Several of our neighbors in and around Pinecrest have requested assistance with their home and home-office systems. ITC has been a business to business entity since it was incorporated in February of 1999 (Happy 10th anniversary!).
Typically, the only home systems or networks that we touched were somehow related to a business client. Due to a vast outpouring of requests for home service, we will be conducting a trial of home tech service for Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, and the surrounding areas.
Home service levels and rates will be slightly different than our business rates due to the nature of home-based service requests.
If you are struggling with your home technology, please feel free to fill out our request form or give us a call at (305) 238-6587 for a no-obligation discussion. We look forward to extending our services to our Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, and Kendall neighbors.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Company Direction Change
If there is one certainty in business, it seems to be that business is uncertain! We have had customers in property management, real estate sales, real estate development, wholesale crab meat sales / marketing, mortgage brokerage, yacht finance, real estate law, general litigation, traffic ticket and criminal defense, and hotel management.
Since the beginning, every experienced marketer and entrepreneur has said to "Find a niche". We have always wanted to stay connected to the real estate markets in one way or another. Unfortunately, in the current economy, most real estate related ventures are suffering. Fortunately, we have been guided by an unseen hand to the hotel and resort market.
Most hotels seem to be missing the benefits offered by new technology. Tape backup is still VERY common if you even see a backup in place!
We are trying very hard to get the message out there that there are better ways to make SURE that your backups are working. Diligently rotating tapes and taking them off-site does not ensure that you have a working backup. You have to periodically do a test restore. You have to think about the situations where your backup might not be so easily recovered. For example:
You probably have a budget for your elevators, right? You pay a monthly fee for this? What about your POS system? You probably pay a monthly fee for this too, right? How about your PMS system? Of course, if any of those things were broken it would affect your hotel. Guests may complain about it. It may cost your hotel revenue. Well, what would happen if your interface PC failed? What would happen if your credit card gateway stopped working? What would happen if your sales system server failed?
You probably pay for problems on-demand now, right? You have a problem, you pay a tech company to fix the problem. This transaction is usually based on the time it takes - an hourly fee. Is your hotel's best interest and the tech company's best interest inline using this arrangement? Does your backup get taken care of using this arrangement? Is your anti-virus, anti-spam, and other security concerns taken care of routinely? Do the updates get applied to your machines for security and performance? How about disk cleanup, disk checking, and disk defragmenting?
If your elevator is important enough to be taken care of through a monthly agreement, shouldn't your interface PC also be taken care of this way? What about all of your other systems that are currently at the mercy of fate and hourly as-needed service? Are you sure that you are requesting what is needed to keep your technology working at its peak for your hotel? Wouldn't it be better if the tech company's best interest and your hotel's best interests were one in the same? Maybe it is time to consider a monthly service agreement for your technology?
We are offering this service. If you would like to learn more about this, please take a moment to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you for taking the time to read my rant!
Since the beginning, every experienced marketer and entrepreneur has said to "Find a niche". We have always wanted to stay connected to the real estate markets in one way or another. Unfortunately, in the current economy, most real estate related ventures are suffering. Fortunately, we have been guided by an unseen hand to the hotel and resort market.
Most hotels seem to be missing the benefits offered by new technology. Tape backup is still VERY common if you even see a backup in place!
We are trying very hard to get the message out there that there are better ways to make SURE that your backups are working. Diligently rotating tapes and taking them off-site does not ensure that you have a working backup. You have to periodically do a test restore. You have to think about the situations where your backup might not be so easily recovered. For example:
- What happens if your server drive(s) fail? You have to replace the drive(s), reinstall the operating system and programs, then restore the backup from the most recent tape (or tapes depending on the backup sceneraio). How long do you think this will take? Do you know that your tape backups are recoverable?
- What happens if your server is destroyed or stolen? Hopefully your backup tapes are not all in the same place that your server resided. If you DO have your backup tapes, can you get a new tape drive to read your tapes? Is your backup data compatible with your replacement server backup program? How long will it take to restore from this scenario?
- Somehow, a disgruntled employee has deleted several important files from your server as a "last hoorah". Maybe they took the backup tapes too? Your backup tapes WERE locked up securely and you did have at least one recent tape off-site, right?
- Maybe your server is really old? Maybe you are not rotating the tapes as religiously as you should? Maybe you don't rotate the tapes at all? If this is the case, I doubt you have ever attempted to run a test restore, right? Well, think about the worst case scenario... where files are lost, the server is dead, or worse yet - the server is gone altogether. Now what?
You probably have a budget for your elevators, right? You pay a monthly fee for this? What about your POS system? You probably pay a monthly fee for this too, right? How about your PMS system? Of course, if any of those things were broken it would affect your hotel. Guests may complain about it. It may cost your hotel revenue. Well, what would happen if your interface PC failed? What would happen if your credit card gateway stopped working? What would happen if your sales system server failed?
You probably pay for problems on-demand now, right? You have a problem, you pay a tech company to fix the problem. This transaction is usually based on the time it takes - an hourly fee. Is your hotel's best interest and the tech company's best interest inline using this arrangement? Does your backup get taken care of using this arrangement? Is your anti-virus, anti-spam, and other security concerns taken care of routinely? Do the updates get applied to your machines for security and performance? How about disk cleanup, disk checking, and disk defragmenting?
If your elevator is important enough to be taken care of through a monthly agreement, shouldn't your interface PC also be taken care of this way? What about all of your other systems that are currently at the mercy of fate and hourly as-needed service? Are you sure that you are requesting what is needed to keep your technology working at its peak for your hotel? Wouldn't it be better if the tech company's best interest and your hotel's best interests were one in the same? Maybe it is time to consider a monthly service agreement for your technology?
We are offering this service. If you would like to learn more about this, please take a moment to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you for taking the time to read my rant!
Monday, September 10, 2007
ITC Database Development
We are working on various specialized database products for clients. You may be saying to yourself right now, "What does that mean?"
Well, let's look at two examples:
Attorney case tracking database
Most attorneys do not work on one case at a time. Some may handle MANY cases at one time. Traffic ticket defense, for example typically works best as a high-volume practice. So, if a firm is assigning multiple attorneys to multiple cases in multiple locations, how do they keep track of the progress for each case while maintaining the schedules for each attorney? They could use a paper-based filing system and schedule their attorneys by hand in a scheduling book. Or, they could have a single repository for all information about the cases, schedules, attorneys, etc. This central repository can reference specially saved text files to generate letters, forms, and other items that may be needed throughout the life of a case.
Now, if the firm ever wants to go back to look at specific trends, track cases handled by a specific attorney, track marketing, or any number of other items the data is there in an easy to manipulate format.
Property management database
Now let's picture a high-rise condo building. There may be a mix of owner occupants and renters within this property. Some renters may be renting from the developer of the condo, some may be renting from other companies, and some may be renting from individual owners. Typically, in this scenario, a company is hired by the condo association to manage the building.
Management generally means making sure that common-area problems are fixed, problems within the units that are covered by monthly maintenance are taken care of, and packages and other items for residents are properly distributed. There may be one or two people handling all of this in a smaller complex or there may be a large staff working on this in a larger complex. How do they keep track of everything?
Again, a paper-based filing system would work. It is not the best approach if you are concerned about efficiency, however. A centralized database application can provide contact information for owners of each unit, residents of each unit, and companies affiliated with units in the building. This same centralized database can provide maintenance issue tracking, package distribution tracking, payment history for renters, and any number of other items pertinent to day-to-day operations.
How can this help me?
Does your company currently use a paper-based system for some portion of its operations? Does your company use several spreadsheets for some portion of its operations? Does your day-to-day operations entail using several disconnected tools to process information that is somehow inter-related?
If you answered yes to any of the previous questions, you could probably streamline your office operations by implementing a centralized database application.
About the products we use
ITC uses several open source products to create database applications for our clients. We use PostgreSQL as a database backend for centralized data storage. The user interfaces are written in wxPython to ensure that native or near-native operating system widgets and controls are used for product interaction. Finally, the glue that ties all of this together is the Python programming language.
The above products provide a secondary benefit. The combination listed above works on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. This ensures that clients are not locked in to a single vendor for their desktop environment.
Learn more
To learn more about ITC and to find out how a database application can benefit your company, visit our website at www.itccinc.com or contact us at (305) 238-6587 and ask to speak to the lead developer.
Well, let's look at two examples:
- Attorney case tracking database.
- Property management database.
Attorney case tracking database
Most attorneys do not work on one case at a time. Some may handle MANY cases at one time. Traffic ticket defense, for example typically works best as a high-volume practice. So, if a firm is assigning multiple attorneys to multiple cases in multiple locations, how do they keep track of the progress for each case while maintaining the schedules for each attorney? They could use a paper-based filing system and schedule their attorneys by hand in a scheduling book. Or, they could have a single repository for all information about the cases, schedules, attorneys, etc. This central repository can reference specially saved text files to generate letters, forms, and other items that may be needed throughout the life of a case.
Now, if the firm ever wants to go back to look at specific trends, track cases handled by a specific attorney, track marketing, or any number of other items the data is there in an easy to manipulate format.
Property management database
Now let's picture a high-rise condo building. There may be a mix of owner occupants and renters within this property. Some renters may be renting from the developer of the condo, some may be renting from other companies, and some may be renting from individual owners. Typically, in this scenario, a company is hired by the condo association to manage the building.
Management generally means making sure that common-area problems are fixed, problems within the units that are covered by monthly maintenance are taken care of, and packages and other items for residents are properly distributed. There may be one or two people handling all of this in a smaller complex or there may be a large staff working on this in a larger complex. How do they keep track of everything?
Again, a paper-based filing system would work. It is not the best approach if you are concerned about efficiency, however. A centralized database application can provide contact information for owners of each unit, residents of each unit, and companies affiliated with units in the building. This same centralized database can provide maintenance issue tracking, package distribution tracking, payment history for renters, and any number of other items pertinent to day-to-day operations.
How can this help me?
Does your company currently use a paper-based system for some portion of its operations? Does your company use several spreadsheets for some portion of its operations? Does your day-to-day operations entail using several disconnected tools to process information that is somehow inter-related?
If you answered yes to any of the previous questions, you could probably streamline your office operations by implementing a centralized database application.
About the products we use
ITC uses several open source products to create database applications for our clients. We use PostgreSQL as a database backend for centralized data storage. The user interfaces are written in wxPython to ensure that native or near-native operating system widgets and controls are used for product interaction. Finally, the glue that ties all of this together is the Python programming language.
The above products provide a secondary benefit. The combination listed above works on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. This ensures that clients are not locked in to a single vendor for their desktop environment.
Learn more
To learn more about ITC and to find out how a database application can benefit your company, visit our website at www.itccinc.com or contact us at (305) 238-6587 and ask to speak to the lead developer.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Welcome to the NEW ITC Blog!!
This is our first external blog post. You will find news about technology and how it relates to business.
Being a technology consulting company located in South Florida, you will find a little bias towards Florida business and how technology can benefit businesses in Florida.
Please check back often for updates.
If you enjoy the information posted here, you might find our company website beneficial http://www.itccinc.com
Thank you for stopping by!
Being a technology consulting company located in South Florida, you will find a little bias towards Florida business and how technology can benefit businesses in Florida.
Please check back often for updates.
If you enjoy the information posted here, you might find our company website beneficial http://www.itccinc.com
Thank you for stopping by!
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