Intellicom Blog

Dan Shundoff, owner of Intellicom, was recently interviewed by NxBizSuccess.   NxBizSuccess started as a shared vision between Community Development Resources, Inc. (CDR) and the NebraskaEDGE program (EDGE), located at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.   After 15 years of providing loans and business plan training, CDR and EDGE saw the need to move beyond the classroom to the dynamic world of interactive education.  That is the vision of NxBizSuccess, to add life to ideas, to share experiences and knowledge, to find resources to make it happen and to bring together like-minded people who see Nebraska as a great place to start a business.

In the interview, Mr. Shundoff talks about the success Intellicom has realized by partnering with the University of Nebraska at Kearney and utilizing their internship program as a source of new employees. 

To see the entire interview, click here:

 http://www.nxbizsuccess.com/archives/1936

Last chance!!!   You are invited to have lunch with the Intellicom Web team on September 15th at noon at the Intellicom building! Rochelle and Michael will be serving up lunch and talking about the latest and greatest in website design and hosting. Lunch will be catered and we will be giving away some great prizes! Registration will be limited to the first 20 customers.  Topics include web design, e-commerce, social media, e-newsletters, stats, content management and more!  To register: www.intellicominc.com/webservices or call Rochelle at 308-237-0684  ext 239.

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.

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!

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.

I received this message from Microsoft today and was encouraged to share it with our customers.  As I read the message, I was reminded that too often businesses think about IT as purely an expense rather than thinking about it as an investment that can help increase productivity or cut costs.   There is a new wave of technology being released from Microsoft that can help you achieve these results.  We have implemented many of these products here at Intellicom and have seen the positive results firsthand.  Couple this with the speed, reliability, and energy efficiency advances in hardware and you may realize that this may be a great time to consider upgrading old equipment and software.  Below, you will find the message from Microsoft, enjoy! 

When you’re running a business, success depends on your company operating as efficiently as possible. We can show you a wide variety of ways to increase your productivity and that of your employees, and share the easiest ways to cut IT costs for your business.  

The demands on your IT systems never stop: better performance, more security, increased reliability. Whether you are considering Windows 7, Office 2010, or a slew of new technologies from Microsoft, you don’t need to spend all your time playing catch up.  That’s why it makes sense to get help from specialists in this field.

• Let technology take care of the work that doesn’t interest you.
• Manage IT issues in less time.
• Use business productivity tools to leverage your knowledge of your business.

These product releases can represent significant efficiency and cost saving opportunities for your company.  We can help you leverage these technologies to positively impact your bottom line.  Respond back, be one of the first to learn about these exciting new products.

Intellicom recently hosted a technology showcase event in Kearney and one of the topics we covered was using social media to help promote your business.   Shane Freeman, our Lead Web Engineer was the presenter and gave a great presentation that also utilized a short YouTube video on the power and growth of social media.  We have had quite a few requests from our customers for this video so I decided to post this out on our blog site.  This has been a popular viral video that has made the rounds via e-mail and YouTube , so chances are that you may have already seen it.  If not, enjoy!

If your organization needs help with its e-marketing strategy, don’t hesitate to contact us here at Intellicom