Kick off the summer season at DP Solutions’ Open House & Casino Night! This event will feature live (non-cash) casino games, an abundance of food & drinks and prize drawings! Additionally, you’ll get the chance to mingle with the DPS team and meet & greet some of our key IT partners.
Wednesday, May 17th • 3-7 PM
Columbia, MD
Let’s face it, your business has more competition than ever. And they’ll eat you alive if you fall behind in today’s technology “arms race.”
Maybe your network needs greater security. Or you haven’t yet taken advantage of new cloud-based apps that help your team get more done in less time. Today, the action is in the cloud. And if you don’t know what’s out there, it’s just that much easier for competitors to pull ahead.
To help you stay on top, here’s a quick survey of four ways to put the cloud in your corner, along with examples of each.
Network Security
As devices on your network become more diverse and mobile, monitoring them in real time is absolutely critical to averting cyber-attacks. A good network-security tool probes for weak points and alerts you to potential threats. It can employ both hardware and software technologies. And today’s environment demands a bevy of checkpoints, from access control to WiFi-intrusion monitoring.
But how do you protect against threats that evade your monitoring efforts? Due to the recent spread of “fileless” malware, no antivirus program is 100% “bullet-proof.” However, you should be able to find basic software protection for around $40 per user. Look for features such as e-mail security, data loss prevention, network segmentation and behavioral analytics. And ideally, it scans quickly, takes up little space on your devices and may even be able to recover files encrypted by ransomware.
Collaboration
Giving your team the right cloud collaboration tools can be almost as good as giving them steroids… (Except, of course, it’s legal.) With the wide array of apps available today, the trick is finding the best one – or the best combination – for your company. Top contenders include Asana, Slack, Teamwork, Trello and Google Drive. These and similar apps can improve efficiencies in areas like project and task management, team communications and collaboration, brainstorming, document processing and storage, and more. And with cloud collaboration, you’re no longer restricted to bringing aboard talent from your local area alone.
Contracts & Accounting
Contracts and proposals that get bogged down in logistics can hurt monthly revenues. Is your sales team still asking customers to sign and fax back important documents? If so, they’re losing precious minutes every day. Then there’s the cost of storing and managing physical files.
It all adds up. It’s no wonder so many companies now use electronic signature apps, such as DocuSign, Adobe Sign and RPost. They’ll let you manage the signing of important documents entirely online, and will encrypt and store files for you. Some are even court-approved and create a full audit trail.
For small business accounting, industry veteran QuickBooks, now with an online version, and upstart Xero can help you keep the books with relative ease. They both offer a clean, intuitive UI and affordable pricing with a comprehensive set of features. And, of course, being cloud-based, they can be accessed from a variety of locations, adding flexibility to your workforce.
Business Planning
Does your company need to prove its mettle to investors? You’d be hard-pressed to find a better all-in-one planning solution than Tarkenton GoSmallBiz. Created by NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton, it’s specifically built for small businesses. You get highly customizable and detailed data fields to help simplify your planning process. It then lets you create financial statements and projections without external spreadsheets. And as a subscriber to GoSmallBiz, you also get access to business-planning experts who can help you tweak your plans and proposals.
If you’d like to know how well your company is (or isn’t) taking advantage of today’s cloud, I’d like to offer you a FREE Cloud Readiness Assessment, through the end of this month only. This could be worth thousands to you in both cost savings and increased efficiency for your business. We’ve helped dozens of companies set up and run cost-effective, powerful and secure cloud networks. For your FREE Cloud readiness assessment, at no cost or obligation to you, visit www.dpsolutions.com/CloudReady, or contact us at 410-720-3300 x2 or sales@dpsolutions.com TODAY.
Mike Michalowicz
It’s a paradox. Success requires a clear vision. The more you can see it, the more likely you are to achieve it.
I get it. In fact, I believe in it so much that I repeat a “success mantra” every morning and every night. I have a clear vision for what I have defined as success in my business, in my health, in my spirituality and in my family life.
But I also noticed that sometimes I get way fixated on the vision. Take softball, for example. I play in a pickup game about five to ten times during the summer months. I decided that I wanted to be a regular home-run hitter and set the vision. No mantras needed for this one. Just envisioned myself hitting the ball out of the park every time.
Sure enough, I did. With my newly found hitting skills, I earned the coveted batter’s position – fourth spot in the order.
Then I expanded the vision. I decided I wanted to hit the home runs so far that they went sailing into the distant woods. Something that I believe no other batter has done. This vision was so clear that I played it over and over again in my mind.
As I approached the batter’s box, I walked through each step necessary to hit the ball that far. I overthought it.
As the pitch came my way, my mind was going crazy with all the things I needed to do perfectly to hit it that far. I needed to have a slight down to upswing. I had to snap my wrists a little bit earlier. I had to put more muscle into it, for sure. I had to take a slightly bigger step. As I thought, the ball sailed by. Strike! I thought so much that I forgot to swing.
Next pitch. My mind was going more crazy. All the same steps, but had to remember to swing this time. With all the thoughts rushing through my head, I swung too early. Strike two! The third pitch was worse. I swung so late and so hard that I nearly threw my shoulder out. Strike three!
Subsequent up-at-bats, I went through the same mind-talk nonsense. My fluid swing became a mechanical choppy-chop-chop. The more I screwed up, the more I overthought it. And the worse I got. That Sunday was my worst outing ever, even though I envisioned it would be my best. The mistake? Overthinking.
Vision is power. Preparation is necessary. But when you are up at the plate, it is time to stop thinking. It is time to let your natural instincts take over. It is time to sit back and observe yourself. I have found this to be the only way to hit home runs.
In fact, next year I envision myself hitting “into-the-woods” homers.
I’m just not thinking about it.
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We love having you as a customer and, quite honestly, wish we had more like you! So instead of just wishing, we’ve decided to hold a special “refer a friend” event during the month of April.
Simply refer any company with 10 or more computers to our office to receive two free tickets to your favorite MLB team. Once we’ve completed our initial appointment with your referral, we’ll rush YOU two tickets to see the team of your choice as a thank-you (or donate $100 to your favorite charity … your choice!). Simply fill out the referral form below.
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Important! We hate spam as much (or more!) than you and promise to NEVER rent, share, or abuse your e-mail address and contact information in any way. |
Kraus Behavioral Health is a company with an innovative approach to mental health care. Founded in 2014, it is a practice comprised entirely of board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioners. The company provides psychiatric medication management and brief psychotherapy services within an integrative platform, focusing on reaching people wherever they are, whether in adult medical day programs, skilled nursing and assisted living communities, primary care practices, psychiatric rehabilitation programs, or in its own outpatient offices. By integrating mental health with other specialties, Kraus Behavioral Health provides convenient, streamlined access to behavioral healthcare and improves communication between providers, leading to an overall positive impact on outcomes and quality of care.
Kraus Behavioral Health is dedicated to providing the most comprehensive mental health services in Maryland. They do this with the support of an exceptional team of genuinely caring individuals, all of whom are driven to help others. Kraus’ clients often speak to the exceptional company culture that stems from their extraordinarily personable, knowledgeable, and professional staff.
Kraus is a recent addition to the DP Solutions customer list, having joined in early 2017. As a client of the Confidence Plus Managed Services, all their data is now being proactively monitored on a regular basis. Therefore, Kraus can focus even more attention on what really matters, their clients. Kraus commented on our partnership, “We finally found a company that is a team and that works with us toward the same goals. They are readily accessible when we need support and are dedicated to meeting all our technology needs.”
To learn more about Kraus Behavioral Health, visit www.krausbehavioralhealth.com.
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MIKE MICHALOWICZ (pronounced mi-KAL- o-wits) started his first business at the age of 24, moving his young family to the only safe place he could afford—a retirement building. With no experience, no contacts and no savings, he systematically bootstrapped a multimillion-dollar business. Then he did it again. And again. Now he is doing it for other entrepreneurs. Mike is the CEO of Provendus Group, a consulting firm that ignites explosive growth in companies that have plateaued; a former small-business columnist for The Wall Street Journal; MSNBC’s business makeover expert; a keynote speaker on entrepreneurship; and the author of the cult classic book The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. His newest book, The Pumpkin Plan, has already been called “the next E-Myth!” For more information, visit