here.

Urbanspoon

Yelp

Wherethelocalseat

Zagat

4. Check-in Apps

The latest fad in location-based apps are check-in apps like Foursquare, Gowalla and Whrrl. These applications for GPS enabled phones like iPhones, Blackberries and Android-based handsets enable users to check in at certain locations such as businesses and landmarks to earn virtual badges and honors. These apps also allow users to network with one another and share their locations. Businesses can include their own offers to users as incentives for checking in.

5. GPS Treasure Hunts

A close cousin to the check-in apps, GPS treasure hunt apps such as DreamWalk also allow businesses to reward users for visiting certain locations. DreamWalk enables brands and businesses to create their own branded treasure hunts and place them on the DreamWalk prize map for consumers to participate in. The ‘treasures’ are real free products which can be collected by users and redeemed in store or via email. You can use DreamWalk to give away samples of your products or bigger prizes, entice consumers to specific physical locations and advertise your brand in the process. Branded treasure hunts are also highly interactive and entertaining and can be set up free of charge via the DreamWalk website.

6. Email

While more and more people are beginning to use mobile devices for web browsing, mobile emailing is far more common and has been popular ever since the advent of the Blackberry. By collecting customer’s email addresses you can build your own email mailing list, then send out mobile friendly emails and incentives. Use software such as Constant Contact to produce weekly newsletters or promotions and manage your mailing lists.

7. Competitions

Run competitions whereby people must text certain words or codes to a particular number to enter a draw or claim a coupon. You can advertise these contests using posters, flyers or even drink coasters in your stores or promote them in emails or even in your print advertising.

8. Blue Tooth Proximity Marketing

Broadcast SMS messages to passers by, using a bluetooth broadcasting device. When someone enters the vicinity of your business they are sent a predefined text massage which can contain a time sensitive offer or discount to attract them inside. Bluetooth broadcasters can be bought relatively cheaply from suppliers such as Blueblitz.

Please keep in mind, the messages you send may be deemed SPAM by some mobile users, so make sure you weigh up the pros and cons before using this technology.

9. Video

Many mobile devices available today have the ability to play and even record live action video. Just as viral videos are great internet marketing tools, they are also just as powerful when delivered on mobile screens. In fact, devices like the iPhone come pre-installed with the YouTube app on the home screen, allowing instant access to YouTube content. Producing a video can be a dirt cheap way to entertain an audience while promoting your business or product at the same time. Generally, funny or weird videos tend to fair the best and make sure you keep the mobile screen size in mind when producing videos intended for mobile display. Sites like TinyTube gather videos from all over the net and display them in a mobile friendly format.

10. Mobile Optimized Websites

By now you almost certainly have a website for your business, but how will it look when viewed in a mobile web browser such as Safari or Opera? Well, unless you have optimized it for mobile, chances are it’ll either look really small or really bad. Use a tool like Instant Mobilizer to convert your existing website into a mobile-friendly one free of charge.

Well, that's my top 10 list of cheap or free mobile marketing tools. I hope you can utilize these techniques to promote your business. Please feel free to add your own suggestions or experiences in the comments section.

Good Luck!,

Jim T Brown

Mobile Marketing Consultant.

QeH2 can help your company implement these technologies, to come up with a plan that works for your business contact us today.

Small to Medium Businesses Expected to Increase Tech Spending

2010-04-14T17:52:00.008-06:00

Presented by the Austin Business Journal

Spiceworks Inc., an Austin-based IT software company, surveyed more than 1,200 professionals with small and medium businesses and found across the board technology spending increases.

On average, businesses reported elevating tech buying 9 percent this year to $117,200, with at least 43 percent of small enterprises expecting to buy more. About 80 percent of those surveyed said the money would buy new desktop, laptop and servers in the first six months of 2010.

Read more.

Finding the right business IT solution that meets the specific needs of your organization is what QeH2 has been doing for over four years. From implementing new hardware or software to maintaining a secure environment, we have the knowledge and expertise to help businesses put technology at the forefront of their organization, creating a more efficient and streamlined IT infrastructure.

QeH2 Interviews Strategic Local Partner Castle Rock Economic Development Council

2010-04-07T15:36:00.022-06:00

by Alex Repola

Have you heard of the Castle Rock Economic Development Council (Castle Rock EDC)? No, you’re not alone. Playing a behind-the-scenes role, Castle Rock EDC is a full service, membership-driven economic development organization that partners with both private and public entities to serve the 2,500 businesses and roughly 50,000 residents here locally.

Economic development refers to social and technological progress through local business relationships, including both new and existing organizations. Castle Rock is situated between two major markets, Colorado Springs and Denver, and businesses are finding lots of support and encouragements from organizations including Castle Rock EDC. I had the pleasure of sitting down with CEO of the EDC here in Castle Rock, Frank Gray, to talk about the growth he is seeing not only for businesses, but between the Castle Rock EDC and Board Member QeH2.

Q; Tell me a little about yourself Frank?
A: Most recently I served as the Vice-President for Adams County Economic Development Corporation. I came here in September because I felt like Castle Rock was a place that was going to explode. The intelligent move that I made is picking the right spot, and I picked a spot based on knowing things were going to happen, and that’s what we’re seeing. The other thing that’s happening, even with our tough economy and the loss of jobs, Castle Rock itself is doing well. I was at Adams County EDC for six years. Prior to that, I was a volleyball coach at Baylor University and at the U.S.A. Volleyball team. I live in Broomfield making the commute down here. Ultimately, I would like for my family and I to live down here. My wife is a teacher and effected by the state budget cuts. She can’t really leave her job right now and expect to just find a new one like she could have three or four years ago.

Q: What led you to work in the non-profit sector?
A: The Castle Rock EDC is really a business organization, not really a non-profit. Technically, we are a 501(C)(6), a not-for-profit, but we are a business organization with members from the business community making us a much more effective organization. The cool part about it is that we have public and private sector funding; we can act as a mediator between the business community and town. We have long-term relationships with the community and the town that we need to consider when making decisions. We are very invested in being partners with both parties.

Q: Take me through the process of a new business coming to town and wanting to use the EDC’s services.
A: Generally, we’ll get a call from a broker, the Metro Denver EDC, or the state saying they have a client who is interested in moving to the area. We then go through all the different real estate and availability depending on the type of organization they are, we may be able to offer them incentives to move to Castle Rock. Once the deal is wrapped up, we would make an announcement that so-and-so company is coming to Castle Rock. They generally will have a lot of questions about demographics to make sure their company will thrive here. We provide a lot of information and data to these organizations to help them with the transition.

Q: Do you have a specific size or type of company you cater to? Do you work with international organizations that are interested in opening up shop in Castle Rock?
A: We see a little bit of everything. One thing we want to do is make sure we are assisting our local businesses, making sure we are taking care of our existing businesses as well as the new businesses. One of my big pitches when talking with new companies is, ‘We’re not just going to get you here; we’re going to take care of you once you’re here.’

Q: How important is it for the EDC to have a trusted position within the local business community?
A: I think the Economic Development Councils that are doing it right are like the Northwest Mutual’s of the World. The quiet company, that’s what we strive to be. We’re not out seeking the press; we don’t need to be in the spotlight. We help get things done behind the scenes and we value the confidentiality of our clients. Our job is to help educate folks on what we do, how we do it, and why it’s important.

Q: What things have the EDC felt from the past few years of tough economic times?
A: Some of our funding comes from the town, and we’ve seen a decrease in our funding. This organization works because of private and public sector funding. The reality is that when something affects the economy, you can see it as a catastrophe or as an opportunity to change. I think that Castle Rock has taken the right approach and that’s admitting that the way things were done before weren’t necessarily the correct way to do it. We can use this opportunity and downturn in the economy to do it things better. Through our partnership with the town, we are seeing them take care of relationships with developers, making things better.

Q: What other local organizations do you partner with to promote economic development?
A: The Town of Castle Rock, the Downtown Development Authority, the Castle Rock Merchants Association, the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce all work within the Community Economic Partnership (CED) working together to give business a single point of contact.

Q: How did you hear about QeH2?
A: I think I ran into Eric Pratt pretty early on when I started here, and we had discussions about our I.T. needs and the fact that you guys wanted to meet more local businesses. We helped each other and discovered that this was a great relationship and took it to the next level. QeH2 became members of the EDC and received some referrals from us on jobs and connected you with some community organizations.

Q: From the EDCs point of view, how is QeH2 different than other I.T. guys?
A: The experience behind QeH2 is not just the technology side. It is, ‘We’re business guys who know how to utilize technology.’ You understand how business works and can relate it to how technology can help in facilitating the processes. Business owners can call up some other computer repair company with the guy who has the technical degree that will come fix your computer, but that’s not really what your clients are looking for. They are looking for in-depth, business knowledge on company processes and how it relates to technology and making things more efficient.

Q: What do you see as the future partnership between the EDC and QeH2?
A: Ultimately, it’s a partnership. If it’s not a partnership, one side is seeing the good side and the other is confused about their role. Both sides need to feel like they are getting something out of the relationship for it to continue. Not only is QeH2 a member of my Board of Directors, acting as decision-makers here in Castle Rock, shaping the community here locally, QeH2 wants to be connected to their community, see where they can really help organizations.

Q: What is your view on social media in the business place? Does it play a role in your marketing and advertising efforts?
A: Social media plays an interesting role in our society right now because anyone 30 years and younger are expected to have some sort of social-media interaction. The 30-45 age groups saying they know what it is but don’t use it or think it’s a waste of time. The 45 and up age group, think this is the dumbest thing out there and completely useless. They want to stick with what they know in relationships and face-to-face contact. Most of the decision makers right now that we deal with are not 25 and 30 years old, social media doesn’t really necessarily play a very big role in our marketing efforts. The longer we go the 30-year olds become 35 and 40-year olds become 45 and so on and so forth, and you begin to see the line between business and social get more and more blurred every day. Is Facebook more business-oriented or for personal use? Is LinkedIn more business or social? The reality is that more people are connected on Facebook. More companies are saying, if we want to be more hip and cool, we’re going to need to hire someone that’s hip and cool that can do these types of things.

Q: Closing thoughts?
A: The thing that I have been very impressed with is the fact that you guys really stick with things. We recently did a move and ran into problems that QeH2 or the EDC didn’t anticipate, but our tech Danny keeps things moving forward and has spent a lot of time getting us on track and we don’t get a huge bill for it. You stick to what is agreed on and you do it right and follow through every time.

Top 12 SEO Tips

2010-03-31T21:19:00.007-06:00

by Gary Beal

1. Get your page titles 100% optimized for search.
2. Optimize your content
3. Optimize internal linking
4. Use external linking wisely
5. Write your meta descriptions smartly
6. Check your internal cancellation
7. Finding what terms are converting into sales
8. Bump your competitors multiple listings out of Google and pick up a position or two
9. Avoid common penalties
10. Use social bookmarking websites for short-term ranking boost and blogs
11. Optimize your 404 pages
12. Get your pages out of supplemental results

Read more SEO tips.

QeH2 Headquarters Getting a Great Response to Recycling Program

2010-03-30T08:09:00.006-06:00

By Alex Repola

I just made my first round to gather all the recycled garbage from our office building and I am happy to say the people at 401 S. Wilcox in downtown Castle Rock, the former HEMCO Bldg, now know as the QeH2 Lair, are doing their part to make this world a cleaner and more sustainable environment. Great work all around!

Computer Word of the Day

2010-03-22T08:19:00.003-06:00

ZIP: A format for compressing a file or collection of files.

Computer Word of the Day

2010-03-19T08:56:00.004-06:00

FTP (File Transfer Protocol). A protocol for sending files (uploading) and receiving files (downloading).

Computer Word of the Day

2010-03-18T15:42:00.003-06:00

TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) on top of Internet Protocol (IP). The Internet Protocol sends packets of information between computers. TCP adds reliability, resending IP packets when packets are dropped.

Microsoft's Ten Commandments for Effective Online Social Networking

2010-03-17T14:37:00.013-06:00

by Paul Chaney

1. Pull, Don't Push
One of the first lessons you will learn very quickly when engaging in social media is that old-school marketing tactics don't work. Don't come out of the gate pushing your products or services. New tools require new rules.

2. Win the Right to Be Heard
Social media engagement is a conversation, and participation in the community is required. In fact, you might say that participation is the fifth P of marketing. (The four Ps are product, price, place, and promotion.) Your value as a participant is judged by the value you provide to the community as a whole. Be a "glory hog," and you'll garner little attention. Share freely, and you will become a respected member.

3. Content Is Still King, but Conversation Is Queen (and Conversion Is the Prince)
Nothing beats well-written, informative, entertaining content in all its forms: blog posts, tweets, videos, podcasts, images, webinars, or whitepapers. Place yourself in a position of being a knowledgeable expert (assuming you are, of course). Community is the context.

4. Authenticity and Transparency Are Social-Networking Cornerstones
The words "authenticity" and "transparency" may seem trite, but I believe they remain the cornerstones of this new media-marketing paradigm. Be real. Be open. Be honest. Admit mistakes when you make them.

5. You Don't Have to Be on Every Social Network
Enough said.

6. Give, and You Shall Receive
Having an attitude of helpfulness goes a long way toward establishing a credible name for yourself in social media circles. "Seek first to understand, then to be understood," said Franklin Covey.

7. Don't Throw the Marketing Baby out With the Bath Water
The rules of marketing still apply to social media—well, most of the rules, anyway. Social media is another channel to build your brand and market your message. It's not a panacea, and it's not a replacement for other forms of advertising and marketing.

8. Social Media Is a Mindset, Not Just a Toolset

9. Be Yourself, Whoever That May Be

10. Social Media Is Not a Religion
Although it does come with a set of largely unwritten rules, social media is not a religion, no matter how hard guys like me try to make it one.

Cisco's CRS-3 Carrier Routing System is Right in Line With QeH2 Best of Breed Technology Practices

2010-03-12T10:57:00.019-07:00

by Alex Repola

Boasting 12 times the traffic capacity to their closest competes abilities, Cisco has introduced a major advancement in Internet networking, hoping to set the pace for video transmission growth.

The focus is not on the Internet connecting web surfers, this is preparing for future growth with the advancement of technology. Accelerated delivery of new and revolutionary experiences for consumers as well as a serious contribution to the enhancement of video and communications between the health care and educational industries is taking Cisco from the plumber of the Internet to more of a business partner relationship.

One of the world's largest telecommunications companies, AT&T, recently ran tests using the CRS-3, successfully completing the first field trial of the 100-Gigabit backbone network technology. AT&T hopes to advance their development of network technology to meet growing requirements for consumer and business needs, both mobile and fixed.

Read here for highlights and capabilities of Next-Generation Internet:

Unmatched Scale

Unique Core and Data Center/Cloud Service Intelligence

Unprecedented Savings

Silicone Innovation

Newest Addition to the QeH2 Team is no Rookie; Danny Reagan Receives February 2010 F.I.R.E Award

2010-03-10T06:36:00.008-07:00

After only a short period with QeH2, Danny Reagan is already making an impression on clients and peers.

Partner and District Manager Quentin Jaksch has been thrilled with Reagan's dedication and growth in the short time he has been with the company. "Danny’s understanding of diligence and timeliness set him apart. He is willing to help his customers in any way he can and is available at a moment’s notice to help other team members. His dedication to QeH2 and his customers sets a precedence within QeH2," replied Quentin.

Danny's ability to transition clients and different fronts has created buzz about his work within his peers, voicing how much they enjoy working with Danny. In addition to working well with the QeH2 Team, clients are giving ownership of QeH2 very positive feedback about Danny's work in the field.

Introducing the new QeH2 website!

2010-03-08T21:48:00.003-07:00

After much pain and suffering we have officially launched our new website! Please take a look and let us know what you think. An outside perspective is always welcomed, if you have an idea on how to make it better please let us know. Click to play: QeH2 - Denver IT Support Company

First Ever F.I.R.E. Award Goes to Ben McGee

2010-03-08T07:50:00.006-07:00

Congratulations to Ben for winning the January 2010 FIRE Award. Ben was honored in front of the QeH2 team and received a bonus for his efforts for the month of January. Ben's progress in implementing the 7 Habits into his work schedule and project management was evident to the team. We want to thank him for his efforts and look forward to seeing his continued success! Thank you Ben, from all of us.

QeH2 Interviews Partner Darrin Eisele

2010-02-26T15:39:00.012-07:00

by Alex Repola

When I first reached out to Darrin Eisele (QeH2) to do a partner interview, I thought for sure we would be setting a date a couple of weeks down the road. Considering how busy Darrin has been with the reorganization of Mountain View Marketing (MVM), the rapid growth of QeH2, and spending time with his family, it was a shock that only in a matter of minutes he responded with a time to sit down that same week.

While preparing for the interview, I remembered a conversation I had with Eric Pratt a few months back who had worked previously with Darrin at MVM and knew his background very well. Eric told me that Darrin had never worked for someone else before; he had owned his own company since he was in 7th grade. Until I sat down with Darrin, I had not realized that Darrin had not only accomplished many goals in his life, but he knew what the uneasy feeling of defeat was like as well.

Through vision, perseverance, success, and defeat, Darrin has been living his own destiny for the past 30 years, and is showing no sign of slowing down.

Q:Tell me about yourself and your family Darrin.
A:My wife Lori and I have three children, Devon (16), Easton (14), and Breanne (12). I have never actually worked for someone; I have been self-employed from the time I started working in 7th grade until now.

Q:What do you spend your off-time doing?
A:I’m very involved in my church. I also like to do a lot of recreation things, riding anything with a motor: 4-wheeler, dirt bike, etc. We like to snowmobile in the winter and boat in the summer. I am involved in three different companies ranging from I.T. support to different real estate investments and LLCs on the business side.

Q:Your background and experiences are pretty diverse, what led you to companies like MVM and QeH2?
A:In 7th grade I started a lawn mowing company; at a very early age I began to focus more on the quality of my work with trimming of the sidewalks and the weeding to keep yards in shape. I moved off of that and stared working with my brother who owned a waterbed store.

In 8th grade I began making padded rails to cover the hard sides of the waterbeds in my parent’s garage. I got a table saw and a nail gun and I had taken wood shop as well as my mom taught me how to sew using a commercial sewing machine so I could sew the straps on the ends. I went out and solicited the six waterbeds stores in Billings, MT at the time and they all bought my product. Jack Jabs, owner of American Furniture Warehouse, was from Bridgers, MT; he used to manufacture some furniture up there and I used to buy my foam from him and they would deliver it to my place. I then began to build the decks and pedestals that went under the waterbeds that held the bed up. I decided that I would build those in my parent’s garage, turning it into a wood shop. After cutting the decks and pedestals I would spray them without any help. My parents were crazy letting me use a table saw.

In 9th grade, I was old enough to get a driver’s license and decided to join one of my other older brothers, who owned a rock hauling business, haul moss rock to go on the front of houses. After being successfully with some of my other companies, I had earned enough to purchase a brand new 1980 silver, half ton pickup, which for my age was a big deal. I went down to the rock yard and they had no problem with me hauling rock. I had a 5th wheel hitch put on my truck and rented a trailer to use to transport the rock. I purchased an old CJ1 Jeep and a pick-up box trailer to get back into the mountains and pick a half ton of rocks, load it on palates and chicken wire them on top of the 5th wheel. I’d get five guys or so to go up with me, each of them generally only lasting one trip because of the labor-intensive work. One day we were hauling a load down to the truck and the pick-up box trailer split right at the hitch. We got it unloaded and unhitched, thinking we could get a welder out there to fix it. As we were heading back down to the truck the front differential blew out in the Jeep. I had already put $400 into the Jeep and $400 into the trailer so I’m a little aggravated. We tried to load the Jeep by backing the 5th wheel up to a hill where we could roll it on. I go to start my truck and my mechanic friend who was with us had left the carburetor cover off and the engine caught on fire. Now the jeep is burning, like a full-fledged fire under the hood. As a teenager I think the car is going to explode, as I go to move my truck and put it in gear, I drop the transmission out of my brand new truck. We now have two disabled vehicles and we are 20 miles from the closest town. That was everything I owned, gone in a matter of minutes. I learned a lot that day; you can take a lot of things for granted and you can lose everything. My dad had to rent a U-Haul to come pick us up after we hitchhiked into town.

The next company I had in high school is where I learned the most. After my dad and I had put a sprinkler system in our yard, I went to my buddy and told him we could put sprinkler systems in, so he funded it with his $400 after I had lost everything. We went out and sold his girlfriend’s dad a sprinkler system after we had gone down to the wholesaler in town who showed us everything they knew about putting sprinkler systems in. We even took drafting class to set us apart from other companies. We were literally drawing the systems out, color-coded every zone. That got us a lot of credibility. We knocked on doors to get business and that year put in around 50 systems. My senior year I made about 35 thousand dollars, which was a lot of money at the time. The day I graduated high school, I knew I never wanted to work for anyone but myself.

Q:How did Jim, Ian, Quentin, and you come up with the QeH2 business model?
A:Quentin was the CIO of Mountain View Marketing when I owned the company and I had never known anyone with such a wide knowledge base of I.T. than Q. When MVM sold to Berkshire-Hathaway and moved their headquarters to Utah, neither of us decided to move with the company. I told him we needed to do something together. After all our bad experiences with the different levels of I.T. support, we took a look at what had been missing in the marketplace in regards to information technology, more specifically within small to medium-sized businesses. We really discovered there wasn’t anyone out there that performed as well as QeH2 when focusing on moving and growing the company as well as following through with what we say we would do. We got rid of contracts, got rid of hourly rates for employees, and really moved away from the break-fix model to how we could make organizations money; looking at I.T. as a profit center to help make businesses money. Quentin and I had a good idea of what we wanted to see out of an I.T. company and Ian and Jim Holt (H2) were very excited to migrate their model from a consumer perspective to businesses and organizations.

Q:As a business owner, how do you view I.T.?
A:It’s really about implementing the right technologies that will reduce expenses by becoming either more efficient, or help move more products, driving up profits.

Q:What is one technology you think every business owner should invest in?
A:The misnomer is that technology is going to solve your issues or problems. People tend to look at the “T” in I.T. while focusing more on the how the information is being processed instead of the information itself. Generally, business owners look at people as an expense. We understand that employees are assets to the company and by investing in them you tend to see the organization grow. As I look at it right now, I see technologies as pieces that use information to help staff move business forward all reliant on what your product or service is and your different business processes.

Q:Why is it important for you to focus on the inner workings of QeH2 and the personal growth of each team member?
A:The key to having a successful business is not doing just one part. It’s getting every core piece of your business to progress. For example, you have an accounting department and as the business owner you can get that department to be more efficient, more documented, more systematic in how they perform their closing duties, or pay bills, or look at spreadsheets and data files, over all making them 10% more efficient. Why couldn’t you plug that process into every one of your departments? With the chaotic growth we experienced at MVM, if we hadn’t focused on moving our people forward by investing time and resources in each of them, we would have fallen behind.

Q:After running some very successful organizations, what do you attribute your success to?
A:I’m religious and need to say that a lot of it comes from a God-given talent that I have for vision, drive, and the ability to work with people. Having the confidence, experience, knowledge, and willingness to be open to opportunities as well as being able to make smart decisions on opportunities is something else that has helped me to be successful.

10 Ways to Avoid Mistakes During Project Development

2010-02-24T07:54:00.021-07:00

by Alan Norton

Learn from other’s mistakes. Find experienced peers who are willing to share their mistakes and then learn from them.

Do your research first. No matter how much you know, you'll encounter new challenges on an almost daily basis. Each challenge usually requires you to learn something new. Before you tackle a problem or task, do your homework. the trial-and-error method of learning may have been necessary and acceptable years ago. but with the resources available on the Internet today, there is little excuse for mistakes made because you didn't do the proper research in advance.

Have a plan. You can't know how to get to your destination without a road map. In project development, the road map is known as a project plan. Whether done formally or informally, you need to know how to get where you are going. Days or even weeks of programming time can be lost if the wrong path is taken. When done the right way, a project plan will keep you from straying off course.

Follow standards and use templates. There is a good reason why experienced professionals took the time to create and publish industry and company standards. Standards detail best practices and procedures learned over years of trial and error. Templates such as predefined forms can be useful since most of the work is already done in a standard format.

Communicate and coordinate with others. If you are part of a team, it's essential to communicate with other team members to avoid redundancies and to coordinate your wort with theirs. Emails, instant messages, project status reports, and teleconferences are all ways to communicate and coordinate with others on the team. Unfortunately, each of these is far from perfect. You can spend the better part of a day reading and writing emails, participating in conference calls, and instant messaging with your peers. But it is a necessary part of the development process.

Allow enough time. Failure to allow enough time for each phase of the project can lead to missed requirements, inadequate analysis, poor design, rushed programming, insufficient testing, and incomplete documentation. The result can be a system that doesn’t meet expectations and fails in one or more key areas. Estimating the time needed to accomplish each phase of a project is difficult. Ideally, you want to complete each phase of the project on time, and thebest way to do that is estimate them correctly up front.

Reuse proven code. If you’re an experienced developer, you should have built up a large code base over the years. Go blue and recycle this code whenever possible. You will likely have to modify the code to fit the new requirements, but proven core code is a good foundation to build on. Not only will you reduce the risk of introducing new bugs, but you will eliminate the time wasted creating similar code and the subsequent testing required. Share your code with others so they can reuse parts of it. Proven code can be shared via plug-ins or libraries. Good external sources of code are available on the Internet that can be legally used for free or for a small fee.

Use checklists. Before a commercial plane trip, the pilot and co-pilot are busy walking through a long, detailed checklist. Checklists can be used during various phases of the project development process. They are particularly useful when working with large systems and when a single person is responsible for multiple tasks. For example, a list detailing the steps required for system turn-on will help avoid accomplishing tasks out of order and prevent errors of omission. It is all too easy for developers to overlook important items like system access when they are busy doing final testing and documentation.

Test, test, test... and carefully review your work. There is a healthy level of paranoia about delivering error-free work. Test as much as possible as early as possible. Errors in the code are typically more expensive to correct when found near the end of the development process. The last thing you need when facing a critical release date is to find a bug that should have been found months ago. Careful and thorough testing will allow you to find those mistakes before your users can. Double- and triple-check your work. Develop test data and a plan to test common calendar-based events like EOM processing and annual reporting. All functionality and every single possible scenario should be thoroughly tested. And, yes, this is also a good place to use a checklist.

Test again with a third party. Find at least one experienced person who can be dedicated to the beta testing. They will undoubtedly use the system in ways you never dreamed of and find bugs you missed. Don’t overlook or rush this final quality assurance task. It’s typically your last chance to get it right. Once a bad piece of software is released or a system with a critical bug is turned on, a company’s image can be tarnished for years to come.

Why It’s Important to Standardize Processes

2010-02-18T08:18:00.011-07:00

By Alex Repola

Some common problems within the information and technology arena like dropped hand offs, ambiguous responsibilities, misinformed decisions, and other errors within the execution or communication of basic processes threaten everyday business. This doesn’t mean team members are unable to perform to company standards; lacking a shared process that guides employees as a team, clarifying responsibilities and reinforce communication is what may be missing.

Hazards of non-standardized or non-existent process: - Reduced quality
- Higher cost
- Wasted time and energy
- Poor or no documentation
- Inaccurate diagnoses
- Degraded service

Ultimately, the worst thing a business can experience is failed business results. Focusing more on the decisions that are made in planning systems and flaws in the process in regards to development of the system is where establishing standard business practices can be most beneficial. The outcome is reduced re-work, accelerated performance, and a system that is deployed as predicted.

QeH2 has not only implemented standard business practices within their own environment, but continues to help SMB's develop systems that work for their specific situations and how to expand that into every department.

Thanks to Your Cell Phone, Authorities Know Where You Are at All Times

2010-02-12T12:34:00.007-07:00

by Alex Repola

Today, a federal appeals court will begin debating a privacy issue most cell phone users haven;t ever considers; the governments ability to track your location at any time if you are carrying a mobile phone.

With the advancement of cordless communication devices over the past decade, cellular providers have developed the ability to pinpoint your exact location within 150 feet. Kind of scary, right? If you happen to run your car off the road authorities can track your location, but the real reason this has become such a hot topic is the idea that this is a violation of the Fourth Amendment which guards against illegal search and seizure.

Read more about what the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union are doing to protect authorities from invading Americans privacy in more ways than one.

Top 10 Sales Mistakes When Selling Technology Products and How to Avoid Them

2010-02-02T09:08:00.023-07:00

by Tessa Stowe

Mistake #1: Selling the Wrong Thing
Instead: Sell What People Want to Buy

Mistake #2: Acting Like a Salesperson
Instead: Be Your Authentic Self

Mistake #3: Your Intent Is To Sell
Instead: Your Intent is to Solve Problems

Mistake #4: Selling to People Who Aren’t Going To Buy
Instead: Sell to Qualified Prospects

Mistake #5: Prescribing Before Diagnosing
Instead: Diagnose and then Prescribe

Mistake #6: Talking Too Much
Instead: Talk Less – Listen More

Mistake #7: Bombarding Features and Benefits
Instead: Give Relevant Presentations

Mistake #8: Leaving Prospects to Work Out the Financial Justification
Instead: Work Out the Financial Justification With Your Prospect

Mistake #9: Using Closing Techniques
Instead: Suggest the ‘Next Step’

Mistake #10: Treating the Sale as the End
Instead: Treat the Sale as the Beginning

This are all very valuable tips on how to get back to the basics within the sales arena. Reading over these tips made me realize that if you just slow down, listen to what the needs of each individual organization are, and direct your conversation towards those needs, sales conversations will be much smoother and will come very natural to you.

Going Paperless? This Will Get You Thinking

2010-01-28T07:46:00.013-07:00

by Alex Repola

Despite the increasing use of computers in the workplace, a good portion of most day-to-day work is still paper-based. Additionally, human behavior works against a true paperless office; employees will always want to print documents for more careful study or to use in meetings.

Many offices have made at least a partial move to implementing a paperless environment either by using scanners instead of copying machines, sending electronic faxes instead of paper faxes, or storing information electronically instead of in filling cabinets.

These are just some of the more simple ways of drastically reducing the amount of paper documents your organization relies on. If it takes five minutes to retrieve and replace a paper file and the employee works with ten paper files per day, that’s close to an hour a day. At $20 an hour, that’s almost $5000 spent annually on employees walking files around.

Looking at the different options to begin cutting costs and implementing a paperless solution that is geared towards your specific environment and a return on your investment, is an area where QeH2 has a lot of experience. With dedicated Denver IT support professionals managing paperless solutions for other local small to medium-sized businesses, we have the experience and knowledge of the steps necessary in paperless projects.

QeH2 Introduces Franklin Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People into the Work Place

2010-01-20T16:34:00.015-07:00

Mother Teresa once said, “To keep the lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.”

Although oil lamps are foreign objects to most of today’s generation, the foundation from which this quote was created is still an essential tool when keeping up with the everyday changes to life and the market place.

This past week, my co-workers and I had the opportunity to learn innovative ways of being more effective, more focused, and simply more productive not only within the QeH2 organization, but throughout our personal lives as well. QeH2 ownership collectively decided that equipping their staff with the necessary tools to be proactive in their personal lives and the work they do for QeH2 through Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly effective People.

“My goal is to boost productivity, promote efficiency, and unite our guys using the 7 Habits Training,” replied Ian Holt, Co-owner and Principal at QeH2.

Effectiveness is getting superb results today (production) in a way that allows us to get those results over and over again (production capability). The 7 Habits focus on a P/PC balance, and they are:

1. Be Proactive

2. Begin with the End in Mind

3. Put First Things First

4. Think Win-Win

5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

6. Synergize

7. Sharpen the Saw

Over the course of the next seven weeks, the staff at QeH2 will be focusing on one habit each week; living it, teaching it, and growing stronger personally and professionally. The purpose of this 7 week “contract” is to help build new, lasting habits of effectiveness. Although it may take several weeks for QeH2 and even each individual to kick old habits, once developed, these 7 habits come naturally with little energy spent.

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier- not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Strong Growth Through 2009 Makes Denver a Very Desirable Destination

2010-01-13T17:19:00.015-07:00

by Alex Repola

Chief Economist Silverstein of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation (Metro Denver EDC) released a statement today saying that one of the longest and deepest economic contractions in the nation's history appears to be over. The big questions now has to do with the strength and recovery time associated with the multi-year slump in business and home-buying and where each stands as the economy is built back up.

Although the Metro Denver area made many job cuts in early 2008, the city fared much better than many other regions through those early months, adding jobs through the first three quarters in 2008.

Although the outlook for 2010 is hard to gauge this early on, strong rankings throughout 2009 suggests that Metro Denver has retained some of the basic fundamentals required for growth as the nation's economy continues its path to recovery.

In addition to strong economic growth within the Metro Denver area in the past few quarters, Denver ranks first among the nation's most desirable places to live which speaks columns about its stable housing market being the nation's best metropolitan area in which to buy a home.

Read more to find out what fundamental principles Denver and other regions are doing to insure growth on every level.

QeH2 Interviews Strategic Local Partner REV Networking

2010-01-11T12:18:00.040-07:00

Powerful, fun, efficient, and effective speed-networking in 6 minutes is the focus for Marilyn Manning and the explosion she has created within the networking industry. Marilyn and I sat down earlier this week to talk about the motivating force she created not three years ago called REV Networking; 18 business professionals,6 minutes with each attendee, exponential growth for your company, priceless. With her horn and stopwatch, Marilyn has been connecting people from Denver to Boulder, Summit County to Vail, all in the name of business. Connecting people through the “human touch” and actually helping businesses grow through face-to-face interaction has helped some organizations like QeH2 to expand their business.

After meeting Marilyn and talking about this great state that we are both natives of, I really started to see how powerful this revolutionized way of networking really could benefit all organizations.

Alex: Tell me a little about yourself Marilyn?
Marilyn: I’m a Colorado native; I have two children, Ethan (8) and Chandler (11). My husband Sean is a CPA and has two companies: an accounting firm and a payroll company. Between the four of us, we’re very busy.

Alex: You’ve spent time in many different areas within the sales and marketing arena; what experiences helped you to create REV Networking?
Marilyn: My background is in sales, marketing, and advertising. I got my sales experience in college and coming out of college I worked in small market radio. That’s where I got the wheels rolling. The neat thing there was that it was a small enough market that you kind of did everything yourself. I made the cold calls, I’d go out and sell it, go back to the station and create an advertising campaign from scratch, write the commercials, go into the studio and produce it, and go out in the field and do live remotes. My mantra was taking these little businesses from “nothingness” to “somethingness.” It was fun and I was good at it.

In terms of my marketing experience, I worked a corporate job for a little while getting a taste of what that looks like. I worked for some very small advertising agencies and then had a really fun job doing public relations and promotions for some ski areas, a company called Ski the Summit (now owned by Vail Resorts). I learned a lot doing that.

Alex: How did this idea or, “tool” come about?
Marilyn: I’ve had the business for three years just that in itself shows the longevity of the industry. The networking industry by itself is kind of icky, it’s the bar scene. People think you’re doing business but you’re actually getting a date. In my opinion I have turned the networking industry upside down. The concept of speed dating has been around for a while now; to turn it into a networking idea makes for a lot of fun. What used to be five minutes, now six minutes per business, allows you to have a legitimate conversation with true business professionals, getting straight to the point. You will actually know within the first 40 seconds or so if you like this person and if you see yourself doing business with them.

Alex: Specifically, what is the service REV Networking is providing to consumers?
Marilyn: Basically, I’m a people connector. I tell people we can have all the technology under the sun but it comes down to knowing one another. My passion and the difference in what I’m doing is helping people be successful with their business. Prior to the event, I coach people on the phone to get them thinking about how they market their business and themselves. I ask them what they generally do to get their name out there and ask that they focus on why a consumer should chose them out of the 800 other companies out there.

Alex: What do you see as the differences between business representatives meeting prospective clients one on one as compared to over the web or through telemarketing?
Marilyn: I think the best form of contact is what I like to call the “human touch.” Being able to look at someone and shake their hand and take their business card can make all the difference. Having a safe, structured environment for business owners and representatives to come to, they know exactly what they are coming for. At other “after-hours” events, people tend to stick to the same group of people; at REV, you’re going to talk to every single person. REV Networking attendees are going to grow their network and database exponentially after just one event within the next week.

Alex: Do you have a target market?
Marilyn: What I’m looking for are business owners, organizations with multiple employees, and professionals that work in a large corporation in the sales or managerial arena. I’m very discretionary with who I let attend the events. One question that’s asked quite a bit is, “will there be a lot of network marketing companies there?” I leave one seat available for a single network marketing company, this is because there are some really awesome businesses professionals out there doing network marketing and they want to connect with business professionals too. People coming to the REV events don’t want to be bombarded by network marketing companies. Knowing there will be only one seat available to these companies takes a lot of stress off of business professionals looking to expand their network.

Alex: What are you doing to get business owners interested in REV Networking or is it creating a buzz for itself?
Marilyn: REV is becoming very well known in the Denver marketplace. There are a few things that set us apart from other networking organizations, the first being my price point. By not being the cheapest networking event in town, I only draw serious players to the table. The cost alone in looking for valuable leads can easily exceed the price of a REV event. The concept of speed networking is something that people love as well.

Alex: Are you seeing other organizations trying to mimic your model?
Marilyn: It’s funny because I’ve had people from cities like San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Chicago attend REV events and there is nothing like this there. There are speed-networking events all over YouTube from around the world. Nothing comes even close to what I’ve created here in Denver.

Alex: Can you tell me about the different types of sponsorships available for each REV Networking event?
Marilyn: There are three types of sponsors for REV Networking. The first is a Host Sponsor where the event comes to your location. You provide tables, chairs, and some sort of refreshments, in addition to a site that is conducive to these events. At the end of last year, I had catering companies fighting for the chance to sponsor events.

The second form of sponsorship is an Event Sponsor where a business sponsors a specific event. This gets their company and contact information on my email blasts that go out to roughly 3,000 businesses professionals in the Denver Metro area. Recognition as the Event Sponsor and giving a 3-5 minute overview of their organization to all the attendees before the event begins, are other perks of being an Event Sponsor. This puts them at a strategic advantage because each time they sit down with someone during the event, they can get down to more specifics about their organization.

The third level is corporate sponsorship, which is how QeH2 supports REV Networking and there is a plethora of marketing for your business. As a Corporate Sponsor, your stuff is on everything for the event. I endorse you personally at each event; there is a strong presence of Corporate Sponsors on the REV Networking site as well.

Alex: What does a typical REV Networking event entail, from conception to the event itself?
Marilyn: I generally try to plan events at least three months out and it takes two things to make each event happen; people and a place. From there it’s getting the businesses to contact me to sign up. Finding a place to host the event is the next step and it hasn’t posed a problem because of the opportunities associated with sponsoring a REV event. The day of, is really just showing up with my bag of tricks, horn, and stop watch and run the event.

Alex: Do you do any sort of follow-up with the attendees to see how REV may have helped their business?
Marilyn: I have done surveys in the past. A lot of the feedback is coming via word of mouth and I am working on putting together post follow-ups through email to get more feedback. I do follow-up with an email to all the attendees from each event to thank them and answer any post-event questions they may have. The most important feedback for this event is the success of the participant. Hundreds of thousands of real revenue dollars have been generated from these events.

Alex: What do you see the future partnership between REV Networking and QeH2 looking like?
Marilyn: Sticking with REV is very important. I need to utilize your organization more to help grow my business, and you guys have seen the benefits of utilizing what REV has to offer. Our partnership is great and I just love the QeH2 guys.

There are REV Networking events every month at different times so be sure to get your name on the list and experience the revolutionized and speedy way of networking. Space is limited, so get involved.

A New Year Brings New Challenges: Is Your Business Ready?

2010-01-06T06:08:00.060-07:00

by Alex Repola

As the holidays pass and we all return to work, we, well at least I, start looking at how I can be more efficient in my day-to-day activities, boosting productivity in the long run for myself and my organization. Sometimes this means assessing what I'm currently doing and looking at different ways to continue to be a fierce competitor in the market place.

Depending on where your business is currently and where you see yourselves down the road, there are some things to consider when planning an IT network for your organization.

Tech-FAQ.com defines a network as the grouping of hardware devices and software components which are necessary to connect devices within the organization and to connect the organization to other organizations and the Internet.

Example of hardware used within a network is a network interface card (NIC), computers, cabling, etc.

Examples of software within a network are protocols and network services which help the different network components communicate.

The first steps generally include installing and configuring the hardware, followed by installing the operating system and the software into the network infrastructure. Something very important to remember is that the operating system (OS), is considered to be the main software component within the network infrastructure, for it holds network communication protocols that allow networks to communicate. The OS also includes security applications to protect the network from outside threats.

As you start to assess whether your organization needs server capabilities, having a network infrastructure in place gives you and other users the backbone and support you need to start bringing on more hardware (i.e. file and print servers, web and messaging servers, database servers, and application servers).

During formulating stages of building a network infrastructure, Tech-FAQ.com suggests some key elements that need to be determined as you move forward:

Determine which physical hardware components are needed for the network infrastructure which you want to implement.

Determine software components needed for the infrastructure.

Determine location, installation, and configuration options for all hardware and software.

Read more about key elements your organization needs to think about when looking at implementing a network infrastructure.

As a business owner, these tasks can be very daunting and even knowing where to start can be a headache in itself. If you haven't figured it out by now, here's the skinny; QeH2 has an extensive business and IT support background and we believe in taking a business approach to information technology services. We’ve been in your shoes and saw an opportunity to provide a better solution to the small to mid-sized business. QeH2’s goal is to ignite business by leveraging information and technology to improve efficiencies, reduce overhead, and move your business forward. Technology is one of your most valuable assets and we know how to help you take full advantage of the resources you have been fighting with for years.

QeH2 is very agnostic to what hardware and software is used within your environment, keeping our focus on what the absolute best solution is for your organization. We have done our homework in many different areas and can bring you ideas, allowing you to make an educated decision on what you would like to see happen within the IT infrastructure and what the budget allows for. QeH2 can also help you with your computer networking as well as network security needs.

10 Best Year-End Tech Practices for SMBs

2009-12-28T15:59:00.032-07:00

by Alex Repola

Earlier this month TechRepublic's Erik Eckel released an article titled, 10 Best Year-End Tech Practices for SMBs. After reading through the best practices, it really helped me to realize how helpful a basic "clean-up" could be and the benefits of giving your IT environment a little TLC. Here are the 10 things to keep in mind as you and your organization bring in the new year.

Restore backups to confirm operation

Review disk image inventory and status

Physically clean servers and PCs

De-fragment hard disks

Audit software licenses and media

Perform network stress tests

Audit user accounts

Confirm equipment inventory

Clean printers

Clean your cube or office

Reduce Your IT Energy Consumption Today

2009-12-22T14:53:00.026-07:00

by Alex Repola

Collectively, US organizations waste $3B every year powering 100M unused PCs. This is because 50 percent of working Americans leave their office PCs on when they leave for the night, creating a massive carbon footprint," a report on LinkedIn reads. Read more...

Just a single PC left on overnight and on weekends wastes organization $70 to $150 equaling 620lbs of CO2 annually.

For an example of a way to conserve energy, the Berkely Green IT Initiative used Auto Shutdown Manager and achieved a reduction of PC energy consumption by 85 percent in just six months. The savings, on average, were $4000 for 100 PCs.

Auto Shutdown Manager is only one of many different ways to use, centrally managed power solution. It never interrupts working users or productive systems. Business owners are able to take full control of the shut-down, wake-up and sleep modes; on demand, by time, for patch management, or by policies. Auto Manager Shutdown was built with the IT Department in mind, controlling entire IT landscapes from one central console.

Turning your machines off at the end of each day not only puts money back in the owners pockets, it conserves energy and reduces your carbon footprint.

The problem is that many organizations, little and big, have an issue with turning machines off at the end of the day. Getting employees to do this manually can be quite cumbersome, looking at the different options that can perform this task for you or at least minimize your over all power consumption within the technology side of things is a whole different story.

QeH2 focuses on intelligent solutions that help to move business forward, getting over hurtles and dealing with issues properly the first time; putting that money back in your pockets. Check out some of the things we recommend when looking to implement power saving technology and other green initiatives.

QeH2 to Begin Recycling their Office Waste Just in Time for the Holidays

2009-12-16T14:34:00.030-07:00

by Alex Repola

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency says there are three main ways to produce less waste:

Reduce the amount and toxicity of trash you throw away and reuse containers and products.

Recycle as much as possible and buy products with recycled content.

Practice composting.

Since 1960, the amount of waste each person produces has almost doubled from 2.7 to 4.5 pounds per day according to the E.P.A. The idea is that curbing this trend will help in preventing waste in the first place.

Some of the major benefits to recycling are expansion of U.S. manufacturing jobs, reducing the need for landfillng and incineration, conserves natural resources, and helps to decrease green house gasses.

Although many of the benefits in recycling are seen on larger scales, if just your company recycles soda cans, cardboard, paper of all sorts, and even plastic waste, knowing your organization is doing your part is a good feeling. When its made as easy as throwing all the above mentioned recyclables into one giant receptacle its, a no-brainer.

QeH2 has been using green cleaning supplies through Office ProClean, a Castle Rock born office and home cleaning company, for years, taking this next step in reducing our carbon footprint makes us that much more efficient.

10 Ways to Increase IT ROI Without Adding Staff

2009-12-09T07:33:00.033-07:00

by Tim Clark

Within IT, there are big-picture considerations that can help guide how companies adjust and manage their IT operations. More and more IT executives have had to re-balance IT initiatives to focus on projects with near-term benefits while keeping momentum on longer-term, strategic projects. Also, aligning IT more closely with business priorities are most likely going to be focused on revenue.

This means increasing ROI without bringing on more cost in the long run help in generating more revenue within the organization instead of having to cut budgets, IT being one of the first departments to take a hit.

10 Ways to Increase IT ROI Without Adding Staff

1. Go Green

Telework - Greater productivity, less office space required
Power Management - Lower utility cost
Power-Efficient Hardware - Less need to add new data center space

2. Standardize

Lower labor cost resulting from fewer configurations to manage

3. Virtualize

Lower costs for hardware, space and utilities

4. Track Assets

Software - reduce licensing costs for unused licenses
Hardware - Find lost assets. Timely patches reduce costly outages

5. Best Practices From Community

Lower costs for paid vendor technical support

Lower costs for training, especially travel

6. Remote Management

Reduce travel costs, including personnel time

7. Automated Systems Management Tasks

Lower personnel costs
Better compliance reduces cost of outages

8. Integrated Systems Management

Lower personnel costs
Lower utility costs

9. Vendor Financing

Conserves cash by spreading purchase cost over time

10. Appliances

Lower labor costs to maintain
Lower utility costs

QeH2 Interviews Ian Holt, One of the Founding Partners

2009-12-03T14:37:00.031-07:00

I first met Ian Holt, partner and one of the H's in QeH2, the day I interviewed for a job to join the sales team here at QeH2; I instantly felt comfortable talking with him and the rest of the sales staff.

Nearly three months later I was able to squeeze in a few minutes to get Ian alone and talk about some of his past experiences and how that has helped him turn many of his ideas into a reality here at QeH2...

Finally, after a long, busy day, I got Ian into my office in between cell phone calls and email replies. Propping his feet up on the desk with a huge smile on his face, Ian and I decided to dig in.

Q: How long have you been with QeH2?
A: Since the beginning; three years now

Q: You have a background in a lot of different areas within IT, what have you experienced?
A: I started out in technical support like most IT guys usually do. I spent the last 20 years supporting servers, network design, and the infrastructure side of IT.

Q: What was the transition like for you from the tech support side of thing to infrastructure support and design?
A: I actually spent three weeks working in a call center dealing with help desk support issues then got a job offer doing on-site tech support and hands-on stuff right after that. I moved from Calgary, Canada to Omaha, Nebraska, I didn’t even know where Omaha was at the time. I was really excited; this was my first real tech job out of college.

Q: Where was an area that you felt you learned the most within your past experiences?
A: Right after doing tech support for US West, I went in and did internal IT support for a consulting company. That’s where the idea of stabilization was really born and have been using the idea here at QeH2. It was learning how to stabilize and make machines work well.

Q: Obviously as an owner you have a lot of responsibilities here, at this point in time, what are you trying to focus on to move QeH2 forward?
A: Right now my focus is on District Management (DM), basically managing the different teams of guys. As of now my district is just me and one other guy. The way its split up is based on the customers I am currently working with but it also has to do with customer need and how that relates to each one of the DMs background within IT.

On moving stuff forward I work on a lot of the documentation tasks, which is funny because I didn’t start off being the documentation guy. I’m also working with Lori Eisele to get our internal systems working better. Tapping into the functionalities of the systems we already have.

Q: With some of the things you bring to the table within QeH2 from an experience level and time spent within the industry, how has all of that influenced your vision of this company?
A: I can’t really say that I came up with the idea of stabilization, it’s been more of a group effort but my concepts of stabilization came from my previous world but that is a big part of what has influenced QeH2. When we first sat down and put the company together, Darrin and Quentin came from the Mountain View Marketing side and Jim and I came from the consulting side and we looked at what was wrong with IT. My pasts experiences have really influenced the infrastructure stabilization side. Once we get somebody stabilized, it doesn’t require a lot of maintenance. Now that things aren't breaking, we can concentrate on moving forward with other things. It’s great for us because we’re not fixing the same problems over and over again. It’s great for the customer because their down time is reduced drastically.

Q: QeH2 is growing, rapidly. It has expanded quite a bit since I came on just a few months ago. What different transformations have you seen take place since starting the company?
A: When we closed our first customer I was still working my day job and supporting the company part-time. Right before Christmas 2006 I quit my job and started working to build QeH2 as my full-time job. The cool part was that my day job became supporting a customer and within about four months, Jim, Quentin, and I had all quit our day jobs and we had hired our first resource. We went from the planning stage to up and functioning in just a matter of months, then full steam ahead a few months after that. QeH2 was learning how to balance the hard times and planning for the growth that was ahead of us.

Q: What do you like to focus on when meeting with a perspective client for the first time?
A: I typically focus on their pain. Everyone that wants to talk to us have some sort of issue. Either they are not happy with their current IT guy or they have an issue that hasn’t been resolved, something of that nature. This generally leads me to the pains within their organization

Q: Do you think that helps to set us apart from our competitors, focusing more on the customer’s pain points instead of trying to just sell a product or service?
A: We don’t really have any true competition. There is nobody out there focusing on the businesses pains and moving their company out of that pain zone and into more productive state, increasing their bottom line. No IT company looks at it that way. We are bridging the gap between the IT side and the business side. Most management problems have an IT solution; it’s a matter of finding out what that issue is or what they are trying to do. We’ve come up with a solution that’s more efficient, faster, and saves them money.

Q: What is that one technology that you personally think all business owners should invest in?
A: Its all about disaster recovery; if you don’t back it up you’re going to lose it. Everybody has a crash in their future. It’s a matter of preparing for when that happens. Disaster recovery technology is the thing everyone has to have no matter on what system you have. To the guy working on his laptop in the garage to a 50 station, 100 station shop, you’re only as good as your back-up.

Q: Where do you see the company in two years or even five years?
A: We're planning for some aggressive growth. In the last three years, we’ve artificially slowed our growth several times to make sure we’re taking care of the customer, making sure we’re perfecting our model. We’re set in the next tow years to grow exponentially; I see us five years from now outside of the state with multiple locations.

Q: What do you spend your time doing when you’re not on your computer or meeting with clients?
A: Honestly, I enjoy spending time with my family (Jason 15, Morgan 13, Daniel 11, Jared 9, and wife Bonita). My kids are all computer guys they love computer games; it’s really funny. We all like to travel. I really immerse with loved ones but there always seems to be a computer side to things. I recreate within technology, it’s something I love. I go home most days thinking, they pay me to do this.

The interview confirmed the fact that Ian loves technology and his passion to want to help business owners with their struggling IT needs is ingrained in everything he does. The success and growth within QeH2 is in large part due to the experiences, knowledge, and focus of partners like Ian Holt.

Social Networking, Helping Business Owners Everywhere

2009-12-02T20:00:00.015-07:00

by Alex Repola

There's no way to hide from it any longer. Online social networking sites have been experiencing rapid growth with every passing month.

"It took Facebook only two and a half months to go from 300 million users to 350 million users..." reported the San Jose Business Journal on commented from Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of FacebookInc., earlier today. Read more...

This is only putting a spot light on the site as a tool for all different kinds of users. Something I have been noticing is more and more SMBs turning specifically toFacebook, attracting all those different types of demographics that crawl all over the site.

Just earlier today I was speaking with Eric Pratt , Business Development Manager here at QeH2, about the idea of a Facebook page for QeH2. Hopefully this gives users a more personal look at our team and some of the revolutionary things we are focusing on, helping to move businesses forward.

I found a great article written by Paul Chaney, or the social media handyman, titled the "Ten Commandments for Effective Online Social Networking," where he explains the many different things you really need to contemplate when building a profile on Facebook.

We will be launching our very ownQeH2 Facebook page in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

Determining When to Virtualize Your Servers

2009-11-28T08:58:00.024-07:00

by David Davis

Server virtualization isn’t just for big companies. Entry-level virtualization tools are free or low-cost, and there are many benefits to virtualization (including saving money). It’s not a question of “if” you should virtualize your servers; it’s a question of “when.”

Davis says following these five steps when determining if virtualization is right for your servers should help to alleviate some of the pains commonly associated with consolidating IT environments.

Step 1: Verify your motivation for going virtual

Most likely you will have to justify the reason to virtualize to a manager or a "C" level executive. Even if you don’t have to do that, you should be able to answer the “why” question for yourself with an answer that’s more concrete that “because it’s the next big thing.”

Step 2: Evaluate a virtualized solution

When selecting the right virtualization solution for your company, consider the following:

Don’t choose the “newest” or “cheapest” solution just because they are new and inexpensive.

Look for a solution that has been around for a long period of time to ensure the technology has been tested with a variety of applications.

Look for a solution that has been proven in productiveIT environments.

Choose a solution that offers flexibility and options to fit the needs of your company.

Step 3: Determine if applications are going to work well with virtualization

I have heard from administrators who haven’t virtualized their servers yet that they believe their applications might not be “virtualization friendly.” While there may be cases in which this is true, the numbers of servers that can’t be virtualized are small compared to the vast majority of all servers that can.

Step 4: Analyze the cost of virtualizing your server infrastructure

As most of us work for businesses, and businesses are in the business of maximizing profits, it only makes sense that before undertaking a virtualization project, you should analyze the cost and potential savings (the ROI).

Even if you don’t use numbers, the cost savings of virtualization is obvious. Virtualization requires:

Fewer servers

Fewer infrastructure costs – cooling, UPS, generator

Less spent on electricity

Less space needed for you IT infrastructure

Less time spent administering servers

Faster response to business needs

Step 5: Analyze the time and skill needed to virtualize your infrastructure
Minimizing the time and skill required to create a virtual environment is hard to do. Depending on the scope of the project, it could be very quick or it could be a more significant undertaking.

What about Craigslist or Ebay?

2009-11-27T17:05:00.004-07:00

by Eric Pratt

There's been a lot of hype lately over Social Media. Many businesses are rushing to build a Facebook page, get a Twitter account, and build a network on Linkedin. While the jury may still be out on how measurable returns are and what industries have had the best success I think there is another format that can provide instant returns and metrics.

Most of you probably know Craigslist and Ebay. Craigslist is very basic but highly successful internet classified site. Ebay is the top dog in online auctioneers. You may have bought or even sold personal items through Craigslist or Ebay but have you ever thought about generating revenue and profits for your business?

Obviously this is most relevant to companies that sell a good and carry inventory. If you have inventory you have no doubt dealt with stales or dead inventory. What if you could slowly get rid of unneeded product, increase cash flow, and invest nothing on the front end? That's what Craigslist and other sites can do.

Let me give you a real life example that you can apply your specifics to. My Dad lives in WA and owns a transmission shop, Snohomish Transmission. Over 20-some years he has piled up a lot of car parts. Some of them very valuable, the pack rat in my Dad always saves stuff in the event he might have a use for it later. Many of his parts, especially the hard to find specialty parts, are very rare.

My idea for him was to start listing things on Craiglist. His shop was slow at the time, money was tight, and his receptionist just played Solitaire when it was slow. Why not put her to work? Sure wouldn't be any harm in trying right? He's already paying her to sit there and it certainly could be put on the back burner when a customer came in right? After debating the details he finally figured he'd give it a try.

It actually worked. He started getting interest and making sales. Most of the stuff he's selling isn't going for more than $50-$75 bucks. He isn't getting rich but he's putting few extra hundreds in his pocket every month, reducing inventory and increasing cash flow.

Every little bit counts for small businesses, especially in current conditions. Everyone is counting pennies, reducing overhead, and generally running a tighter ship. If you have some stuff laying around your office or warehouse that isn't going anywhere soon, why not give Craigslist a try? If you want to get real crazy spend a few dollars on Ebay to post your items and open up your demographics even more.

Another option would be to reinvest those dollars back into your business. Why not save for a month or two, give QeH2 a call, and let us show you how to make your website work for you with our online marketing services. Maybe a fresh and relevant site coupled with some monthly SEO could bring additional clients to you. Might be worth a shot, especially if it starts with "free" money you made online.

QeH2 Interviews Strategic Local Partner 1SpotInfo.com

2009-11-23T15:16:00.034-07:00

by Alex Repola

I had heard the company name 1SpotInfo.com many times, but I never really knew what their services could provide me as member of the community. After delving into it, I learned that whether you live in or work in the area or are just visiting from out of town, 1SpotInfo.com is the fastest, easiest way to find everything that’s here. I jumped at the chance to meet the owner of such an innovative organization.

I wasn’t quite sure what to think when I first walked into City Pub on November 18th. This was the place that Pam Rubins, owner of 1SpotInfo.com, and Eric Pratt had planned to meet prior to me asking to tag along. Of course, I first noticed the University of Colorado Buffalo flag hanging right alongside what looked like Ralphie, (CU’s mascot that they parade around the field before each game). I then noticed our biggest rival’s flag, Colorado State University, hanging not far away. Not something I’m comfortable with being a graduate from CU, but I soon got over it.

There were only a couple tables with people around them and I figured Pam, Eric, and I would have the majority of the place to ourselves. It wasn’t long before groups of six and seven people started pouring in the door, filling up the tables around us. In fact, it got so noisy that once Pam arrived and I had introduced myself, we had to move across the room so we could hear one another and to begin the interview…

Alex: How did this idea come about?

Pam: Local search hardly existed when we moved to Denver a number of years ago. Yet, and I’ll argue this point until I’m blue in the face, it is easier and more cost-effective to do business locally. So we decided to bring everything online. We spent two years on proof-of-concept and development of the initial site, which is largely built on the “convenience factor,” and haven’t looked back since.

Alex: Describe 1SpotInfo.
Pam: 1SpotInfo was built to be a resource for local business by making it easy to find one another. Our site is based on “tightly-localized” search and we offer free listing and mapping in the ten areas we currently cover. We will do the same in several new areas that are in development.

Alex: What’s your message?
Pam: There is no room for complacency in this economy. Recent surveys indicate as many as 83% of consumers search for local services online, and that over 25% of commercial online searches in the U.S. are for local merchants. You have no choice -- your business has to be found on the Internet.

Alex: Who are you targeting?
Pam: Any business that needs to be found online in the local market.

Alex: What service do you provide to your customers?
Pam: The primary focus of our business is affordable and effective SEO on Google, but we are starting to focus on Bing as well. We use proprietary software to optimize our clients for as little as $200 a month.

Alex: What are the steps in getting a company listed?
Pam: It’s on our website, go to Get Listed.

Alex: Tell me a little about 1SpotInfo 4 Schools.
Pam: This is a business-driven initiative designed to broaden the exposure of local companies among a key demographic while providing a steady stream of undesignated funding for local schools. How it works is very simple. When someone makes a purchase from an involved company, that business sends a pre-determined percent of the sale to the participating school of the customer’s choice. This is a free service for the schools and our clients. 100% of the proceeds of this program are donated to participating schools.

Alex: With a lot of small to medium-sized businesses just now bouncing back from a rough couple of years, are you seeing more business owners shifting towards helpful tools like 1SpotInfo.com?
Pam: Everybody is pulling out of print and shifting to the Internet. Its way more affordable and you reach people that are actually looking for you; it’s a whole different ball game.

Alex: Is the same thing happening with strategic local partnerships in communities?
Pam: Absolutely, referrals are the highest compliment you can give to any business. It means that you trust that company to do a great job. It’s like what happened with you guys. We connected through Rev Networking and, after multiple meetings that focused on the respective benefits we provide, we’ve started referring prospective clients to one another.

Alex: Why choose you?
Pam: Results and affordability. There is no ambiguity here; you show on the first page of Google or you don’t, that’s it. We are very proud that our customer retention rate is over 90 percent.

Alex: What do you see the future partnership between 1SpotInfo and QeH2 looking like?
Pam: You guys are a great resource; I love your business model. You’re the anti-consultants! Our focus is SEO and we do a great job at it. I see you guys shifting more of that towards us. Similarly, we don’t provide IT support, that’s your specialty. If we have a client who can use your services, we’ll happily make the connection.

Alex: Closing thoughts?
Pam: We are very happy to be working together; we think it’s the beginning of a great relationship.

The background noises fazed neither Pam nor myself. Eric showed up soon after we had moved tables, adding strong points here and there. I walked away from the interview completely satisfied, spending the next few hours tooling around on 1SpotInfo.com, checking out the different pages on the site and thinking how helpful it would be to have this tool in every city across the country.

Microsoft Enters Partnership with LinkedIn

2009-11-20T15:03:00.014-07:00

by Elliot Shmukler

LinkedIn has reported that it will be the first social networking site to support Outlook Social Connector, part of Microsoft Office 2010.

Both companies have released reports stating the the functionality will be available in early 2010, the belief being that you can be much more effective in the business world with your professional network right at your finger tips. Read more.

Using an email from someone you've just stared doing business with who is connected on LinkedIn, can be instantly added to your professional network, bringing key elements of your LinkedIn network to where you work - your Outlook e-mail inbox. The Paper Pane gives you the ability to see picture, title, and name of email senders, providing a rich, comprehensive collection of information about the sender.

These two corporations and the partnership they have formed here is only going to continue to find new and innovative ways to do business and bring people together.

Shift to Online Media from More Traditional for SMBs

2009-11-19T15:40:00.004-07:00

Shift to Online Media from More Traditional for SMBs
by BIA/Kelsey

A survey conducted by BIA/Kelsey Group in August 2009 has shown a shift in the use of more traditional media over the last few years to the use of digital media, altering the way small to medium-sized businesses handle sales and marketing efforts within their organization.

The proportion of SMBs using the internet to track and measure new-business leads has also increased steadily over the last two years, increasing from 22% in 2008 to 30% in 2009.
Read More...

Online business directories and other similar tools are becoming more and more important in the decision-making process as consumers are turning to the web to gather information on locally owned businesses and their competitors.

Here at QeH2, we are finding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is another key factor for SMBs trying to market themselves within their given industry. When a business owner has their organizations name at the top of the list on Google (or other similar search engines like Bing) when someone searches for local results within that specific industry can severely hamper the competitions ability to be competitive.

Later this week, I’ll be sitting down with Pam of 1SpotInfo to talk about what they are doing to build-up and strengthen the local business market.

The Value of Virtualization

2009-11-05T12:33:00.004-07:00

by Johan De Gelas

AnandTech

Introduction

TCO and ROI have been abused repeatedly by sales representatives, in the hope of getting you to swallow the sometimes outrageously high pricing on their quotation for a trendy new technology. However, server virtualization is one of the few ICT technologies that really lives up to its hype. The cost savings are real and the TCO is great, as long as you obey a few basic rules like not installing bloatware or extremely large memory limited databases. There is more.

Google Apps vs Microsoft Exchange

2009-09-22T13:21:00.006-06:00

by Eric Pratt

Does your business run its email through Microsoft Exchange? Have you been considering moving the services to another service like Google Apps? I'm not an advocate for either but I do know from a user perspective the most important consideration is functionality.

As the decision maker you have a lot to consider from the features vs cost perspective, by now I'm sure you've done the due diligence. There are a lot of cost and feature differences to evaluate before purchasing and sometimes you get what you pay for. If you haven't compared features and costs here are a couple links to check before you make a change....

Google Apps

MS Exchange

I guess as a user I'm more interested what each does and more importantly what, if anything, Google Apps doesn't do what Exchange does. The largest concern is syncing with Outlook. With Exchange I know my calendar, contacts, tasks, and email all sync between my phone and laptop instantaneously (issues with Blackberry or I Phone aside). Google Apps does not include a snyc program for the calendar, tasks, contacts, and emails but you can buy an aftermarket Calendar Sync. Why isn't this standard? The Google application is cheaper but its not really apples to apples because of this so while as the business owner/decision maker you see cost savings benefits but your users aren't seeing the same or better features. If you're going to Google Apps you have some selling to do to your team, make sure you're educated on the pros and cons of each.

The one thing you know about Google from their recent explosion onto the IT scene is that they have a habit of creating great products, marketing them effectively, and improving on them dramatically. They are willing and able to put the proper resources into their offering, and we know they don't have cash flow issues. Google makes great products but the Apps has some challenges that you will undoubtedly need to address with your team in order to have their full buying. Heading the issues off before implementing any change is always good policy before enacting any change into your environment.

For more information on these and other services and help in deciding which might be best for you please contact QeH2.

Are You Still Using Backup Tapes?

2009-09-10T13:58:00.004-06:00

There was a time not too long ago when the most common method of backing up your data was to insert a stack of floppy disks one at a time. Most of the time you would make 2 copies just to be sure you could restore files in case the first set of disks became corrupted or damaged. Aren't you glad those days are over?

Backup tape drives have been all the rage for data backup and recovery for the last several years due to the low cost per MB of data. Backup tapes, like floppy disks have now reached their end of life. The biggest advantage of using backup tape, the cost per megabyte, has been superseded by the speed and low cost of internal and external hard drives.

If you have ever tried to restore or waited for someone else to restore files or even a whole computer from backup tape you know it can take hours to run. Heaven forbid if your tapes are 5 years old and you are unable to restore the file(s) you or someone in your office has accidentally deleted and are in desperate need of. If you are still using backup tapes for your data recovery solution you should seriously consider switching to a hard drive backup before you find yourself in this situation.

External (or internal for that matter) hard drives provide a quick backup and restoration of your important data and can be easily swapped out with another drive to take offsite just like with tapes. These days you can get 500 GB or more for under $100. Restoring a file from a hard drive backup is as easy as copying from one drive to another, without having to use difficult software or swapping of tapes. Do yourself a favor and replace your backup tape library with a hard drive.

If you need assistance in removing this bane from your life or need help with data recovery, contact us at QeH2.

Douglas County Ranks 5th in Nation for Job Growth

2009-08-20T12:23:00.004-06:00

By Jessica Dickler and Steve Hargreaves, CNN Money
Aug 18th, 2009

5. Douglas County, CO
Towns include: Castle Rock, Parker, Stonegate, Lone Tree, Highlands Ranch. Job growth (2000-2008): 69.7%

Located midway between the state's two largest cities, Denver and Colorado Springs, "Dougco" attracts a highly educated and skilled workforce because of its proximity to the state's major employment hubs. A well developed transportation system that includes an airport, light rail and newly expanded freeway system along with a favorable tax rate also make Dougco a good home for businesses.

The county's commitment to economic development is clearly paying off. In January, Charles Schwab announced the company would bring over 500 jobs to the area. New positions are primarily in the Information Technology sector with an average wage of $75,000 a year, according to Public Affairs Director Wendy Holmes.

More

Giving Sales a Good Name

2009-08-18T09:01:00.004-06:00

by Eric Pratt

I’ve seen the look before, in fact I see the look on their face almost every time I walk in the door to make a sales call. The “Oh great, what does this guy want” look. You probably know the look too. You probably have that look on your face every time a sales person walks in your door.

I don’t blame you either, I’d probably feel the same way if I was bombed with phone calls and cold calls all day long every day for years with little or nothing to show for it. How many times has someone promised you the world and then delivered nothing? Are they going to disappear into thin air with not as much as a thank you note for your time?

The problem is that almost everyone thinks they can sell. The problem is that almost everyone is trying to solve their own problems, not yours. The problem is that there are just too few honest, reputable sales persons in the business environment today. So why even take the calls? Why even waste your time when you have too much on your plate as it is?

The answer is hope and opportunity. You need solutions. You need a better way to do things. You need products, and services, and people you can rely on. There is so much information, technology, and services available that someone can inevitably help you work faster, smarter, and more efficiently. What if the next guy that walks through the door had the solution you’re looking for? What if you shut him down without even knowing he was the one you were looking for?

Please don’t lose hope. There really are a few companies out there that want to help. There really are a few sales reps out there that will actually follow up and deliver on their promises. The chance to win the sales call lottery really does exist.

I’ve sold a lot of things in my short career. I’ve sold everything from beer, wine, and soda to sunglasses, lighters, and toys. I’ve sold for good companies and I’ve sold for a couple of really poor companies with even worse products. I learned more about how to sell from my colleagues and supervisors than most of them probably realize. I’ve learned a lot from the best of them but I can honestly say I’ve learned a lot more from the worst of them. I’ve learned that selling really isn’t all that hard if you stick to a few basic principles.

First principle, be honest. Too many sales people lie, cheat, and steal their way through their day. They feel like they need to embellish, exaggerate, and flat out make stuff up to succeed. That’s usually not the case; they just aren’t very good at their job. If that is true, they’re selling the wrong product and need to get a new job.

Second principle, don’t make promises you can’t keep. Pretty simple in concept but practiced far too rarely as most of you know. Sales people over commit and under deliver. That’s why you can’t stand the thought of talking to another rep that walks through your door. That’s where the look comes from right?

Final principle, work hard. Most of their short falls come from just being lazy. They’re too lazy to pick up the phone. They’re too lazy to prepare properly for their meetings. They’re too lazy to follow up afterwards. How many times have you actually sat with a rep that had a good product that were truly interested in buying but they just completely dropped the ball? More than once I would guess.

It’s just not that hard to set yourself apart in the sales world. The bar has been set pretty low. All you really have to do is be honest, follow through on your promises, and do the work that revolves around the call. Working for a good company with a good offering never hurts either, it certainly makes your life easier and helps you resist the temptation to sacrifice your principles for a sale.

All of this is why the look on your face when I walk through the door doesn’t bother me. I understand your frustration and skepticism, I feel your pain. This is also why I don’t let it stop me, why I smile and introduce myself regardless of your attitude. I’m here to help. I’m here to restore your faith in the sales process. I’m here with a great product and I’m going to do a great job. You’re going to love my company’s product and you’re going to respect the way I do my job. You’re about to be my next client, you just don’t know it yet. Give me a chance and I’ll prove it.

QeH2 is now a Microsoft Financing Partner!

2009-06-16T09:45:00.005-06:00

by Eric Pratt

QeH2 is proud to announce another strategic partnership that allows us to help our clients finance any Microsoft-related purchases. The strength of this partnership once again lies in our ability to help our clients make better business decisions. As a Microsoft Financing Partner additional options are now on the table for clients wishing to invest in new IT software.

Program Details

Microsoft Financing is available to commercial customers only.

This is not a lease program.

You can finance the entire cost of your technology solution - including software, services and your product offerings.

Contract Changes

At any time during the contract, you can add software, services, or your product offerings with supplemental financing starting at US$3,000. Additional credit approval may be required.

Payment Details

Interest rates are competitive and determined by the term and size of the contract.
Payment terms are offered in 24- to 60-month increments, depending on the program.
Down payments are generally not required.

For more information on how you can participate in this program please contact your QeH2 Technician. QeH2 will continue to identify new avenues that bring our clients competitive advantage. When there is a way for us to take advantage of additional options for our clients we will do so and in the process we will all benefit. That's the QeH2 difference.

REV Networking Event Announcement

2009-06-02T08:31:00.005-06:00

QeH2 is proud to attend another REV event this Wednesday! The event is sold out with some of Denver’s top professionals. Channel 9 News is planning on coming to this event to do a story on REV.

June 3 Wednesday
D’Vine Wine
1660 Champa St.
4:15 p.m. promptly! – 7:30 p.m.

If you would like to attend a future event please contact Marilyn Manning @ Marilyn@revnetworking.com

There will be food and refreshments for you at the event courtesy of Life Styles Catering. D’Vine Wine will have a complimentary wine tasting following the event.

A BIG THANKS TO OUR EVENT SPONSORS

Event Location Sponsor

D'Vine Wine
1660 Champa St.
Downtown Denver 80202
4:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Chris Howell
Winery Manager
303.534-0788
chris@winerydenver.com

Event Sponsor

Kari Lilley
Event Designer
Lifestyles Catering
303.232-7932 O
303.241-3473 C
kari.lilley@lifestylescatering.com

Corporate Sponsors

Denver Business Journal
Kelly Stangel
Small Business Liaison & Circulation Account Executive
303.803-9279
kstangel@bizjournals.com
Get Connected in Denver

QeH2 Business Intelligence

Eric Pratt
Marketing Director
401 S. Wilcox St., Ste 123
Castle Rock CO 80104
303.688-7531 O
720.290-582 C
epratt@qeh2.com

Xerox announces “ground breaking” color technology

2009-05-22T11:53:00.002-06:00

Xerox launched their new “environmentally friendly” color machine on May 7th! The “ColorQube” is a color multifunction device that can be configured in different speeds and is totally green, sustainable and affordable. This new family of products uses Xerox’s patented “solid ink” technology now combined with Xerox’s workgroup MFP expertise. Solid Ink sticks are cartridge free, and therefore a true consumable. This new series will use 90% less waste than laser printers and has all the latest scanning technology on it with numerous finishing options available. This new machine is so user friendly and intuitive, it can diagnose potential problems and fix them ahead of time reducing maintenance and service calls. Your IT support group will appreciate reduced intervention and calls to your help desk. But best of all, it charges you for the actual color used on a page. No more paying expensive full-color page prices for small amounts of color.

This product breaks the mold for color MPFs in several aspects:

High performance

Low environmental impact

Lowest color page price in the industry – as low as .03 cents per copy!!!!

Solid Ink encourages the use of recycled and lighter weight papers without sacrificing print quality

QeH2 announces CBeyond Channel Partnership

2009-04-30T11:34:00.004-06:00

by Eric Pratt

QeH2 has agreed to terms with Cbeyond to become a Channel Partner. QeH2 believes this partnership will augment their ability to provide their clients with extended services. QeH2 already works with Cbeyond in many client environments as our systems overlap. As Channel Partners they will have the ability to pass on pricing advantages to their clients. Providing information and technology is QeH2's niche and the access to resources is a big competitive advantage their clients hold, this announcement increases that advantage with current and potential clients.

Cbeyond is the voice and broadband Internet provider built exclusively to serve small businesses. They work exclusively with this growing entrepreneurial class of customers and it shows in everything they do - from our customized packages to their unique customer support. Their local, long distance and Internet packages, anytime account management and industry-first VoIP platform give small businesses the communication tools that big businesses enjoy - at an affordable price.

REV Networking Event Announcement

2009-04-21T09:48:00.005-06:00

QeH2 is proud to sponsor today's REV Networking event!

When: April 21 Tuesday
Time: 4:15pm
Where: 4150 E. Mississippi Ave.
Central Denver 80246

Event Location Sponsor

Nancy Litvak
Director of Sales and Catering
Loews Denver Hotel
303.639-1606 D
303.782-9300 Hotel
nlitvak@loewshotels.com

Event Sponsor

QeH2
Eric Pratt
Director of Marketing
303.688-7531 O
720.290-5982 D
epratt@qeh2.com

Tar Heels' returnees accomplish title mission

2009-04-07T09:01:00.004-06:00

By AARON BEARD

DETROIT (AP) — Tyler Hansbrough wore a clipped-down net around his neck and a T-shirt proclaiming North Carolina as national champion. A few feet to his right sat Wayne Ellington, who had just been selected the most outstanding player in the Final Four.

Across the festive locker room at Ford Field sat teammates Ty Lawson and Danny Green, the other members of the quartet who considered a jump to the NBA as underclassmen last year.

This was the moment they hoped for.

This was the reason they stayed.

With Monday night's 89-72 win over Michigan State, they accomplished what they came back to school to do: win the program's fifth NCAA title.

"A lot of outside people were saying we have to win it all or it's going to be a failure," Hansbrough said. "Well, you know what? It's not a failure. We came back to win a championship. We did, and we got the job done. There was a lot of pressure, but no one's disappointed in this locker room."

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