What a VAR Can Do for Your Business
by Peter Alexander, used with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center

	Technology can go a long way in helping your business stay competitive, meet customer expectations and improve operational efficiencies. But most small businesses simply don't have the resources to evaluate technologies and aren't sure where to find the right technology partner. That's where a value-added reseller can help.

A VAR enhances an existing product, such as hardware, with additional features, such as software, and then sells it as an integrated package often tailored for specific industries. VARs add further value to the products they sell through consultation and design, training, implementation, and ongoing service and support.

The right VAR can serve as a small business's IT advisor and help it deploy the same technologies that larger companies use, such as CRM software and IP communications. You can then use those tools to enhance customer experience--a key step in growing customer loyalty and the bottom line.

A VAR can also offer the following benefits:

Acceptable Computer Usage Policy
-Eric Reynolds
Wood Networks, Senior Technician

Whether presented as part of the company handbook, or as a standalone document, an Acceptable Computer Usage Policy is a must in today's workplace. Having a good policy in place will clearly communicate to the staff what is acceptable and what is not. The main reason behind Acceptable Computer Usage Policy is to protect computer investments and company data. Here is a look at what should be contained in an Acceptable Computer Usage Policy.

The Policy Statement – This statement includes the items covered and has a brief overview of what is to come. It also outlines "excessive" use.

The Ownership Statement – This statement outlines what data is owned by the company. Many companies claim ownership of any data residing on their network or created while employed at the company.

The Confidentiality Statement – This outlines what is considered private and what is subject to monitoring. E-mail is usually mentioned specifically as an item which can be monitored.

The Internet Statement – This outlines internet use in much greater detail. It should mention whether personal browsing is allowed during breaks and lunch and it should include a liability statement for not following company procedure.

The Personal Electronic Equipment Statement – This outlines the use of personal computers, phones, digital cameras, and any other electronic devices. It should state that no electronic device be hooked to the network without proper consent.

The Conclusion – This is an overview of all of the policies in place, and a clear statement regarding action in case of violation of the policy.

3 Ways to Recover a Corrupted Excel workbook
reprinted with permission from the HP Small Business Center

It's your worst Excel nightmare: a damaged or corrupted workbook. This can happen for a variety of reasons -- and the good news is that there is a variety of ways to retrieve your damaged file. If a file is corrupted, Excel should normally perform an automated recovery. However, if that doesn't work, there are a few other options you can try. 1. Recover or repair the file manually with Excel The steps for manually recovering a workbook are quite simple.

1. Select "Open" from the File menu. In Excel 2007, click the Office button and select "Open".
2. Using the Look In control, locate and specify the corrupted workbook.
3. From the Open button's dropdown list, choose "Open and Repair".
4. If this is your first attempt to manually recover the workbook, click "Repair" in the dialogue box that appears.

Usually Excel will be able to recover the entire file, but it doesn't always work. If you've tried this process and you can't recover the entire file, you can still at least recover your data. To do so, click "Extract Data" in step 4.

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February 2010

Just for Laughs