With the launch of our new website comes the introduction of a simplified way to present our core services. We call it the Set You Free IT model:

The model shows the four fundamental outcomes we deliver to businesses, how these build upon each other and what our core services are that help achieve these outcomes.

If I was to describe it in a sentence:

“Evolve IT helps optimise and manage core technology systems, which leads to staff working faster and smarter, helping to improve the customer experience which ultimately allows your business to further enhance and evolve.”

We’re passionate about seeing small and mid-sized businesses adopt fantastic technology solutions to drive success. And we think our new Set You Free IT model gives a clearer picture of the path Evolve IT can take you on to achieve it. What do you think?

Follow me on Twitter @claytonhm

Isn’t it amazing how you can find new things in the most ridiculous places? This is not one of those times, however I did find something cool in a place where I should have expected it… Google.

It just occurred to me that micro-blogging on twitter etc is going to be short lived and therefore we shouldn’t get too attached to it. However it’s not the microness of twitter that we like; it’s the ease at which we can be heard.

So why aren’t we using proper blogs and just making them easier to upload your info to?

I am writing this from my iGoogle page in a Blogger App. It’s great, a little small and has simple text editing functioanlity. So it’snot perfect.

You know why I like it?

It gives me the ability to blog at the drop of a hat and not have to actually go the blogger site to do so.

This brings me to my idea about great things.

My idea is that great things are those that enable you to do what you need to do without having to go anywhere to do it. You following me?

This is one of those ideas. I have twitter (probably not for long, but anyway), Facebook and Blogger all next to each other on the same page.

I can write this, post it and twitter and facebook status it without leaving this page. It’s incredibly convenient and will probably help keeping my blogs shorter, as even I can get a bit bored with my longer posts.

So here it is. There is heaps of free stuff available on the iGoogle homepage.

If you are not keen on iGoogle in your business, then lets have a chat about SharePoint. Email me at mark.ehlers@evolveit.com.au.

First published on Small Business Daily, Sep 17th 2009.

It’s astounding how many fantastic free resources are made available by some of the big technology vendors out there. It’s even more astounding to discover how many people fail to utilise, or even know about, these resources! So in this post, let me introduce you to a couple of resources you never knew about. These tools are so useful you’ll want to keep them a secret from others so you can “skill up” on the sly and become a genius!

HP Learning Centre – Free online classes, 24/7! This site is like a mini online university. It offers everything from quick “how-to” videos to comprehensive instructor-led online courses. Yes, that’s right; instructor led, for FREE. Click on the “See all classes” tab and you’ll find a long list of classes covering a broad range of topics. Try out “Create and print your own high-quality marketing materials” under home office, or “The other 90 percent: unlock your vast untapped potential” in business basics, or for the weekend, “Beyond basics: fundamental photography techniques” in the digital photography category.

Microsoft Business Resource Centre
An excellent resource for small businesses, courtesy of Microsoft, that offers personalised self-help, support, community connections, training and articles based on a simple profile created on sign up. So a small business owner with 10 employees in the finance industry will see content relevant to her, whereas a Creative Director in a 200 staff advertising agency will see different content more relevant to him. Note that this site is still in beta so it’s subject to changes and content may be a little light-on currently.

Jump on and sign up now – just do it!

Clayton Moulynox – Evolve IT Australia
We fix business problems, not computer problems - Develop, Solve, Evolve.
Follow me on Twitter: @claytonhm

It’s All in the ‘How’

Have you ever wondered how to fix a leaking pipe or a broken light? Or how to check your car’s coolant or radiator fluid? How about maintaining a lawn, or tying a Windsor, or cooking a tasty meal for you or your kids in less than 30 minutes?

The answers to these questions and more can be found in self-help sites such as eHow and WikiHow. These sites are databases of how-to articles presented in a clear, concise, and simple manner that anyone can easily understand.

Unlike other guides that drown you (albeit unintentionally) in so much technical jargon that you end up completely lost, these sites make it a point to keep things uncomplicated – it’s all about helping you get something done right, and done fast. You can always learn the mechanics of why or how it works after you’ve gotten it done. Here, results are the primary consideration.

Both websites offer a variety of subjects to browse through. If you’re looking for a specific topic, simply enter the inquiry in the search box. Certain topics even have video tutorials and/or illustrated guides that make the learning process even easier. However, if you don’t have anything particular in mind, then you can browse through topics that are classified by category. Navigation is intuitive and user-friendly.

Another good thing about these websites is that the information is absolutely free – you don’t even have to register an account to gain access to them. And with WikiHow, if you feel like sharing a bit of your own knowledge, you can contribute your own how-to articles and become part of the WikiHow community. eHow also accepts entries that, depending on how you play your cards, can even help you earn a bit of extra money (there’s an eHow article to help you get started).

So the next time you find yourself in a spot with anything from a stubborn stain to treating a bee sting, try visiting these sites since they just might have the simple and straightforward solution you’re looking for.

Whether the economy is up or down, no matter what is happening in the world, most small business owner’s work hard anyway. It’s never been easy to start a business, nurture its growth and succeed in any line of business. It’s competitive, more so in some industries than others, but every butcher, baker, candlestick maker or software developer started the same way – small.

There are an astronomical number of variables that are involved in any business success, certainly, but there are also some truisms that seem to apply always and everywhere. The primary ingredient in success, of course, is not genius, creativity, a college education or a lot of working capital. The key is persistence, pure and simple.

• Read more at SB Informer…

We all know that when you want to find information on the web, you Google it. Be it product information, information on competitors, business reports, research, whatever…you feed some key words to Google and it spits out a bunch of relevant links. Easy.

But what about when we want to find information within our own organisation? When we want information from within our own four walls? You want some info on a product you sell, you chase a guy in the sales team. Looking for a financial report? You call Bob from accounts. Services brochure in PDF format - call marketing. And so it goes on. God forbid, you might even right click on your main shared network drive and choose “search” then wait for 3 hours and still get no useful information…

What if you could have a familiar web based search facility to find information in your enterprise, just like you’ve been doing for years on the web? How much easier would it be to throw is some keywords and get a result virtually instantly? Rather than calling marketing, you just search for “company profile brochure” and up comes a bunch of results, ranked by relevance and with metadata to give you as preview of what the resource is.

This is all possible with Microsoft’s free release of Search Server 2008. The free express edition may be all many companies will ever need, whereas other companies that fully adopt enterprise search and wish to integrate it with other applications will want the full blown enterprise version.

Download the release candidate of Search Server 2008 Express edition and give it a go - it’s straight-forward to configure!

Microsoft have released this fantastic assessment tool, the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Tool 2.0, that allows you to quickly scan your network and produce a comprehensive report showing if PCs are ready to run Vista or not.

It will also assess a PCs readiness for Office 2007 - a feature I’ve personally found very handy as many of our clients are ready to move to the new Office.

It’s free of course - if you’re interested in the reports it produces, download it and give it a go!

• Automatic Backups: The server can automatically back up data from PCs/notebooks within your home network automatically.
• Data Protection with Previous Versions: A standard feature on Windows 2003 Servers, Previous Versions allows you to easily roll back individual files, or entire directories, should you accidentally delete them or mess them up somew how.
• Network Monitoring: Home Server gives you the ability to monitor the health of all the workstations, and will automatically push out Windows Updates.
• Remote Access: A great feature - allows you to easily access your PCs at home, as though you were sitting in front of them.