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Time and Attendance Systems are Still Evolving

Acroprint Time Clock

KERRR-CHUNK!!!! Old style analog time clocks are starting to fade away... Slowly...

If you run a business that has more than a handful of employees, chances are you are using at Time & Attendance System already, and the chances are good that it is an analog time clock, the kind you stick a card into (after lining it up for the correct day and whether you are clocking in or clocking out) and it goes “KER-CHUNK!” and stamps the current time/date onto the card. If it is a really old one, then the person using it may have to not only align it properly, but pull a lever in order for it to stamp correctly.

Newer mechanical clocks will automatically feed the card into the machine and align it, then stamp it, and if you are lucky, it does it correctly, on the proper line, without over-writing  the previous clock-in and hopefully with the correct time and date (If it compensated for daylight savings time without you manually changing it).

The problem with this type of technology is that it leaves a lot of room for error. First, you have to actually get your employees to punch in and out, correctly, and the machine itself has to function properly and be maintained, then there is the task of the person handling payroll actually reading the time cards and entering the data into their payroll system.

Now there are many options that can simplify your life. Let’s look at a few of those:

Web & telephone based clock in/out. These types of systems can be setup so that when an employee sits down at their terminal, they can clock in, by visiting a website or calling a phone number and entering a code. This is can be a good solution for those who have many locations, or even telecommuters. Though many offices now use this technology to eliminate the need for employees to go to a central location. It also can be used to keep track of time spent on certain jobs. The data is imported directly into your accounting software. No room for error here!

Mechanical time clocks with atomic clock: Who says the mechanical clock is totally out? They still are used in manufacturing plants with great success, but newer models will set the time and date automatically to keep the clock as accurate as possible. No more Daylight Savings Time mistakes with these.

Proximity card / badge clocks: These are becoming the new standard in time & attendance systems for many reasons. First of all it is a fully digital solution, the data is imported directly to your accounting software, there are no errors from employees mis-aligning the card, and it is a completely touch-free solution, making it perfect for any application where the spread of germs/virus is of concern. These are affordable and easy to use. Just wave your card near the unit and you are clocked in or out. If a card is lost, the user can enter their code.

Acroprint Biometric Finger Scan Terminal

Is "Buddy Punching" a concern? Not with this unit!

Biometric Terminals: The biometric or finger reader time clocks are perfect for making sure the person clocking in or out is actually the person that SHOULD be clocking in and out. In some applications, where a time clock is located in a secluded area, you will find that “buddy punching” is taking place. That is where an employee is running a few minutes late, or wants to leave a few minutes early and they call a fellow employee and ask them if they could take their card and punch them in/out. In addition to eliminating the buddy punch, this type of system also has the advantage of being completely digital, with direct input into your accounting & payroll software such as Intuit Quickbooks.

For those requiring additional security, entire hand readers are available.

Whether you are looking to replace your old mechanical time clock, or looking to implement time and attendance tracking for the first time, we can help you determine the perfect solution for your application. We are an Acroprint dealer and believe their products to be affordable, reliable and feature packed! Call us today and we will discuss your needs.

Follow up to earlier post about phone books being a thing of the past

In an early blog post http://www.homelandsecureit.com/blog/2010/03/when-you-need-computer-repair-do-you-search-online-or-use-a-phone-book/ I asked what you do when you need computer service or computer repair in Greenville and received a couple emails and a reply or two in person. Most people agreed with what I said and that is, in the event of needing service, they turn to Google or some other search engine.

An article posted a couple days after mine at this URL tends to agree http://www.inlander.com/spokane/article-14859-paper-cuts.html and talks of phone books being obsolete. Okay, I can buy that. But, what about the time you need your computer fixed and have no computer to look up a good computer repair shop with? It appears 411 service is free with many people’s cell phones. I checked my plan and it is not (Sprint / Nextel).

Nothing new here, just wanted to share someone else’s thoughts as well, mainly because they concur with my own.

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Cisco Product Shortage Causing Some Business Customers To Try SonicWall & WatchGuard

The Standard Cisco ASA 5505 Firewall Appliance

A Cisco ASA 5505 Firewall? You need it WHEN? HAHAHA

If you are in need of a Cisco ASA 5505 or 5510 Security Appliance for your application, chances are, you are not going to be happy when you call your reseller to order one. The device is in very short supply and in most cases, back-ordered until April, May or June, depending upon the supplier. As a Cisco dealer, Homeland Secure IT is trying to secure product for our clients just as many others are. We have had one on back order for 2 months for a particular application.

Why is there a shortage? The story is different depending upon the vendor you speak with, but it goes a little something like this: During the worst of the economic slump, Cisco scaled back production of the ASA and apparently many other products as well. This is not surprising, as there is no need to build a device that is going to sit on the shelf and become outdated before it sells. But what has happened since then is that sales have increased, and the demand has rapidly outpaced the supply. Cisco has apparently attempted to ramp up production and this is where it gets sketchy… One version of the story says that a supplier of a particular component is unable/unwilling to provide it fast enough, another has it that the supplier of said component retooled and is making something else for another company and told Cisco to jump in the lake and get their component elsewhere, and then there is another story which is popular on some internet forums in which the rumor has it that Cisco is upgrading the ASA line with new software and that it requires additional RAM, which is also in short supply.

Any way you look at it, for the time being there is a shortage of the ASA 5505 & 5510 products. You could get lucky and find one at your favorite supplier, and if you do, good for you, I am only slightly jealous. However, be warned that some places have jacked their prices up, 25% and higher. If the ASA is the only product you can use, as mandated by some policy or another, then pay the money and be happy.

What about the rest of the world who doesn’t actually require a Cisco product? Fortunately for them, there are a number of products available that will fit the bill. Here at Homeland Secure IT, we offer some great alternatives, such as the SonicWall and Watchguard security appliance line. These are both very high quality lines of security products and can easily replace the Cisco ASA devices spec for spec. In many, if not most cases, the SonicWall or Watchguard firewalls will not only compare in features, but will also save you money! Call us today at 864-990-4748 or email  and find out if a Watchguard or SonicWall Security Appliance is right for your application.

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Trend Micro Anti-Virus / Anti-Malware Sales & Specials For Small Businesses in Greenville / Upstate SC

Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security Package

They call it "Worry-Free" for a reason... It's REALLY Worry Free!

We are offering small businesses a discounted rate on Trend Micro Anti Virus / Anti-Malware products, including their award winning Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security Standard for those without mail servers, and Worry-Free Business Security Advanced for those with Microsoft Exchange mail servers or Microsoft Small Business Server.

Worry-Free Business Security is perfect for a the small office that has from 5 to 100 computers and wants a way to manage malware threats centrally from their server, keeping every workstation and notebook up to date with only one license to purchase. The Advanced version covers your mail server, and provides exceptional spam filtering in addition to blocking the virus, trojan, worm, spyware, malware threats that come in via email.

Then there is web filtering, which protects your network from threats found on the web.  Although it was not designed specifically for this purpose, Trend Micro’s Worry Free Business Security web filtering and behavior monitoring allows the administrator to lock down particular types of web sites, preventing your users from browsing to bandwidth stealing streaming audio if you like, or even social media sites.

The features do not stop there! If you would like to find out how Trend Micro products may help protect your computers, company data and privacy, please call us to arrange a free, no-obligation consultation. The current prices on Trend Micro makes a person wonder why they would even opt to use anything else!

We also offer full installation and configuration services for your business in the Greenville / Upstate South Carolina Area at reasonable rates.

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Greenville Small and Medium Business Online Data Backup Solution / Servosity

Frustration Ahead!

Backup? I can't even find reverse!

Not a week goes by that I don’t have at least one conversation with a small or even medium sized business owner who has no backup strategy in place at all. Today’s conversation was courtesy of a rather intelligent individual from Greenville who I have known and respected for some time now. He shall remain anonymous in order to spare him shame and harassment by all who know him for eternity.

Mr. X is busy running his business, which is thriving in a poor economy, but at the same time, he is also responsible for all computer repair & maintenance which is centered around half a dozen workstations, a couple notebooks and an aging file server. He backs up his data using some free software and a couple removable USB hard drives because the tape backup they have was outgrown years ago. The drives are “sometimes” taken off-site, but for the most part, they are on location and sometimes get swapped around.

The list of problems here is long. Obviously in the even to fire, theft, flood, or other catastrophic disaster, the data is probably gone, along with the backups. Even if that is not the case, using software which has no audit trail may prove inadequate if even a file or folder is lost on the server due to a user deleting it, as there is no way to ensure the data on the external USB drives actually contains everything, and when it was put on there. Still, a  recovered file that is far out of date is better than no recovered file.

Other problems are that the server is old, and from what he told me, his RAID array is not optimal, if I understood him correctly, one file drive failed a couple years ago and everything is hosted on the remaining drive in the server.

I made several suggestions to him today… One was to get his RAID working and get a local backup going using a new drive and quality backup software like Backup Exec BEWS from Symantec and a new backup drive that uses reliable and economical media. This was shot down immediately due to the cost. Next I suggested fixing the RAID array, optimizing his USB drive backups and implementing an Online Backup Solution, such as the one we offer from Servosity. This was of more interest to him due to the fact that he does not have to invest in a tape backup drive and backup software as well as maintain it and remember to change out tapes. HOWEVER, the recurring costs have him concerned.

What we are doing currently is setting him up to try our Servosity Online Backup Solution absolutely free for a couple weeks to get a feel for how it works, and allow us to tell him exactly how much he will be paying per month. If this works out, he will at least be protected.  Imagine losing your company data and how much it could cost you. Is it worth it to risk that? If you do not have a fully functional backup solution, please contact us and let us do the same for you. No obligation, no cost!

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Please Vote for Google to Bring High Speed Fiber Internet to Greenville SC – #LuckyGVL #GoogleOnMain

I bet you wish I would just shut up about this Google High Speed Fiber Connectivity thing don’t you? Well I refuse!

Please take a moment to vote for Greenville, SC in this poll:

Vote for Greenville, SC

Again, even if you are NOT in Greenville, but live in the Upstate, or maybe another town in our region, the entire area would benefit from a deployment of Google Fiber! Take 2 seconds and select Greenville, SC… GoogleOnMain / Google On Main / LuckyGVL / We Are Feeling Lucky is only getting started!

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Computer and network technology thoughts from a Greenville small business owner

As a financial officer of a small business in Greenville, I get frustrated when I see other small business owners struggling with technology, or lack thereof.  I understand the need to squeeze the most out of every dime in your business and the thought of not buying something that you can just as well do yourself.  John and I got to know each other years ago over the set-up of a computer network at McAbee’s Carpet.  Now, I’m not suggesting a relationship that develops into a marriage, but you might consider what benefits Homeland Secure IT can offer you to improve your productivity and overall business function.

Small Business Money

What part does technology play in your small business?

McAbee’s Carpet, as many people know, is a business that my parents started in the 1960’s.  My mother handled all of the accounting by hand with perfectly documented ledgers that I watched her slave over into the wee hours of the morning most every week night.  Over ten years ago, I convinced her to begin putting the accounting on computer.  She did not trust any computer to match her expertise and continued her manual ledgers for at least three more years until I was able to convince her that both were equal.  Today, of course, all of the accounting is handled through Intuit’s Quickbooks and I’m able to file all the necessary Federal and State Forms from that software.

I now look back and can see the importance of having a soundly structured computer network to work with on a daily basis.  Working off of a network offers me the ability to delegate accounting tasks such as Accounts Receivable entry and invoicing to a co-worker so I don’t have to handle every aspect of daily tasks.  We also have the ability to keep scanned documents and various other important customer information securely on our network.  We have all grown very accustomed to the email and calendar sharing… I don’t know what we did before!

Putting all of our confidence into this computer system now brings up a new worry… backup!  We have a tape drive that is used for daily back-ups, but what if that fails and I do not notice for days or weeks?  What if we had a fire and the tapes were destroyed?  I am certainly not mindful enough to take a tape with me every night.  The new solution that has offered me so much peace of mind is having an online backup system through Servosity.  I get an email in my Inbox every morning that I know to look for which reports that my successful nightly backup is tucked away safely online should I need to retrieve it.  For literally a few dollars every month, I can go home knowing that my data is secure should anything unforeseen occur and I don’t have to do anything!

McAbee’s Carpet is certainly not up to speed with technology today.  But I do find myself getting aggravated when a vendor does not offer online payment now.  I do have a goal of installing a Voice over IP phone system soon.  But for now, I think we are in a place where I have a secure network with a working backup system and an IT company with Homeland Secure IT that I know I can call at anytime for any concerns or problems and they are there the same day to assist me.   I am a supporter and investor of Homeland Secure IT not just as an attempt to keep a husband happy, but because I believe strongly in his passion and ability to provide great service and support to businesses in the Upstate area.

Greenville Google Fiber Movement Still in the Headlines

Greenville is Feeling Lucky for Google Fiber

Greenville is Feeling Lucky for Google Fiber

You would have to be living under a rock to still be in the dark about Google On Main / LuckyGVL (Just Google for #GoogleOnMain, #LuckyGVL, We Are Feeling Lucky, Greenville Google Fiber, etc). You probably already know that a couple thousand people in Greenville SC heard from various means, such as Twitter, Facebook, email, txt message or analog social networking like a phone call or a face-to-face meeting (people still do that?) that Greenvillians were being organized to meet at Falls Park on a beautiful Saturday night, wearing dark clothing, and that they would be taking part in something historic.

And historic it was! It has made local, regional, national and international news! Aaron Von Frank should be quite proud of himself and his band of merry men who orchestrated the endevour which involved so many people pouring into the downtown area, spelling out “Google” and having a great time!

Time Magazine has an article about Greenville’s GoogleOnMain this week, which has gotten even more people excited. Earlier in the week (over a week after the big event), people were meeting at another “Celebration” where the volunteers, sponsors and organizers were thanked and they discused how to harness this energy and take it to the next level.

There’s no end in site for Greenville’s Google On Main!  I believe we are just getting started!  Check out www.wearefeelinglucky.com for more information!

Here’s my daughter Megan in a video clip from the other day… She believes Google Fiber would help the education system in Greenville!

Happy Easter to our Greenville & Upstate Friends, Family and Computer Service Clients

Happy Easter from Homeland Secure IT & The Hoyts

Happy Easter (c)2010 John M. Hoyt

I wanted to do something silly that would make you laugh, like the pic someone put on Facebook today with chewy little Peep marshmellow candies, set up on a stage, complete with a pole, all dancing, and the caption of “This wasn’t what I had in mind when I heard we were going to a “Peep Show”…”  Then I remembered that in 2009, we saw a cartoon with two chocolate bunnies that had bites taken out of them, and I decided to replicate that here for your enjoyment.

All humor aside, and at the risk this may offend someone due to political correctness and all that (I’m not known for my political correctness).  Easter is about far more than Peeps, chocolate bunnies, egg hunts and the Easter Bunny. It is about our Lord Jesus, who sacrificed His life for you and for me. I sincerely hope that if you do not know Christ as your Lord & Savior, that you will seek His love and accept Salvation. It doesn’t cost anything, there’s no sacrifice that YOU have to make, and He is ready for you when you are ready for Him!  Want to discuss it? Contact me, or a church of your choice, or optionally, just Google “how to become a Christian”. Becoming a Christian and accepting Christ really is as easy as asking God into your heart.

You can pray this prayer:  God, I know that I am a sinner. I believe You died for my sins, that the only way to an Eternal Life is through you, and I ask that you come into my heart, make a changed person, because I want to follow you. Please forgive me of my sins, please help me to be a better person…  That’s the key, that you KNOW that Christ was sent here for you, that He died for your sins, and that through him, you can have Eternal Life. You must truly want to change, and ask for forgiveness. 

Confused? It is understandable, in this world where nothing is truly free, and where nobody ever forgets the bad you have done in your life. Christ’s love is free. And Christ forgives you, if you will only seek that forgiveness.

God bless and happy Easter to you and your family from our family!

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Greenville: Network Technology isn’t just Computers, Servers & Software

Greenville Network Technology

Homeland Secure IT provides Greenville IT & Network Sales, Service & Consultation

I’ve noticed a trend where friends, family and clients alike will feel as though their IT service provider is only there to fix their broken computer. When they need a computer repaired, they call the technician. When they need server service for their business, they call the technician. When they need a new network drop in their office, they call the technician. But in some people’s minds, that is where it stops.

If you build a relationship with your IT support provider, they already know more about your network than you do in many cases. So the next time you are thinking about adding a VoIP (Voice over IP) phone system, network security cameras, access control system, biometric time & attendance (time clocks) monitoring, or even mobile devices, you might want to give your IT company a call and ask if these devices are a good match for your existing network, and if they can provide you with a quote.

At Homeland Secure IT, we want to ensure your technology experience provides you with the highest level of satisfaction possible. We will work to determine if that new gadget, say an Apple iPad, will easily integrate into your network. We will also tell you if it will not work well, and how that can be corrected. Give us a call and find out just how much more you can get out of your network! http://www.homelandsecureit.com/technology.html has a short list of some of the devices we work with every day. It doesn’t stop there. If a product integrates into a network, chances are, we can help you with it!