Letter to Santa by Jeff Phillip, Web Services Manager

My 3 children, ages 6, 9, and 11 are wasting no time this year making sure they get their letters off to Santa. I certainly appreciate their initiative, but wish they would apply it to cleaning their room as well. Nevertheless, the other night when they sat down at the kitchen table to make out their lists – I noticed my daughter was asking for a laptop computer. I questioned her about it and was informed that she figured it would be too expensive to ask mom and dad for it, so she would ask Santa for it instead. Solid logic!

It did get me thinking, though, about the vision many of us have of the North Pole and the hard-working elves working round-the-clock making dolls, toy boats and wooden trucks. The cobblers and woodworker elves of yesteryear almost certainly have been replaced with Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers to accommodate the overwhelmingly technology-dependant generation being raised today. Between laptops, cell phones, video game consoles and other electronic gadgets, this new generation seemingly would not know what to do with a toy that does not plug in somewhere.

And as I thought about it more I realized that the Christmas Letter my parents and grandparents slaved over each year to update friends near and far can now be replaced with a simple e-mail suggesting that they check my Facebook status. If only I could convince Grandma Pat to send her fruitcake electronically...

I can only imagine what is to come in the next couple of years, perhaps a web-enabled Christmas tree where the gifts can simply be downloaded on Christmas Eve, or Virus-Protected stockings to keep the Grinch from hacking into them. Whatever it is, I am certain that Santa and his elves are well ahead of the technology curve.All of this has not settled in my mind whether or not to get my daughter her own laptop this year, but fortunately for me there are daily reminders of how many shopping days remain until Christmas.

P.S. Santa, mine was the letter with the Dell Alienware M17X laptop and a new Blackberry Storm 2.

If You Could Talk To Your Customers by Jim Laber, Partner

Talk to your customers… sounds obvious doesn’t it? Well, if you are like us – other than handling a request, a problem, or getting the occasional ‘atta boy’ we don’t often take the time to find out what our customers are thinking. That changed last week when we held our first ‘Customer Advisory Team’ luncheon.

What an eye opening experience. When we first came up with the idea we thought we would have to beg our clients to attend. Wrong. They were eager to participate and those that couldn’t attend wanted to make sure we invited them to the next one.

We also thought it would be tough to get them to provide the kind of feedback that would help us really enhance our customer service. Wrong again. Not only did they attend but they came prepared with helpful suggestions and clear opinions about what we are doing right and where we can improve.

We ended up with a punch list of items to incorporate into our everyday business practices. Many of those items would have had a much lower priority had we not recieved their input. In addition, we explained some changes that we thought would be helpful and were surprised to discover that they didn’t like those ideas at all.

Finally, we thought that we’d do this once or maybe twice a year. Wrong yet again. Our customers made it very clear that they thought this should be a quarterly event. So, we are already planning the next luncheon for February and even incorporating their suggestions for improving the event.

If you’ve ever thought about getting your customers together but have been hesitant, my advice is to go for it. Your customers will appreciate your efforts and you will come away with a better understanding of them and what they need from your business.

From Marketing Project to Marketing Assistant by Julie Siller, Marketing Assistant/Intern

I am an MBA student at Kent State University, and have been working on a project for one of my classes. The assignment entails collecting data and information from the marketing department of a company in order to draft a marketing plan. Many of my classmates used employers or family members as the contacts for their projects. However, I was, more or less, randomly assigned a company which eventually led me to AtNetPlus, Inc. That’s when I got more than I bargained for...

After conducting an interview to collect data, I was offered a marketing assistant/internship position within the company. Being the “poor college student” that I am, I accepted enthusiastically.

This job experience has shown me a great deal of the real world of marketing. It is said that 2% of what is learned in college can actually be applied to the real world. This internship has been a testament to that fact. I have learned a great deal about marketing, and it’s more than what is discussed in the classroom lectures of my professors.

Furthermore, working within the company has benefitted my marketing project. I can complete the majority of my project based simply on my own firsthand experience here. Many of my classmates do not have this opportunity. They have limited knowledge of the marketing for their companies, and in many cases, the companies that they are analyzing are located far away.

Everyone at AtNetPlus, Inc. has been very friendly and very accommodating. By far, it has been one of the better companies by which I have been employed. I’m also hoping that being around computer savvy people will rub off on me. Until now, I like technology better than it likes me. Fortunately the technical magic seems to be transferable. Maybe one day I’ll have the same magic touch as our techs when it comes to computers and networks.

What Path Will Your Migration Take? By Steve Gomberg, Business Development

Now that Windows 7 has been released for general sale the issue of migrating to the new operating system has moved to the forefront. For those buying new computers, the issue is quite easy- which version do you want. A quick study of the different versions and their capabilities makes the choice much less complicated.
It is likewise a relatively simple matter for those making the move from Vista to Windows 7. That path is supported by Microsoft, and is as easy as choosing your version. You have to make sure that all patches and updates are installed first; then run the update. 35 minutes later your are good to go.
The issue really involves those people who are contemplating the move from XP to Windows 7 (W/7). Since Microsoft does not support that path directly, there are additional factors that have to be taken into account.

One way to make the move is to accept the fact that you have to wipe your hard-drive and then load W/7 followed by all of your applications. This is not a difficult thing to do, but it does take time. You will need the original media for all of your purchased and downloaded applications, and the licenses they require. In general, plan on spending about 4-6 hours completing this process. The advantage is that this type of clean install removes all vestiges of problems that may have built up in your system over time.

This path leads to the quickest performance of even older computers and should be taken whenever practical. If your concern is that you have legacy software that does not run under Vista you need to make sure that you purchase either Premium or Ultimate Windows 7 versions so that you can run the virtual XP mode which allows you to run older software and older peripherals that have not had their drivers updated.

For those that do not want to go through a time-consuming clean install – there is another way, and that entails buying a third party application to aid the process. One such product is PCmover® Windows 7 Upgrade Assistant from Laplink Software. It costs about $75 per installation but it offers the user the ability to avoid doing a clean install, and cuts the time necessary for the migration significantly. While we do not endorse any third party solutions, the feedback we have received is very positive.

Several of us at AtNetPlus have been using W/7 for quite some time now and all of us are glad we made the move. In fact, I writing this article on a Dell laptop that I put in service in June of 2003 and it now performs better than it has for years. Giving new life to older computers is just an additional benefit of moving to W/7 in addition to all of the enhanced usability features built in as either new or enhanced applets.

Our recommendation is to take the plunge sooner rather than later, and begin to enjoy what we think is the finest operating system produced by Microsoft to-date.