Intellicom Blog

 Office 2010 has just recently been released and Intellicom is already rolling out installs and upgrades to our customer base.   Microsoft has also simplified the different versions that are available.  Here is some additional information about what is included with each version.

Office 2010 Version

 Get solid productivity on a solid foundation with Microsoft® Office Professional Plus 2010 and Windows® 7 Professional. Today’s business environment presents unique challenges, including an increasingly mobile workforce and the need for advanced security when accessing data from outside the office. Windows 7 Professional provides a solid foundation with significant core enhancements to networking, security, mobility, and IT management. And with the launch of Microsoft Office 2010, you can build on that foundation with productivity tools that enable your people to do their best work.

 If you bought a qualifying version of Office 2007 in the last several months, you may qualify for a free upgrade to Office 2010.  Check out http://office2010.microsoft.com/en-us/tech-guarantee/microsoft-office-2010-technology-guarantee-FX101825695.aspx for more.

Now is a great time to buy Microsoft Server 2008 licensing! If you have been putting off that server upgrade, keep in mind that extended support for Windows Server 2000 and mainstream support for Windows Server 2003 ends on July 13, 2010! For a limited time (through July 2nd), Microsoft has a promotion going on called The Big Easy Offer 4.1 that allows customers who make a qualifying purchases to earn money back in the form of a partner subsidy. You can use this subsidy with a Microsoft partner of your choice to help offset the cost of installation services! Check out www.microsoftincentives.com/bigeasy for more details and for full terms and conditions.

This guest blog post comes to you from Aaron Clark.  Aaron is a Senior Technician at Intellicom and has a very interesting background.  Prior to working for Intellicom, Aaron worked at Rackspace Hosting and also for an IT company that did work for the Johnson Space Center.  Aaron wanted to write an article about the impact that virtualization can have on power consumption and the environment.  Here you go! 

 If you are anything like me, you often wonder what you will leave behind for your children, and what shape the planet will be in when it is theirs. I am happy to report that many of the big technology companies are also thinking about this and are making hardware and software that is more energy efficient and eco-friendly.  Recently, I was able to “Go Green” by turning four old power-hungry servers into virtual copies, providing all the features and technologies they performed when they were physical. The technology is from Microsoft and called Hyper-V, and it can be run on any 64-bit version of Windows 2008 Server. What Hyper-V does is called virtualization, which is defined as “the execution of a software system in an environment separated from the underlying hardware resources.”

 On this network there was a workstation for Internet, a Windows 2003 domain controller, a Windows 2008 domain controller, and a Linux mail server.  There is now one physical machine running Windows Server 2008 R2. Inside it are virtual copies of the Linux mail server, the 2003 domain controller, and the 2008 domain controller. By virtualizing these servers, not only did I clear up much needed space on the rack, but also considerably reduced the amount of electricity that is consumed.

 Now when I think about what I might leave behind to my children, I can rest assured knowing that I am doing my part to leave them a greener world.

This special blog post comes to you from Eddie Larraga at Intellicom.  Eddie is our Financial Manager and possesses a wealth of knowledge that helps Intellicom make solid business decisions.  It seems like Eddie has a spreadsheet or formula for everything!  When I asked Eddie what he would like to blog about, he replied that he would like to help educate our customers on how to perform the analysis on whether to buy equipment or lease equipment.   So without further delay, here you go! 

Imagine that you have made the decision to purchase the new superfast, superefficient, Super Server 9000.  Now, all you have to decide is how you want to finance the equipment.  Will you choose to lease or buy?  To begin the decision making process, it is best to start with a lease vs. buy analysis and measure the costs and the value of the decision.  Once the analysis is complete and you can see the financial impact the decision will have on the company, the next step would be to weigh certain factors such as cash flow constraints, flexibility, and risk and include this in the analysis.

So which decision is best for your company, is it the lump sum of cash upfront, or is it a spread payment option?   The answer is simple; you can’t possibly know until you complete a lease vs. buy analysis and weigh all the factors. 

Below is a very simple lease vs. buy analysis based on some fictional numbers.  This should illustrate to you the amount of detail that should go into making this kind of decision.   In the example below, the analysis would show that in this case there would be a clear advantage to owning the equipment.    Keep in mind; there are a lot of factors that can influence this decision, the rate and length of the loan, current cash position of your company, and the residual value of the item being purchased, etc.   

Sample Lease vs Buy Analysis

I also thought it might help to give a simple definition of terms

Leasing:  The first thing that probably comes to mind when you hear the word lease is monthly payments.   There are a variety of lease structures, but the two most common types when purchasing equipment are operating lease and capital lease. 

The operating lease is simply month-to-month payments on the equipment.  The leasing company will actually own the equipment, and you are paying to use it, just like renting.  Because operating leases are not fully amortized, at the end of the lease contract you will have one of three options; continue to lease the equipment, return the equipment, or purchase the equipment for a specified amount; anywhere from 5% to 25% of the original purchase price.

The second type of lease, a capital lease, also has a monthly payment option.  The payments are usually a higher dollar amount than the operating lease, because you own the equipment and are actually paying it off with the leasing company.  Since you own the equipment, you will be depreciating it on the company’s accounting books at a specified rate (speak to your CPA for current tax laws).

Owning:  The buy definition is straightforward; you either have the cash on hand or the bank will lend you the money and you will pay for the equipment straight out.  The only thing you have to do is depreciate the equipment on your books. 

Hopefully, you can see that there is a science behind how a lease vs. buy decision is made.   It is much better to make this magnitude of a decision based on the facts rather than gut feeling.   If you are faced with a buying decision around investing in technology, Intellicom would be happy to help you with this analysis.

The response to the Intellicom Blog and social networking sites has been very positive!   Thanks to all of you who have signed up to keep current on all the latest and greatest Intellicom news and events. 

We promised in our last blog post that the first 100 people to sign up for the Intellicom Blog would have their names thrown into a hat for a drawing to win a 19″ HP flat panel monitor.  Well….the results are in and we are ready to announce our winners!  And the winners are:

Carol Dawes – Kearney Tire and Auto

Janet Kleen – Minden Exchange Bank

Congratulations winners!   We will be touch next week to drop off your brand new 19″ HP flat panel monitors!   Enjoy.

That’s right….the next 100 people to sign up to have the Intellicom Blog delivered to their inbox by Feedburner will be put in a drawing for a chance to win a 19″ HP flat panel monitor!   We are giving away 2 monitors and will contact the winners on April 2nd, 2010.   If you are reading this blog and you have not yet subscribed, you can do so by entering your e-mail address in the field to the right of this blog post.  Good luck!  

You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. 

I received a nice surprise this week in the form of an e-mail from our Partner Territory Account Manager from Microsoft, Lisa Hughes. Lisa informed me that she had nominated Intellicom for an award from Microsoft and that we were eventually selected as the winner from our region! This award was given to companies that have great relationships with their clients around Microsoft technologies and also have a very high success rate in helping their customers renew Open Value and Software Assurance licensing agreements. Renewing annuity agreements like these, ensure that our customers are in compliance and entitle them to the latest releases of software from Microsoft. Thanks to our customers for being some of the smartest customers around and also understanding the value of staying current with their software. Thanks to Microsoft for noticing all of our efforts out here in Central Nebraska and a big thanks to the Intellicom team for all their hard work!

Many companies have successfully navigated the economic uncertainty of the last year and are ready to gear up for 2010 by making an investment in technology for their businesses.    Intellicom and its vendor partners can provide attractive financing programs to help businesses keep equipment and systems current.

The particular financing option that we have been using lately comes from HP.  They are currently providing an attractive 0% 12 month leasing option which allows a company to buy new hardware and split the cost into 12 easy payments with no interest.   At the end of the lease, the customer simply pays $1.00 to buy out their lease and retain their hardware. They have also introduced a 0% 36 month lease option which includes a Fair Market Value buyout. Either of these options are very easy to apply for, requiring only a simple credit application.   We have processed several of these applications successfully over the course of the last couple weeks and can tell you that the process really is pretty simple and straightforward.   This particular leasing option expires on April 30th, 2010 so act now if you are interested.  Call Zac at Intellicom for a quote or more details.  308-237-0684  ext 237.

I am entering my 8th year of employment here at Intellicom and I have to say it has taken me a while to adapt to working with a bunch of Engineers and Web Developers.  Although sometimes challenging,  it does come with its own unique set of benefits.  I have put together my very own top 5  list of reasons it is good to work with IT folks:

5.   There is always junk food and caffeine around!  Coke, Mountain Dew, doughnuts, beef jerky, breakfast burritos, and gas station hot dogs must be the jet fuel of the IT sector because that is the typical breakfast of champions around here. 

4.  I can now recite all the words to the movie Office Space.

3.  If you ever need to borrow a cell phone/mini-hub/camera/leatherman/jump drive/flashlight/mp3 player/insert other various gadget name here….there is not only a good chance that someone has one,  but it is probably also clipped to their belt! 

2.  I have found out that human conversation is not only over rated but completely unnecessary.   Why actually talk to someone when you can e-mail, text, IM, or Facebook them???  This can happen even when you are in the same room.  Genius!   

1.  There is always someone around willing to give you free technical support for your home pc, surround sound, HDTV, X-box360, etc!

Microsoft has a little known website that, in my opinion,  is quite possibly the best kept secret in all of IT.  The URL is  www.microsoftincentives.com and is a site dedicated to explaining any and all promotions and incentives that Microsoft is currently offering.  There is currently a promotion called the Big Easy that has gone through quite a few iterations and is now being offered again.  If you are in the market for purchasing Microsoft licensing, it would be well worth your while to check this offer out.   Here is some information from the site that can help give you an idea of how it works. 

Big Easy Offer 4.0

The Big Easy Offer gives you choices on Microsoft products and solutions that fit your needs. For every qualifying product you purchase, Microsoft pays you partner subsidy funds that can be used with a Microsoft Partner of your choice to help with the implementation of your Microsoft solution including software, hardware and services.

What is a Subsidy?
A subsidy is a check made payable to the Microsoft partner of your choice. This subsidy can be used to enrich and implement your Microsoft solution. The subsidy allows you to purchase additional products or services from the Microsoft partner of your choice thus lowering your Total Cost of Ownership.

How do I take advantage of the Big Easy Offer 4.0?

• Make a qualifying purchase between January 3, 2010 and March 31, 2010.
• Redeem your purchase within 30 days of purchase date at http://www.microsoftincentives.com/BigEasy4/redeem.aspx.
• Receive your partner subsidy check from Microsoft.
• Spend your subsidy funds with your Microsoft partner upon receipt. Please note that subsidy funds expire after 90 days of the check issue date.