Download - Boston Techie, August 2011
Our CEO’s Idea of a Vacation
Susan Labandibar is on
vacation right now, but you
won’t find her at the beach. Instead, she’ll be in the
Borneo jungle.
That’s because Susan’s idea
of a vacation is to help save the orangutans and their
rain forest habitat as they
are threatened by
encroaching palm oil farms
and other environmentally
irresponsible practices.
Two years ago, Susan visited
Borneo for the first time.
There, she met Dr. Birute
Galdikas, the guardian angel of orangutans. Susan soon
became an active volunteer
and donor to help Dr.
Galdikas’s nonprofit,
Orangutan Foundation
International (OFI).
As part of her effort to help
OFI, Susan created the
Hutan Project here at Tech Networks of Boston.
Did you know TNB donates
20% of new revenue to save
crucial rain forest habitat?
This year, Susan’s tour is
even more ambitious. She’ll
continued inside
In this issue…
Help Desk on Demand
Our CEO saving orangutans
Get more donated software
Meet a Boston techie: Nick Ford
Preserving trees in South Boston
Just Make It Work: Introducing Help Desk on Demand
We’re pleased to make an important
announcement: we’ve reinvented our help desk
into a cutting-edge system we call Help Desk on Demand. It’s part of our commitment to
constantly innovate to bring you the highest-
quality service possible.
With Help Desk on Demand, you can tell
us the response time you need when you make your request for support. Whether you need
help in 15 minutes, 2 hours, 4 hours, or
8 hours, we’ll respond to your request in the
time frame you request. That’s right: if you
need an immediate response, an
experienced technician from TNB will
call you back within 15 minutes.
We’ll work with you when you’re available
to work with us. With Help Desk on Demand, we’re scheduling our responses to client
support needs so we’ll be there for you when
you need us. If you’re on your way to an
important meeting, we’ll be right there with
you. If you’re available to work with us tomorrow afternoon, we’ll schedule your
service call for when you’re free.
You’ll be updated on your problem while
work is being done, with the personal
experience of Help Desk on Demand. You’ll be talking to your support team in real time,
on your schedule.
Of course, Help Desk on Demand is
included for all our valued clients. It’s just
another way we’re improving our service for you. Our commitment to you is simply that
you will receive the support you need, when you
need it, every time you call. You’ll set the
expectations by telling us the response time
that you need for your situation and schedule.
And we’ll meet those expectations every time.
Everyone needs computer help from time to time. The next time you need support,
we’ll see you at our friendly, cutting-edge Help
Desk on Demand.
ISSUE
08 | AUGUST 2011
Get Software Donations from TechSoup.org
Most of our nonprofit clients are
using TechSoup.org to get
commercial software at a very low cost. What could be a better
deal than that? If you haven’t
visited TechSoup.org in a while,
here are some of the products
available now:
Microsoft Office 2010
Standard or Professional
Plus—including the latest
versions of Word, Excel,
PowerPoint and Outlook, as
well as useful additional products like Access,
Publisher, OneNote, Lync,
InfoPath and SharePoint.
Intuit QuickBooks 2011
Norton AntiVirus 2011
Adobe Creative Suite 5.5
Design Premium
Microsoft Windows 7 Upgrade
Get Genuine!
If you have a copy of Microsoft
Windows that is not genuine,
Microsoft is offering nonprofits and libraries a one-time donation
of a full Windows 7 installation
(not an upgrade). You can place
only one request, for up to 50
licenses.
Find out more about these
low-cost upgrades at
TechSoup.org, or call us at
Tech Networks of Boston!
Good News! Improved Benefits from the Microsoft Software Donation Program This article is reprinted courtesy of
TechSoup.org. TechSoup connects nonprofits
with donated software. Visit TechSoup.org for
more information!
Beginning July 27, 2011, organizations
now have more flexibility regarding when
they can request Microsoft software
donations and in the product donations available.
How These Changes Benefit Your
Organization:
Request what you need, when
you need it: Organizations can now request Microsoft products as needed,
not just once per year. Also, there is no
longer a five-seat minimum requirement,
so an organization can request just one license if that is all it needs.
Get more complete solutions: Now you can request from up to 10
different Microsoft title groups in each 2-
year cycle, so you can build more
complete solutions that help you meet
your mission. And with Microsoft’s Get Genuine Windows offer, you can ensure
you’re running genuine versions of
Microsoft operating systems (see sidebar).
Easily see Microsoft details at a
glance: To help organizations manage their Microsoft donations, TechSoup has
created the Microsoft Donation Center
(accessible on TechSoup.org from the
Donation Request/History page under My Account), where nonprofits can get all the
pertinent details in one place.
Existing Microsoft cycles have
been reset: If you’re already partici-
pating in the Microsoft Software Donation Program through TechSoup, your cycle
has been reset! Your 2-year donation
cycle will start again when you place your
first Microsoft request after July 27, 2011,
and will reset every two years on the anniversary of that request. Requests
placed before July 27 will not count
against your new donation allotment.
With these improvements from
Microsoft and the new Microsoft Donation Center, now is an excellent
time for another visit to TechSoup!
Meet a Boston Techie Nick Ford, IT Consultant
Our CEO’s Idea of a Vacation
continued from cover
meet the founders of several
grassroots nonprofits, as well as
scientists from the Center for
International Forest Research in Jakarta. She’ll help them rescue
endangered animals, and publicize
the plight of the orangutan amid
rain forest destruction.
Susan will finish her trip at the Orangutan Care Center and
Quarantine in Borneo, in the
happy company of the Center’s
long-term volunteers and
intelligent, hairy residents.
Susan will be back in the U.S. on
August 31, insha’Allah. (That
means “God willing” in Arabic.)
Susan won’t be doing much
eating during the day, either: this month is Ramadan.
Help Susan’s Friends Save the Orangutans!
Orangutan Foundation Inter-national needs to raise $640,000 to save crucial orangutan habitat in the Rawa Kuno Legacy Forest. Your help is vital. Please visit
http://bit.ly/rawakuno
right now and Adopt Acres! It only costs $100 per acre to save this precious old-growth forest.
Working Together to Save South Boston’s Trees TNB staffer Jennifer Brundage spends
her mornings working with Southie
Trees and Action for Boston
Community Development (ABCD)
to advocate for the preservation of trees
throughout South Boston. Jen helps the youth workers at ABCD to compare
architectural drawings with trees present,
taking scientific measurements and
entering them into a database.
Jen has produced an up-to-date inventory of all trees in the Old Colony
housing community, which is now being
redeveloped. Advocates will use this tree
inventory to educate the community and
the Boston Housing Authority about the importance of preserving them.
Urban Trees in Perspective: Can you guess where the photo
above was taken? Hint: it’s within a
few blocks of Andrew Square. E-mail
with your guess!
Nick Ford is one of our highly experienced IT
Consultants, specializing in
servers as well as desktop
systems, and providing a
full range of computer
support to end users.
What’s a typical day
for Nick? He makes the
rounds to organizations
like Boston Day and
Evening Academy, United South End Settlements,
and Community Servings.
During a client visit,
Nick will check all IT
equipment to ensure server, network, and
workstation health. He’ll
also work with client staff
members when they need
deskside support.
Nick brings serious
experience to our clients,
along with his friendly smile and helping hand.
As a member of Network
Services at the Museum of
Fine Arts, he ran a
complex multi-server
system supporting over 800 users.
Nick has served three
tours in Iraq and
Afghanistan as an Assault Team Member with the
U.S. Army Rangers,
where he earned many
commendations including
a Purple Heart.
Retail Specials!
The retail store Tech Computers of
Boston offers specials to all TNB
clients and their employees. Visit the
store at 574 Dorchester Ave. to get
these great benefits!
15% off all labor for repairs
Virus removal, $136
(regular $160)
Operating system restore,
$127.50 (regular $150)
Diagnostic, $42.50
(regular $50)
One-hour tune-up, $68
(regular $80)
Refurbished desktop computers
from $150 to $350; refurbished
Dell 630 laptops, $325. Products
all come with a 180-day warranty.
Tech Networks of Boston partners with businesses and nonprofits to create and maintain sustainable, efficient and environmentally friendly IT operations.
574 dorchester avenue south boston, ma 02127
Services:
Benefits for Nonprofits:
Cloud service packages tailored to your needs Computer network setup and maintenance Hardware selection, service, and warranties Help Desk on Demand and emergency support Planning, budgeting and strategy for the long term
Features in our monthly Boston Charity Events newsletter Listing on giving.techboston.com if requested Special referral incentives