Linda Jacobson Articles

Virtualization: A Small Business Perspective - Click To Read Article
Virtualization is Gartner's Number One strategic technology for 2009. It's become almost a no-brainer for large companies and data centres. But does it make sense for small and medium businesses? The answer is yes, no, or maybe! That depends on whom you ask, and what you need. This topic is the fourth in our 2009 white paper series: "Making every IT dollar count!" The full white papers are available on our website.

Total Cost of Ownership TCO of IT - Click To Read Article
Business owners too often don't factor in the total true costs of IT assets. Indirect, or "hidden", costs (lost productivity) are frequently higher than the more obvious direct costs (hardware, software and support). Detailed TCO calculations aren't practical for small businesses, but it's feasible and, we'd argue, critical, to understand and apply the general concepts of TCO. This topic is the first in our 2009 whitepaper series: "Making every IT dollar count!" The full whitepapers are available on our website.

The Economics of E-Mail - Click To Read Article
"E-mail is the single most important tool for business communication." Despite this, businesses may not step back to assess costs and cost-effectiveness of different types of e-mail systems. This article takes a look at the major e-mail options, their advantages and disadvantages. This topic is the second in our 2009 whitepaper series: "Making every IT dollar count!" The full whitepapers are available on our website.

Strangling the Internet: Why Spam Matters and What It Costs - Click To Read Article
More than 70% of all e-mails are spam - that's 53.8 trillion per year! Spam is projected to cost $130 billion worldwide in 2009. The major cost to individual businesses is lost productivity through employees' time spent reviewing spam or searching for lost e-mails. This article looks at the cost of spam to businesses and reports that quarantining suspected spam costs 62% less than aggressive deleting policies. This topic is the third in our 2009 whitepaper series: "Making every IT dollar count!" The full whitepapers are available on our website.

Is There Life Beyond Windows? Pros, Cons and Costs of the Major Operating Systems - Click To Read Article
This article looks at the pros, cons and costs of Windows, Mac OS, UNIX and Linux. It's a topic that generates a great deal of emotion, but there's no sense getting hung up on defending a favorite operating system. In the cold light of day, these are the bottom-line issues: Is a given OS the most productive solution for your business? Does it do everything you need it to do? Is it the most cost-effective option? And does it make sense to use more than one operating system on the network? This topic is the fourth in our 2009 white paper series: "Making every IT dollar count!" The full white papers are available on our website.

Extended Warranties: Sensible Insurance or Waste of Money? - Click To Read Article
Paul Champagne saved the Canadian Department of Defence more than a billion dollars over a ten-year period by "ripping up a couple thousand extended warranties", according to Maclean's magazine (6 July 2009). That's a number that's hard to argue with. So we took a closer look at extended warranties: the pros, the cons, who really benefits from them. The conclusion? Extended warranties are a very expensive form of insurance. They are a cash cow for retailers, yielding profit margins of 50% and more. The benefit to consumers is dubious, to say the least. This topic is the sixth in our 2009 white paper series: "Making every IT dollar count!" The full white papers are available on our website.

BlackBerry and Outlook Tips - Click To Read Article
Conflicts, repeats, disappearing and reappearing meetings and tasks in BlackBerry and Outlook calendars... infuriating and problematic! The key: Outlook is King. That's really all you need to know - but for good measure, this short article outlines how to deal with calendar items in ways that prevent these problems. (For users of BlackBerry Exchange Server).

16 Best Business BlackBerry Applications - Click To Read Article
The iPhone has given a welcome boost to BlackBerry applications, or apps. Many of these apps are extremely useful for businesspeople. We searched BlackBerry AppWorld for all the 5-star-rated business apps, and also searched for rave reviews of business-friendly BlackBerry apps. We ended up with 16 great apps, briefly summarized here. This topic is the eighth in our 2009 series: "Making every IT dollar count!" The complete articles are available on our website.


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