Allen Technology Advising Incorporated

September, 2010 Newsletter

AllenIT — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:12:58 +0000

Our first one, how cool!

Super Fun Articles

7 1/2 Techniques That Lower Costs through Smart Business Continuity Techniques

AllenIT — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:15:13 +0000

Friday, September 17th at 11 AM MST

Sign up below for this ATA 25 Minute Best Practice Webinar held on Friday, September 17th at 11 AM and will cover business continuity best practices every business should know, 7 1/2 of them to be exact! Many of these best practices can be implemented by you immediately. Register below for this event or contact Chris, Patrick or I immediately for a business continuity assessment at 303-670-5900.

See our September, 2010 Newsletter Articles here:

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Kathleen Finishes 3rd with New Sponsors

AllenIT — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:40:42 +0000

Kathleen Allen received her new race uniform last Friday just in time for the Aflac Sprint Distance triathlon race on Sunday, August 29th. Click on Photos to see full image.

It was an incredible race for her even though she is experiencing some foot issues that we think are due to overcompensation resulting from her August 2007 accident. Out of a field of 800 women Kathleen placed a very solid third place. Check out the sweet results here.

Similar to previous races this year, Kathleen was leap frogging with 1st place overall Wendy Mader and at the end Amanda Durner’s incredible running skill allowed her to pass Kathleen with about a quarter mile to go in the run. As always, Kathleen is absolutely tickled with her performance but looking for ideas on how to fix her foot issue. She is considering getting a cortisone shot to help her out but knows that it just masks the pain so is hoping new orthotics (should be done tomorrow) and continued massage therapy on her foot will make it feel better without getting shot up.

This last picture is of 5 of the top 10 finishers. From the left they are Alicia Brillon (10th), Amanda Duran (2nd), Kathleen (3rd), Wendy Mader (1s) and Nancy Goldsmith (6th). Way to go girls!!!

Ben

Will Your Cell Phone Kill You?

AllenIT — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:55:00 +0000

OK, business continuity doesn’t matter much if your cell phone kills you. At any time, during a conversation or while we are driving, our cell phone now has the ability to make some kind of noise that could mean:

A phone call
A text message
An e-mail
A facebook entry
And the list goes on…

It suddenly is happening to all of us including me! And from my perspective a lot of people are becoming adicted to to alway being connected, they simply cannot live without their phones (just ask my 14 year old daughter).

Just to be clear, I was the worst offender. In fact, Stu Nay, Undersheriff of Clear Creek County Sheriff, took me aside at the beginning of the year and essentially said, “Do not answer your phone when you are at our office…or else!” If you know Stu you will understand that you never, ever want to find out what he means by “or else!” He continued to say that he wanted me to “stop the multi-tasking.”

Well, I’m still working on the not multi-taking but can say that I have broken the habit of being a slave to the constant cell phone interruptions . My wish upon all of you is to please, please, please consider the following rehabilitation steps to bring a level of sanity to your life. Also, check out our business continuity picture of the month as September is Business Continuity Month. It is appropriate to point out that these steps very well might add many years to your life which is a form of business continuity (e.g., if you die while texting your business may be in great jeopardy and never recover).

Cell Phone Rehab Steps – This is actually very simple

Find out how to turn off all notifications on your phone except for when people call you. Many phones like BlackBerry devices have different profiles, like Phone Only, that accomplish this simply.
When with family, friends or clients, turn off your cell phone completely OR keep it on vibrate but make sure that if you are talking with someone don’t even look at the phone if it vibrates, just slyly reach into your pocket/holster and press the End key to send it to voicemail.
That is it!

Now, start reaping the benefits:

Only check e-mail and text messages when you want!
No more text and e-mail notifications when driving that could kill you (see Business Continuity point above).
No more disruptions when talking to others.
Seriously consider turning phone off when with family, and tell them that you are doing that…it makes them feel special (I can vouch first hand about the opposite, if you continually disrupt your family by receiving phone calls and responding to text messages it makes them not feel very special).
Share the news with others on how you broke the habit and how it has added sanity to your life.

DON’T BE A SLAVE TO YOUR PHONE

Ben

See our other September 2010 newsletter articles such as:

3rd Anniversary for Kathleen

AllenIT — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:23:46 +0000

Kathleen celebrated her 3rd anniversary since the accident by visiting St Anthony’s hospital in Denver. We stopped by the ITICU, MSICU and Rehabilitation departments delivering cookies and thanking the staff for all they did for Kathleen 3 years ago to help in her recovery during her 22 day visit. We only recognized three of the staff from our visit but it was very therapeutic for both of us to tell everyone how much we appreciate them.

Ben

Recycling Day Saturday, September 25th

AllenIT — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:07:03 +0000

We will be doing a recycling run to all interested clients in March (just got 3,000 lbs of recycling on Tuesday the 31st of August with Ryan and I and both my kids and a U-Haul) but if you have electonic recycling, bring it on Saturday, Spetmber 25th to the Evergreen Walmart. See the attachment for more info.

Fall Recycling PDF

Ben

Have you seen our September Newsletter?

September, 2010 is Business Continuity Month!

Allen Technology Advising Incorporated — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:23:04 +0000

This September we celebrate business continuity across our clients and are devoting blogs, articles, white papers and webinars to let everyone know the wonderful, affordable innovations and best practices we’ve encountered over the last 12 years. We encourage you to contact us for a free business continuity assessment and/or attend our sweet Webinar on Friday, September 17th at 11 AM.

We feel like backups are everything, but we have learned that business continuity is so close in importance. Small businesses with can easily see 10K disappear when a major issue in the environment occurs PER DAY such as failure of the primary software program or programs. It is becoming imperative that businesses focus on budgeting for affordable methods to ensure (as close to) 100% uptime, all of the time.

We will be sharing lessons that we have learned over the next month in the hopes that all of our clients and friends take a moment to consider the importance of ALWAYS BEING UP!

Ben

For other September, 2010 articles go here:

Catamount Construction joins the ATA distinguished client list

AllenIT — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:30:11 +0000

On Thursday the 19th of August Catamount Construction, based in Evergreen, Colorado, joined the elite list of clients of Allen Technology Advising.

In an economy that has adversely affected many companies in the construction industry, Catamount Construction (http://www.catamountconstructors.com) has relied on their reputation and tenacity to continue to bring in new projects.

We are focused on evaluating and supporting the network, servers and office wide software. Like all clients, we will be looking at ways to decrease downtime and lower cost while increasing employee productivity.

Please join me in welcoming Catamount Construction to Allen Technology Advising!

Ben

NBC to visit Kathleen for 3 days in September

Allen Technology Advising Incorporated — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 08:32:19 +0000

Racing in Desmoines, 2009

Kathleen Allen will be interviewed by NBC regarding her recent honor of receiving the coveted 2010 Hawaii Ironman media slot. For 3 days this September, the 15th through the 17th, NBC will follow “a day in the life” of Kathleen as she shares how she manages a high energy husband, 4 kids and an exchange student. She will likely also share the successes and hurdles she has had to overcome since her bike versus motor vehicle accident August 24th, 2007 that left her with 2 neck fractures, 2 back fractures, a broken rib and two broken wrists (from braking too hard!). After a minor stroke and 6 surgeries on her right leg to relieve compartment syndrome she was able to come back to her favorite sport of triathlon and finish 6th in the world in her age group last September in Australia, 25 months after the accident.

She will be competing in Hawaii on October 9th and we have 14 people coming with us so far to cheer her on (let us know if you want to come!)

: September, 2007 After Removing Wrist Casts

We are looking forward to sharing what we believe is one of the most beautiful places on earth with NBC…Evergreen, Colorado.

For a complete list of Kathleen Allen Triathlete News go to our special Triathlete News Blog. At the very least check out her new sponsor here.

For the September, 2010 Newsletter Articles go here:

Allen Technology Advising Changes for the Better!

Allen Technology Advising Incorporated — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 16:20:01 +0000

On the day of our 12th anniversary I honestly have to say that I have come to the realization that I really enjoy running a full service technology company! Now that I have more time I have found that I love marketing, writing blogs and publishing newsletters to keep clients, prospects and friends abreast of what is going on within our company and with the constantly changing technology landscape. Chris Baumgartner, our infamous Business Manager, has really helped all of us stay focused on activities that allow us to better manage the IT needs of the clients we serve. Allowing me to support staff who are fixing the issues instead of fixing them myself has been a difficult transition, but I feel that I have made it.

I will say that my turning point came after reading the book, “The E-Myth” which I cannot recommend strongly enough to any entrepreneur. This occurred in January and ever since I have been trying to get as much advice from books and business people in Evergreen that I admire. I believe that it has all paid off. For the first time in the history of our business I can say that we are more organized than any other technology company that I have come across and this means great savings for our client who want to implement the solutions and best practices that lead to stable, predictable, budgetable methods and concepts across their technology environment.

We cannot wait to add to our existing list of clients who love and respect the work that we do!