BCA is on the March towards the Cloud – are you?

• World Backup Day 2012
• Cloud Backups
• Easter Holiday preparation

What a busy March we’ve had, and April looks to be about the same!

We wound up March with World Backup Day to remind us all about the importance of data backups. Then we kick started April with April fools day, even the IT world has its own special geeky days, however with World Backup day ironically the day before April fools day, we’re not certain if that is on purpose but we all know you’d be a fool if you didn’t have some form of backup for your business!

On the topic of backups, we are making final plans to release this month our long awaited new cloud backup solution. We hinted at its release last year however we ended up delaying its release as we wanted to be 100% happy with the quality and reliability of this new service and application.

We always thoroughly test every product we recommend and would never provide you something we wouldn’t use ourselves. If you are interested in simplifying your backups, making them more reliable, and taking away the responsibility of your staff or yourself of having to change and take home backup drives each day, then give one of our account managers a call.

We also saw Earth Hour take place this month , which reminds us of how much we all rely on electricity and how much it costs , which is a topic we always consider when designing or recommending IT solutions these days.

Lastly we’d like to remind everyone about the Easter Holidays coming up which I’m sure no one has forgotten! However, do you have on your checklist before you leave for your break the activation of your personal Out of Office auto reply message for your email? If you need help doing this give our friendly helpdesk team a call and they’ll be able to guide you though it in a mater on minutes.

Regards

Matt & Stu
BCA Directors

Would you like BCA to provide faster support to your IT questions?

Here at BCA we are considering expanding the methods you can obtain help from our team of helpdesk technicians to include “Live Chat” via your computer. In order to understand your needs, we would appreciate it if you could complete this 20 second survey… it’s really quick and easy… thanks!

Complete this survey today!

Latest news and happenings at BCA.

Well that was February, come and gone…so we’d like to wish you all a Happy St Patricks Day for March 17. Stuart and Matt are both 50% Irish, so there is bound to be something green happening at BCA on the 17th, or maybe a pot of gold from a Leprechaun, that would be handy!

Talking about green and pots of gold, as we have mentioned in many past newsletters, BCA have been working hard on a several new solutions to help save our customers $$$’s. We are placing such an emphasis on these new products that we have decided to relocate Sri (our fantastic Helpdesk person) into a new role to allow 100% focus on these new products. Sri now has the new title to pin on his chest of “Solutions Architect”.

If you haven’t heard about the money saving solutions BCA have been working on such as BCA infoPoint, which will save you, time, office space, money, and the environment, then contact our sales team today at BCA to find out more .

We are also witnessing changes in the IT world with the concept of Cloud Computing weaving it’s way into our everyday lives more and more. The word Cloud isn’t a dirty word, nor is it for everyone. It’s simply a new concept and another way of delivering your technology. Before jumping into the Cloud it’s important to have a conversation with your BCA account manager, as they can help you evaluate if it suits you.

BCA have a few new solutions coming this year centred on the Cloud which we have spent the last 24 months developing, testing and waiting until they matured to being ready for the real world.
This month we will be revealing our new cloud backup offering. This will alleviate staff members forgetting to take home the backup drive and will allow BCA to check that your backups are offsite each night.

That’s about all for February 2012. As usual, we welcome your feedback.

Best regards,

Stuart & Matt
BCA Directors

Here is our wrap up for 2011…

The year kicked off tragically with the South East Queensland floods. It reinforced the importance of systems like BCA’s Virtual Mail Manager (VMM) email system and our pro-active Routine Site Inspections (RSI) which saved several of our customers. We even assisted a customer when their office went under water by keeping them online operating their server here in our office.

In May, BCA got its 15 minutes of fame after being interviewed by Channel 10 News on a piece about Cyber Security. None of our staff became movie stars out of it but it certainly was something different to happen in the office.

In July, we held our annual BCA mid-year staff fun day in which all the boys went commando…army commando that is…battling it out with laser guns at Battlefield Live, Mt Cotton.

In September, BCA & their families took to the streets participating in Bridge to Brisbane 2011 we walked 10 kilometres all to raise funds for RSPCA Qld.

In October, floods again, although this time it was all the way in Thailand. Impact to online Cloud and Internet services were tested during this time due to many of them being located in Bangkok, luckily all the services BCA utilise were not affected. The flooding however is still impacting the price and availability of computer parts as we see hard drive prices increasing dramatically.

In November, 2 events; the manly crew of BCA all grew their mo’s (moustaches) in support of men’s health, raising over $1000 – check out our group shot.

Secondly, Jessica welcomes the birth of her first baby boy, Thommy.

In December, another baby! Jose brings home his 3rd child Diego…Go Diego, Go! We also celebrated another successful year at BCA with our partners at Movie World for our annual Christmas party, this year we all got dressed up for an evening of rides, dinner & music at Movie World.

So what is coming in 2012?

This past year BCA invested heavily on the research and design of some new products and services. Therefore in 2012 we will have several announcements to make all around saving money for our customers with services like; lowering phone call costs, reducing your office space and extending the lifespan of your technology.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support throughout 2011 and allowing BCA to support you, your goals and your business. We wish you and your families the warmest of Christmas cheer and best of luck for the year ahead.

Warmest regards and Thanks,

Stu, Matt and the entire BCA team

Recently we have come across a few handy applications that are available for the iPhone or iPad. These may be of particular interest to those of you who work in, or have private interest in, Real Estate. And even better, these are all available for free! We have been surprised when speaking to a few of you that you hadn’t heard of these yet, so thought we would take the opportunity to share them.

The Commonwealth Bank has a Property Guide app which allows you to see everything you ever wanted to know about a property that is for sale.  Pull up outside the property, open the app, point your phone at the property and instantly you are armed with details about sales in the area and the history of that property, including previous sale prices and what date they occurred. You actually don’t even need to drive to the house as it can use Google street view to see what the street looks like, as if you were standing right there!
For more info on this app please visit the CBA Property Guide app website.

Another two impressive apps which have recently been released are from Microsoft – OneNote and Photosynch. You’ll find both of these on the App Store by simply searching on Microsoft.

The OneNote app allows you to take your Microsoft Office OneNote’s on the road with you. It’s an easy-to-use note-taking application for capturing all of your ideas and to-dos on the go. You can create searchable notes with text, pictures, bullets, and checkboxes. Then keep your notes in sync and access, edit and manage them from virtually anywhere, from your PC or almost any web browser.
If you haven’t ever had a look at OneNote it’s definitely worth the time, we use it a great deal here at BCA. If you don’t have it on your PC yet or do and aren’t using it – ask us about trying it out in your office.
For more info on this app visit the iTunes website.

Photosynch allows you to take a panorama photo of anything in seconds.  It lets you to not only make a panorama from left to right, but also up and down, enabling you to capture a full “sphere”.  Now it won’t jump out at you like a 3D movie, but it will let you put online a single photo showing a for example a full room in a house you are putting up for sale, not only showing all 4 walls, but also the ceiling and floor.
If you’d like to see more on this app visit the iTunes store, or the Photysynth website.

Remember – we’re always on the lookout for great new apps and handy tools, and love to hear from you. So if you come across anything feel free to share it with us!

Well it’s very busy here and I hope this newsletter finds you the same.  It’s interesting talking to many of you as we are forming the opinion that the Australian economy is actually running in a 5-speed gearbox mode, not a 2-speed as reported by economists and the media. During our conversations with customers we notice some are going strong and others are marking time, it is very difficult to pick a pattern even within the same industries. One thing is for sure in these turbulent global economic times, we must all keep on doing what we do and strive to do more with less. Hopefully you see BCA helping you with this concept.

On the subject of doing more with less, we thought we would let you know about some handy (and free!) iPhone apps we have recently discovered.  We’ve included a short article in this newsletter to give you an overview on each of them. If any of you have any handy apps that you think are business time savers, tools you couldn’t live without, or just worth sharing, please let us know, we always love to find new gadgets!

Please join us in welcoming this month a new member to the BCA Tech team – David McLeod. David joins the BCA team on Tues August 16 as a Level 2 technical support engineer in the BCA HelpDesk. In addition, please join us in congratulating Brendan Thompson as he has finished and passed his formal IT studies and now moves into his dedicated role on the BCA HelpDesk.

Just a reminder that we are doing the Brisbane Bridge to Brisbane fun run/walk/crawl on the 11th September! We’d love it if you could push us along and sponsor us here.

Or why not join us?

Well that’s the highlights from BCA for the past 30 days!As always we welcome any level of business and technology conversation and as always are interested in how we can help you drive your business forward.

Warm regards,

Stuart & Matt
BCA Directors

Back on Saturday 23rd July we held our annual BCA mid-year fun day for the BCA Team. It’s always a great chance to get together outside of the office for a bit of fun & socialising!

This year we headed for a morning of Laser Skirmish with Battlefield Live at Mt Cotton. Year after year the idea of skirmish is presented, and quickly shot down by the girls here at BCA who for some reason don’t fancy running around the bush getting pelted with paint pellets & then comparing bruises afterwards…! So we decided to give LaserSkirmish a go this year as an alternative.

After dividing into 2 teams and getting to know our weaponry the battles began! A couple of rounds, and plenty of strategic hiding/running/crawling through the bush later there were no clear winners, flags were captured only to be quickly regained, so we must have been fairly evenly matched. All involved had a great day out!

We’ve put together some photos of the day for your enjoyment – head over to our Facebook page to check them out!

As systems and market demands continue to require better productivity and efficiency, it only follows that the software that businesses use also needs to upgrade sooner or later. Such is the case with Windows XP, which Microsoft will stop issuing support for in 2014.

Part of using any sort of software is the inevitable need to upgrade. Most if not all software needs to either be replaced and upgraded as the demands of the market entail more efficient processing of the various data and information a business handles.

Such is the case with Windows XP. While many continue to use this proven straightforward operating system, Microsoft has decided to stop support by the year 2014. Microsoft further recommends upgrading to its latest OS, Windows 7, in order for users to continue to receive OS support.

While there are some lines of business applications that have not been upgraded to work with Windows 7, most have — and there are alternative approaches. Also, your business needs the security and protection that only a current, up-to-date operating system can provide.

We understand that changing your OS will entail some expense, including new licenses, hardware, and some training. Fortunately, these things are designed to help you operate more efficiently and increase your productivity in the long run. But such change will take time, and if you are interested in starting to plan for an upgrade now, we’ll be happy to sit down with you and develop an upgrade process that meets your specific needs.

We are well and truly on the downhill run to Xmas 2011 as the end of financial year flashes by, we trust your EOFY was smooth and effortless. It’s head down for us as our list of tasks is long and growing.

Our support statistics for June 2011 has demonstrated that our pro-active approach to IT maintenance and support is paying off with a large reduction in unplanned IT issues when compared to previous EOFY’s. So our goal to simply “keep it working for you” seems to be paying off.

BCA have entered the Brisbane Bridge to Brisbane again this year !
We had such a great time last year doing the Bridge to Brisbane that we have decided to do it again. However this time we are going to take a crack at the 10km distance. If you see us sign up next year for the 5km then you know the 5am start was too much for our Geekiness! If you think a bunch of IT Geeks can’t do 10km then we would love you to sponsor us and our chosen charity the RSPCA. You can sponsor us at BCA Bridge to Brisbane.

You might notice some changes at BCA over the next few months as some roles change internally with the gradual departure of Jessica as she prepares for the birth of her first child in October. Jess has been a 10+ year veteran of BCA and we are pleased to say she will be returning in a variety of capacities in 2012.

The other changes will involve Cristina moving from her current IT Dispatch/Admin role into a full time Administration/Accounts position, and Jason Gillott moving up from Helpdesk into an IT Dispatcher/Technician position. Therefore, we make space for a new Helpdesk/Technician person and look forward to Brendan completing his formal IT qualifications in August and taking a role within the BCA Helpdesk team. So as you can see it’s a busy time for us internally!

Some quick technology news;
Microsoft have announced the release of their new Cloud based services called “Office 365″ on June 28, you can read more here.

Don’t forget to check out our website and new social pages; we’d love you to join our social networks:
Web
Twitter
Facebook

Well that’s the highlights from BCA for the past 30 days! As usual we welcome any level of business and technology conversation and as always are interested in how we can help you drive your business forward.

Warm regards,

Stuart & Matt
BCA Directors

A recent attack by cyber-criminals has highlighted the need for many SMBs to re-evaluate the security protocols between themselves and their bank. Hackers exploit weaknesses in such systems, and when successful, can siphon tens of thousands of dollars from your accounts.

In a recent attack, cyber-thieves managed to get away with $63,000 after they exploited vulnerabilities in the online payroll system of a small business with its bank.

First, the crooks managed to infiltrate the company’s system through a piece of malware called the Zeus Trojan. This gave them access to the company’s data, including the password and username used in transacting with the company’s bank. The thieves then created several new ghost employees and created payroll accounts for them, which they sent to the bank and authenticated using the company controller’s username and password. And to cover their tracks, the hackers erased the confirmation emails regarding the transaction.

This incident highlights the need for better security systems in both the business and their bank – as security experts cite online banking transactions as one of the favorite targets of cyber-criminals. Cyber-attacks such as this one exploit weaknesses in many existing systems that rely on very simple and automated authentication procedures to confirm transactions.

A direct threat to your business finances is not something to be taken lightly. You not only need to review your current online banking system, but also the current security protocols you have installed, since hackers and cyber-criminals are constantly updating Trojans and other malware to adapt to changing IT protection systems.

We encourage you to have us take a look at the systems you have in place to determine if you are at risk for attacks like these. Please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to draw up custom security solutions that address your specific needs.

References:
Sold a Lemon in Internet Banking
Cybercrooks Drive Away With $63,000 from Car Dealership