Technology In Check

As promised in last week’s item, we’re going to take a look today at Software as a Service, commonly referred to as SaaS (pronounced sass or sahz, depending on who you ask). Basically put, SaaS is when you pay someone for a service, where that service mimics a piece of software you can buy.

A good example is something like Salesforce, where you pay for a service, instead of buying the customer relationship management (CRM) software. This is something that can be of real value to a business that’s trying to save money. But it can also be a real problem in certain situations.

Let’s take a bit of a closer look at how SaaS relates to recession IT spending, as well as some of the pros and cons. Continue Reading »

Many people are throwing around the ‘R’ word lately, at least in relation to the US (Canada in general, and BC specifically seem to be doing pretty well lately). Yes, I mean recession. Whether or not there is a recession is something for accountants and other financial types to decide, not me. I’m just a geek.

However I would like to talk about how you, as a business manager, can get the most bang for your IT buck during tougher financial times. Whether you’re directly affected by economic developments, or if you’re simply caught in the crossfire, here’s a few ideas on handling the tech side of things. Continue Reading »

Not all the items I write are posted here, you know.

My Company also produces a bi-monthly newsletter called Technology Check. And every issue has at least one item in it that doesn’t make it to this blog until quite some time later, if at all. There’s also a section on quick shortcuts, some giveaway info, and other tidbits.

An excellent example of this is an article I wrote for the latest issue, discussing how much IT should cost. That is, what should you spend on your IT as a percentage of expenses (or is it revenues?)…

To subscribe to the newsletter, click on ‘Subscribe’ on the left hand navigation bar (under ‘Pages Here’). It’s not a “Please send me some spam” list either. It’s used for the newsletter, and the occasional special promotion. As in, maybe once a month, total.

You should sign up. Why don’t you go do that now?

Many people have slagged Windows Vista for a variety of reasons. New PC’s that normally would have Vista installed can be bought with a Windows XP “downgrade”. And now that Vista Service Pack 1 is out the playing field will once again be covered in a foggy glow, and we can expect a rash of fresh calls to continue buying XP in favour of Vista (more about the Vista service pack next week).

However Vista has been available for over a year, and XP sales are due to stop soon. So what happens when you simply can’t buy XP any more? What are you supposed to to do then? Here’s the breakdown, and why business managers should care. Continue Reading »

Got an iPod? Now you’re getting Safari too.

Apple is joining the ranks of malware installers everywhere by installing software on your computer whether you want it or not. In this case, it’s their Safari web browser.

The installer is piggy-backing along with an iTunes/ Quicktime update. It shows up in the list of available updates even if you don’t have it installed already. If you let the Apple Software Update run without looking at what’s going on… BAM! You have new software on your computer. If you de-select the Safari instal, it comes back after you install your iTunes update.

I haven’t yet found a way to disable the installer other than just not running the Apple Software Updater. There are reports on Slashdot that you can kill the installer by hitting ‘Cancel’ at some point during the Safari installation. Me? I’m not trying it. I just won’t let it run in the first place.

Apple should know better.