Category Archives: Business

PowerBiz Solutions gains Microsoft Silver Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions competency

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PowerBiz Solutions today announced that it has successfully achieved the Microsoft silver Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions competency. Partners demonstrating professional and proficient capability in assisting small and medium sized businesses moving to the Cloud can attain this certification upon satisfying established performance criteria and providing customer references.

The competency demonstrations the continued dedication and commitment to excellence in enabling businesses to use technology as a business advantage to achieve their targets and objectives. PowerBiz Solutions continues to provide high quality technical expertise to enable small and medium business to be efficient and effective in the use of Microsoft on-premises and cloud technologies based on Windows Server, Windows 10, Office 365 and Azure.

 

 

Netgear Case Study on Wireless Infrastructure with ICHM

Netgear has published a case study on a recent project that PowerBiz Solutions completed with the International College of Hotel Management. Here’s the overview.

International College of Hotel Management overhauls campus wireless infrastructure with NETGEAR to significantly increase performance, reliability and student satisfaction.

The International College of Hotel Management (ICHM) is an educational facility in Adelaide, South Australia. Since 1992, and in partnership with the Swiss Hotel Association (SHA) and the South Australian Government, ICHM provide Australian and international students with access to business degrees specialising in hotel management. Students come from all over the world to participate in the globally recognised courses with graduates going on to work at all levels of management within the international hospitality and hotel industry. While studying, students are housed on campus, and have access to all of the college’s conveniences. While the school has always had a commitment in offering boarding students the best facilities possible while they pursue
their studies, its WiFi network was out-dated and unreliable. The IT infrastructure on campus was causing frustration amongst the students on campus as their demand for reliable wireless grew, and as such the college staff were regularly inundated with student complaints. After making the commitment to improve its on-campus amenities, Roger Stevens, ICHM’s Business Manager sought a system that would deliver a consistent and truly mobile wireless experience. To achieve this, ICHM approached PowerBiz Solutions, a leading computer/technology solution and managed services provider, to deliver a robust and integrated infrastructure while ensuring costs were kept under control.

You can download the whitepaper here – Netgear Wireless Infrastructure Whitepaper

PODCAST: Hybrid Cloud Strategy options

I spoke with Robert Crane from CIAOPS – Need to Know podcasts on the options that are available to small businesses in creating a cost effective hybrid IT solution.

Listen to the podcast here – http://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-78-boon-tee/

Join me on 30 Jan at the Adelaide MVP Community Camp 2015

I will be presenting a session titled “The Best of Both Worlds – Maximising Microsoft Technologies in Hybrid Deployments SMBs. The session is not just for IT Professionals. If you are a small business owner, there will be some great nuggets of information to take back to your business for further thought and planning with your IT provider.

You can register for the event here – https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032610275&Culture=en-AU&community=0

2014 Microsoft MVP Award

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I received an email overnight from Mike Hickman, Microsoft’s Director for Community Engagement, congratulating me on being presented with a 2014 Microsoft MVP Award in the Windows Server for Small and Medium Business expertise. The award is given to “award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others” 

I am honored to be receiving this award for the fifth year. It has been a privilege to represent the Small Business Community in this manner. I look forward to more engagement this year to better enhance the experience of the community in working with Microsoft products.

Employee Management and the Bell Curve

Here are a couple of interesting articles I read on the management of employees and the use of the Bell curve. They challenged the theories that results are distributed in a normal way. We need to realize that there is no one who is “better” than another, because people are different. The key in business, and indeed, in life, is to find people who will enhance your strengths and help you through your weaknesses to make you, and your business achieve your full potential.

  • Put Away The Bell Curve: Most Of Us Aren’t ‘Average’ – http://www.npr.org/2012/05/03/151860154/put-away-the-bell-curve-most-of-us-arent-average
  • The Myth Of The Bell Curve: Look For The Hyper-Performers – http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2014/02/19/the-myth-of-the-bell-curve-look-for-the-hyper-performers/
  • Microsoft, GE, and the futility of ranking employees – http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/11/18/microsoft-ge-ranking-employees/