As you may have heard, today Windows released its newest operating system, Windows 8.  In the coming weeks we will be continuing to educate our clients on the pros, cons and changes associated with the new system through a series of emails, blog posts and a webinar.  As with any new operating system we strongly recommend holding off on purchasing the Windows 8 upgrades or new computers running Windows 8 for at least a few months until the software has had time to be tested in the small business workplace.

Some potential concerns of switching to a brand new operating system for a small business are:

• Possible incompatibility with many business software packages critical to the operation of your business
• Possible incompatibility with printers, scanners and other various hardware.
• Radically different interface from older versions of Windows resulting in workflow disruption, additional training and user confusion.

Everon recommends the Windows 7 environment for all business PCs at the moment due to the tested stability and ease of functionality.

In the coming weeks keep your eyes peeled for further communication and invitations to an informative Windows 8 webinar to learn what you need to know about the new operating system.

If you have any specific concerns about Windows 8 and its impact to your business please feel free to contact your account manager today at 1.888.244.1748.

Thank you,

The Everon Team

1.888.244.1748

[email protected]

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You would literally have to live under a rock not to notice the impact that social media is having on the world. It’s a marketing revolution out there!  Twitter, for some, is used mainly for entertainment. This is clear, as top “tweets” of the day are typically witty and make readers crack a smile.  For example, “Did you ever realize that lol also looks like a small man drowning?” was one that I read and chuckled at today. But for many, Twitter also can be used for business. In fact, for many who know how to use it correctly, Twitter can be a very powerful sales and marketing vehicle.

If you’re using Twitter for business, your level of know-how and commitment may be high, or low — and there are a lot of you who fall somewhere in the middle. And people like you are most likely desperately searching for efficient ways to find the RIGHT people to follow on twitter.  You’re in luck because I recently read a great article on just that:  How To Find The Right People To Follow On Twitter

Not even quite at the finding-the-right-people level yet?

If you don’t really know how to use Twitter to benefit your business but really want to learn more about it, then you’re in luck. Twitter recently released their “Twitter 101 for Business Special” for people just like you. Click here to read up on it and learn more.

SS

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Here at Everon, we use Google Docs a lot. It’s an excellent tool for small businesses. By providing an easy way for team members in different locations to collaborate on documents, it has become a dominant force in the world of small business productivity.

But Google’s not resting on its laurels.

This week, they rolled out a new interface for Google Docs, which promises to allow even more small businesses to do away with Microsoft Office and go straight to the web for team collaboration. As Fast Company points out, it’s faster, allows inline comments, and lets you collaborate in real-time with other team members thanks to its live-editing functionality.

But our favorite part is the new Drawing feature. With it, you can finally ditch your whiteboard and collaborate in real-time on the web.

To access Drawing from Google Docs, just click on “Create New” and choose “Drawing” as the document type. It’s as simple as that. You now have access to a powerful tool that will allow you to create images and flow charts, similar to Visio.

Oh yeah. We’re going to get a lot of use out of this one.

You may not be able to ditch your desktop productivity software just yet, but the new Google Docs Drawing feature takes that idea one step closer to reality.

For more info on all the new Google Docs features, check out the Google Blog here.

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The Great Game of Business philosophy is a powerful tool for any business.  From Jack Stack’s original book, to business building workbooks, conferences, webinars, and more — Stack’s overall philosophy of concepts, approaches, and strategies have been extremely influential in how we run our business here at Everon.

Each year, The Great Game of Business sponsors many events that are geared to help attendees improve business results, and drive those results. Everon Technology Services fully endorses these events, and encourages you to look into attending some in the future. The 18th Annual Gathering of Games Conference is being held in St. Louis, MO from May  5 - 10, and promises to be a powerful event.

For more information on any of these - or any other Great Game of Business Events - please contact Amanda Kuda at The Great Game of Business by phone or email at [email protected] or 417.829.8275.

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If you regularly surf the web, you’ve likely stumbled onto Get Satisfaction by now. Marker by the little ‘Feedback’ tags that show up on the sides of pages across the internet, Get Satisfaction is a customer feedback engine that allows companies to hear concerns directly from their customers.

And let’s be clear: it’s not just limited to internet companies. Anyone can sign up for a page and begin taking suggestions online. You don’t even have to be affiliated with the company to create or manage a Get Satisfaction page (although it obviously helps) - company devotees can easily create pages for their favorite brands and try to build awareness of customer concerns.

In short, for any business that actively focuses on customer service, it’s a great tool that’s worth checking out.

And now Get Satisfaction has taken it to the next level. Got a Facebook fan page? You can now turn it into a fully-featured customer support engine, thanks to the newly-released Get Satisfaction Facebook Social Engagement Hub. This plug-in allows your company Facebook page to seamlessly integrate with Get Satisfaction’s main site.

How does it work? Here’s a key example: if someone posts a question, it will automatically search GetSatisfaction.com and discover whether it already exists, then either display the appropriate response or create a new question on your Get Satisfaction page. (There are other features, too, but adding this functionality to Facebook is obviously the biggest story here).

ReadWriteWeb lists a number of other advantages to the service in their review - most notably, the fact that Facebook users tend to be very active on Fan pages. As a result, this service gives you more ways to interact with and get feedback from your strongest supporters. Not to mention the fact that it allows you to leverage some of your Facebook content from outside of Facebook’s ‘walled garden.’

We think Get Satisfaction is an excellent service - one that’s only enhanced by this new offering. It’s definitely worth a closer look for any small business in search of a more direct link to customer feedback.

Kipp

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