MJ's Business IT Blog

A Funny Video About Our Home State of New Hampshire

Check Out Our Latest Newsletter

Jenaly's November newsletter is online at our sister site, www.jenalyfyit.com.  Check it out and please share any feedback, comment or suggestions.

This month, learn:

 4 “Techie” Reasons Small Business Owners Can Be Thankful This Season

 How To Get Paid $817 Every Year For "Going Green"

  3 Time-Saving Reasons To Use Windows 7

  How Manufacturers Have Increased Productivity 5.5% Despite The Recession

  Check Out Our Monthly Contest

You may also download our newsletters in PDF format if you like, just click here.

Enjoy Jenaly FYI.T. "For Your Information Technology"!

Subscribe to Wireless Amber Alerts

You are probably familiar with what Amber Alerts are.  If not, simply stated, the are alerts put out by public safety officials about missing children.  It is widely believed that the first hours of a missing child, especially an abduction, are critical to the success of finding the missing child.  These alerts are typically broadcast over the radio and streamed across TV signals, to alert as many people as possible.

Now, you may also get Amber Alerts for free on your mobile device, thanks to an initiative to take the idea to the next level.  I encourage you to go to Wireless Amber Alerts and enter your mobile telephone number and subscribe to alerts in your area.  You may be able to help save a missing child.  It's a good thing, and the right thing, to do.

Mr. Shoer Goes To Washington

I know, bad play on a famous movie title, but I am very excited and proud to be participating in a congressional lobbying day in Washington, DC this coming Wednesday, May 13th.  I have been invited, along with 16 other similar companies from around the country, to join CompTIA in DC to meet with several committees and hear from some very interesting speakers.

We will be meeting with theSenate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, theSenate Commerce Committee and the House Committee on Small Business.  In addition, we will hear a presentation from a business development specialist from the Small Business Administration.  I am also, personally, looking forward to a private meeting with the Legislative Director for our local New Hampshire 1st District Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter.

I expect many of the discussions to focus on health care, access to federal stimulus funds and cyber security issues, to name a few.  My understanding is that these meetings will be pretty free flowing and the topics may change as the discussions take root.

I am most interesting in discussing pending legislation's, federal and state, that may impact our clients and if some of these IT related mandates do become law, will our clients have access to stimulus funding to implement the proposed requirements.  I'd also like to know where the health care debate is headed and what positive developments we can expect for our staff.  I don't know any other industry that consistently raises its rates double digits year after year.  If we did that, I doubt we'd have the client loyalty we enjoy today.

If there are things you may be interested in that I can look into for you while I am at Capitol Hill, please let me know.  I have a ton of reading to do this weekend to get prepared.  This is my first visit to Capitol Hill in this capacity and I am really looking forward to it.  Thanks to CompTIA for making opportunity available to its membership.  This member truly appreciates your efforts.

Jenaly is going...GREEN

That's right, we're going GREEN.  We are proud to announce our membership in the Green Alliance.

Last week, at the direction of our own Ellen Sargent, we met with Sarah Brown, the dynamic and passionate Project Director of the Green Alliance to learn more about the organization and whether Jenaly was both a fit and candidly, a realistic business to be a member of an organization like this.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with Sarah's take on my concerns about Green IT.  Let's face it, IT is not necessary the most inherintly green industry out there.  We consume a ton of electricity, produce a lot of hazardous waste and contibute to a lot of wasteful practices, like post consumer waste and seemingly endless paper waste.

As we talked, I was impressed by the realization that the Green Alliance is about making good choices and about businesses that want to improve their environmental footprint and impact, even if they won't ever be able to meet some of the strictest standards.  It's about the intent, the sincerity and the willingness to do what you can to improve your operations and educate and help others.  We are doing this and will continue to do so.

We have taken several steps to move our business and that of our clients into greener territory.  We leverage virtualization to do more with less hardware, which translates to lower cooling and power needs and less waste in the long run.  We are moving to a paperless environment, even though our office manager is less than comfortable with the notion, but it's the right thing to do for a lot of reasons, including improving the overall integrity of how we manage and secure our records.  We have transitioned to solid ink print technology from Xerox Corporation, which produces dramatically less printer waste and we are leveraging emerging technologies like Intel VPro to reduce power consumption by computers yet still insure that we can perform the regular maintenance and updates required to keep the computers running well.  We have also done away with tape backup and the endless waste and unreliability of magnetic tape media.  We've also replaced most of our lighting with more energy efficient bulbs.

We're undertaking a serious effort to promote Green IT, greener business practices and awareness of the Green Alliance and the excellent work they are doing.  We're proud to be a new member and encourage you to check out their web site, blog and Facebook page.

I hope to post more about Jenaly's green initiatives in the future, so stay tuned.

Will You Accept Rachel's Challenge?

This has absolutely nothing to do with technology, except for the fact that I am leveraging technology to write this blog post.

Tonight, I was fortunate enough to hear a presentation that has the potential to change the world.  This afternoon, my 16 year old daughter called me to ask me to do something for her.  She asked me to go with her Mom to see a presentation of Rachel's Challenge at the high school.  She had seen it during school and was so moved by it that she wanted us to see it.  My wife and I went and were amazingly moved by Craig Scott's presentation.  If you ever have the opportunity to hear Rachel's Challenge, it is a must see event.

Technologies Impact on the Presidential Race

So here it is, a Saturday night in New Hampshire and we are watching the Presidential Debate on ABC.  What's most interesting is that I've spent the last 20 minutes both listening to the debate and participating in an online debate on Facebook.  It's an interesting dynamic.  I'm listening to the Republican candidates right now and will continue to listen to the Democratic candidates.  While listening and watching on TV, I'm also watching the changing numbers on the Facebook online debate that is taking place at the same time.  It's fascinating to see positions changing, by small and large numbers, as various issues are discussed.  You can only register one response online, to a given issue, but you can change your position.  The data is displayed numerically and graphically and it's really intriguing.  Every candidate has an extensive web site online, where you can learn everything and anything you want to about their positions.  In addition to the standard media reports and incesent phone calls from the campaigns, web sites add a new and informative resource that you can review on your own time.

I just received an e-mail from my close friend Doug, as I've been writing this post, to let me know he's been watching my debate responses on the ABC News/Facebook site.  How cool is that!  We're debating and discussing the election in real time.  I don't think it gets any cooler and impactful than this.

Technology is certainly having an impact on all facets of our lives as we enter this new year.  Please pay attention to these and future debates and most importantly, please cast your vote.  Every vote is critically important.

Technology and Chronic Disease

I heard a very interesting presentation this afternoon at the weekly meeting of the Portsmouth Rotary Club.  The presenter was representing the Partnership To Fight Chronic Disease.  He spoke mostly of obesity, though there are many additional chronic diseases that afflict millions of people around the world.  What I found most interesting about his presentation, was when he was discussing the effects technology has had on the rate of chronic disease.  While you might think technology would help reduce it, it is actually a contributor, especially for a chronic condition like obesity.  The basic premise of the argument is that technology has enabled a more sedentary lifestyle and thus contributes to a chronic condition like obesity.  Obviously, a chronic disease, of any variety, may have more than one contributing cause, but as someone who works in the technology industry, the argument caught my attention.  I can certainly see the risks, especially for our youngest generation, who are more at ease with technology and very likely to spend an afternoon "gaming" rather than playing baseball.  It's a concern and a challenge to be addressed.  The Partnership, in this season of heavy political campaigning, is encouraging all American's to challenge all candidates for elected office to consider the rising rates of chronic disease and what we, as a society, will do to address this serious issue.

Reflecting On Labor Day

I hope you enjoyed a relaxing Labor Day weekend.  As we come off the long weekend and get back to work (Labor Day being the unofficial end of the summer season here in New England), it got me thinking about how we labor today as compared to the past.  Maybe this is because of my recent trip to northern Michigan, but I keep thinking about how technology makes it easier for us to labor at things we truly enjoy.

As opposed to our recent past in the United States, labors today as very dependent on technology.  Because of this, we have been able to create new economic models and entirely new economies.  People are working in locations that would never be possible without technology.  Even the most manual of traditional labors is benefiting from technology.  It's an interesting thought to consider as we get back to work this early September day.

The Power Of Technology To Help A Rural Area

This past weekend, I had the extreme pleasure of visiting Hancock, Michigan in the very "upper" part of the Upper Peninsula.  My Dad was born there in 1921 and he, my older brother and I went for a visit.  In the early part of the 20th Century, the area was booming as a result fo the copper mining industry, thus the moniker Copper Country.  Today, it's still dealing with the effects of the demise of that industry in the late early to mid 1900's.

The main economic and cultural engine of the area of Michigan Tech in nearby Houghton, which was originally the Michigan School of Mines.  If it were not for the "Tech" as it's referred to, I'm not sure if the area would have survived.  At any rate, in no small part due to Tech, the area may be on the cusp of a resurgence.  Much like my own area in the Seacoast of New Hampshire, Tech benefits from many graduates who fall in love with the area and choose to stay, start careers and raise families.  This is exactly how I wound up living in Portsmouth, NH after graduating from UNH.  Of course it didn't hurt that my wife was a year behind me in school and I hung around waiting for her to graduate :)

At any rate, as I was told during my visit, many Tech graduates are choosing to stay in the area and help it rebound.  This is made possible because of technology.  Many of these U.P. transplants are able to remain thanks to telecommuting technology.  Whether this is allowing them to live where they want and work for a company that is not local or whether this is allowing them to start their own business and deal with clients near and far, technology is enabling a new generation of Yoopers to stay in the beautiful Hancock area and help it learn to thrive once again.  This is a great example of technology enabling people and places to thrive.