“It’s been so nice not to have to worry about it…when we call, you’re there.”

Above: Welcome to team Small Horse, Dr. Grant Francis DDS (Francis Family Dental)

Peace of Mind

Dr. Grant Francis runs a busy family dental practice, specializing in “beautifying smiles [and] maintaining dental health”(www.francisfamilydental.com), but rewind the clock a year and Dr. Francis was not smiling.

He was working with an industry specific IT provider, but he was still plagued with problems. The computers were running slow, connectivity was sketchy, and crashes were causing delays in the day to day flow of workday needs. Calling a technician only added to his frustration. “It would take two or three days for them to come out and they never resolved the issue”, Dr. Francis observed. Once a tech arrived on site, they would work for hours, often accomplishing nothing, (but still send a bill). Every time a computer crashed, Dr. Francis worried about back-ups.

The dental practice needed an administrator who could work out the kinks in the system and be pro-active about solutions in the future. They also needed someone familiar with Dentrix (their dental software) which was causing problems with patient’s charts.

They found all of that with Small Horse. Since hiring Small Horse almost 12 months ago, Dr. Francis’s outlook has changed completely. “I’m thoroughly happy”, Dr. Francis says. “I don’t worry about my computer systems [anymore].”

Small Horse came in, made a few minor hardware upgrades, implemented security features and completely reconfigured the network to optimize performance. They upgraded the Dentrix software, improved system speed and resolved some imaging (x-ray) issues. “I’ve told so many people about you guys…[and] recommended you. This is a great solution.”

With renewed peace of mind, Dr. Francis can forget his computer worries and get back to what he does best: beautifying smiles.

[ click here for more information about Francis Family Dental and Dr. Grant Francis DDS ]

“Small Horse’s support model bodes well for the future – especially for small businesses.”  

Above: Welcome to team Small Horse! Waterstone Mortgage: The Stonebrook Group’s branch managers, Scott Stingley (left) and Steve Cox (right)

It’s been a little over three months since we welcomed Waterstone Mortgage: The Stonebrook Group to team Small Horse. Ninety-plus days after installing Small Horse’s technology solutions we asked Scott Stingley (half of the branch management team) to take a minute and field a couple questions about working with us thus far. He kindly obliged. Below are his responses. 

Small Horse: When we first met, you were in the final months of an hourly I.T. contract; can you share some of the frustrations that led you to seek out an alternate solution?

Stingley:  Our support staff was having dramatic issues with productivity. We were fighting computer problems on a daily basis. We’d have several days where we’d lose more than half a day of productivity due to down time. Half a day makes it so people can’t move into their home, which is not an acceptable outcome for our customers or our staff. 

Our environment was not stable what-so-ever.

Small Horse: How have things been since installing Small Horse’s administrative solutions? 

Stingley: Things got better immediately. We’ve experienced a dramatic increase in both productivity and systems up time. We’re no longer focusing resources on fighting bugs and systems issues and we’ve eliminated several workplace distractions. 

Our business has continually grown and expanded over the last several quarters, but in the last 90 days, since implementing Small Horse’s technology solutions, we’ve seen a dramatic pick up in efficiency. 

The support staff portion of our network is absolutely rock-solid! We are much more efficient overall. 

Small Horse: What is your response to the statement that “all I.T. companies are the same?” 

Stingley: No. Absolutely not! 

Our history has always been working with companies that are hourly – the last experience we had was very frustrating because the people that were brought in simply didn’t have the knowledge and expertise to support our systems. When we met with Small Horse, we were on the final month of a 12-month agreement. Quite honestly, I think our systems deteriorated during that period of time.  We’ve never had the stability that we have now. 

About Waterstone Mortgage: The Stonebrook Group 

When it comes to lending experience, in-depth financial and business knowledge and delivering mortgages you can trust for the long term, Waterstone Mortgage: The Stonebrook Group is one of the best mortgage bankers in the valley. 

They are one of only a handful of Certified Mortgage Planning Specialists in Idaho and employ two of the only Certified Residential Mortgage Specialists in the state of Idaho. They sit on the Board of Directors for the Idaho Association of Mortgage Brokers and represent Idaho at the national level with the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. Waterstone Mortgage: The Stonebrook Group has over 55 years combined mortgage industry experience ready to help you achieve your financial goals today and ensure financial security for tomorrow. 

[ click here for more information about Waterstone Mortgage: The Stonebrook Group ] 

About Scott Stingley

Scott Stingley is the Branch Manager of Waterstone Mortgage: The Stonebrook Group located in Boise, Idaho and the past President of the Idaho Association of Mortgage Brokers. Prior to joining the mortgage industry seven years ago, Scott spent twelve years in the high tech industry focused on product, business and financial strategies for clients ranging from small-business to Fortune 500 companies. He is currently serving on the National Association’s Government Affairs Committee where he assists in defining mortgage laws and regulation in such areas as RESPA, TILA, HVCC and others. 

[ click here for more information about Scott Stingley ]

Let’s get something clear right from the start - there’s no denying the marketing power, if used correctly, of social media for small businesses. If you have engaging content that appeals to your customer base, social media is a fantastic tool for broadcasting those stories, providing a forum for customers to share their experiences – ultimately expanding your network.

We’re not talking about marketing.

We’re talking about waste in all its digital forms: social media, online gaming, fantasy sports, streaming multimedia. The list goes on and on and on!

Have you ever thought about how much these activities are costing your business?

Here’s some quick math. If you have eight employees, averaging $34,000/year in salaries, and each of them spends just one hour per week on Facebook – it’s costing you $523.00 per month in lost productivity. If each of those eight employees spends one hour per day – your loses jump to $2615.00 per month.

If these numbers aren’t sobering enough, check this out: not only are these activities a drain on your resources – they can also expose you to vicious cyber-attacks. Here’s a quick read published at usatoday.com called How cybercriminals invade social networks, companies.

Hopefully this entry starts an inter-office dialogue. Maybe it’ll prompt the need to make some changes… which brings us back to a quick synopsis of Switch. This book takes on the often overwhelming subject of change and breaks it down into three very do-able parts. Here they are:

1) Direct the Rider
2) Motivate the Elephant
3) Shape the Path

Once again – a great read – worth the time.

Once you know changes need to be made – or you want to make them, the Heath brothers say you need to shape the path for success. They give several examples where companies “…simply tweaked the environment to make bad behavior impossible.” What a powerful line. Just take the option away!

More than networking, Small Horse delivers changes that boost productivity. Our technology solutions tweak your office environment to make bad (wasteful, dangerous) behavior impossible!

To continue the dialogue, send an email to Nick at info@small-horse.com; or give us a call at (208) 250-1432.

Small Horse supports several dental offices throughout the Treasure Valley and we can tell you, if the above statement hits a little too close to home, you’re not alone.

The good news? More likely then not, the problem isn’t your software.

Over the last year, here are a few of the technology headaches we’ve been asked to remedy:

  – dental practice software slow to open and operate

  – slow patient searches

  – poor x-ray quality

  – delays in opening files, folders and/or programs

 Again, don’t blame Dentrix!

 These are symptoms of a bigger problem; your software’s way of letting you know that your foundation (network configuration, hardware, or both) is in need of some attention.

What we’re seeing, and resolving, are errors in the design and configuration of small business networks. The network itself, the backbone of your technology is unable to support the requirements of your software package. Our solutions start there. The result is optimal performance; Dentrix running the way it was designed to run.

If you’re frustrated with your network’s performance, or the performance of your dental software and have 30-minutes to spare, give us a quick call at 208-250-1432. We’ll provide a FREE network evaluation and share a brief synopsis of how Small Horse is different. Our approach will make your life easier on a set-in-stone budget. We don’t believe in marking up hardware or software; and we don’t believe in hourly charges. 

We understand if you’re skeptical. Here are a couple references that would be more than happy to share their before and after experiences.

Renaissance Dental
Brenda Stubblefield
(208) 939-3469

Renaissance Dental was looking to transition dental software packages and needed to upgrade their network infrastructure to meet the requirements of Dentrix.

Small Horse designed, reconfigured and secured the network. Identified, upgraded and/or replaced inadequate equipment including a new server and several workstations. Smoothly transitioned from Mogo to Dentrix. Ensured HIPAA compliance. Provide continual network support and upgrades. No hourly charges. No markup on hardware and/or software.

Francis Family Dental
Megan Patterson
(208) 922-1919

Francis Family Dental’s network had insufficient backups and was poorly configured causing slow downs, software performance issues and poor x-ray quality.

Small Horse designed, reconfigured and secured the network. Identified, upgraded and/or replaced inadequate equipment which restored speed and performance as well as the quality of x-rays in the operatories. Ensured HIPAA compliance. Updated Dentrix to its most recent version. Provide continual network support and upgrades. No hourly charges. No markup on hardware and/or software.

One reason is that most software you install has some component that starts when your computer does.  Most of the time it’s an unnecessary promotional item packaged with your software. 

For each piece of software installed with start up components, the slower your computer will start and function during normal use. 

Here’s a quick tip for Microsoft Windows users to easily and safely disable those unneeded components using a nifty utility called MSCONFIG.

Click the START button at the bottom left of your screen and select RUN.  Or if your into using shortcuts you can use the WINDOWS key usually located between your CTRL and ALT keys and then press the R BUTTON at the same time and it will open the RUN command for you. 

In the RUN command type MSCONFIG and press OK. 

This will open the SYSTEM CONFIGURATION window which has several tabs.  Click the STARTUP tab.

Under the STARTUP tab you will see a bunch of check boxes next to a startup program.  Simply UNCHECK the box next to the program you don’t want to start and you have successfully disabled that program from starting the next time. 

The nice thing about this utility is if unchecking one of the boxes has adverse results on your computer, simply open RUN, open the SYSTEM CONFIGURATION window, CHECK the box again, reboot and you’re good to go. 

Give this a try.  Disable all the unwanted software starting with your computer and get back the lost performance in your computer.

* When you create a new directory the computer takes a short break before creating it.

* When you browse for your favorite photos you notice it takes a few seconds for all of them to show up on your monitor.

* When you double click an icon on the desktop and it takes the computer several seconds to open your program or document.

* Your computer frequent crashes when it starts up.

* You experience slow performance with no other known problems.

Here are some tips to help reduce your risk of experiencing the headache of a crashed hard drive.

* Keep your hard drives as cool as possible.  Often the computer case (especially custom cases) have locations around the hard drives where cooling fans can be installed to help keep them cooler.  They are cheap and a great way to help support your hard drive.

* Hard drives have a usable life span of about 27,000 (3 Years) running hours.  Replacing your hard drive around this time frame will certainly reduce your exposure to failure. It’s cheaper and quicker to image your hard drive before it crashes then it is to attempt a recovery after the fact.  Don’t forget to replace your power supply at the same time.

* Do regular maintenance.  Running Windows Disk Defragmenter and Check Disk utilities fairly regularly will assist in keeping your hard drive running at its best.  These built in tools can be setup to run automatically using Windows Task Scheduler so you don’t have to remember to do it.  I recommend running both Windows utilities at least once a month.

Finding out if your computer doesn’t have enough memory is pretty easy, and free!

What we want to do is open up our trusty ol’ Task Manager. We can do this by using the Ctrl+Alt+Del keyboard combination and selecting the Task Manager button or by right clicking the task bar at the bottom of the screen and selecting the Task Manager option in the menu.

Select the Performance tab at the top.

We want to direct our attention to the stats at the bottom of the Performance tab, specifically the Commit Charge area and the Physical Memory area. Within the Commit Charge area we will find a number next to the Peak – or as us geeks call it, the Peak Commit Charge. What the Peak Commit Charge tells us is how much memory the computer has required to run all of our programs since the last reboot.

What we want to do is compare the Peak Commit Charge to the total Physical Memory installed. If the number to the right of Peak Commit Charge is bigger than the total Physical Memory, than we need to install more memory. If the Physical Memory number is greater than the Peak Commit Charge then we need to look elsewhere for the performance problems.

If memory looks to be a problem, the solution is simple: install more memory.  If you’re uncomfortable getting inside your computer, it’s probably a good idea to have a computer technician (like Small Horse) install the memory for you. If you’re up for a simple challenge you can install the memory yourself pretty quickly and easily.

With this tip about memory (one a good portion of computer technicians don’t know), you’re ready to survey your computer and network and get started on improving its performance.

Keep coming back to small-horse.com for more tips and tricks to keep your computers and network running at its best. Next week I will address the hard drive and Operating System and how they can impact your computers performance.

All internet browsers have “cache” that is stored on the hard drive.  This setting is meant to allow for quicker internet surfing.  The cache is typically set to some ridiculous size within the browser itself. When viruses are mistakenly downloaded from the internet (drive-by downloads) they get stored with the internet cache on your computer.  The larger the cache, the longer it takes for the files to get overwritten.

This is a fantastic spot for viruses to live for a long period of time – all the while reeking havoc on your system.  A quick, easy fix: change the cache size of your favorite browser to as small as it will allow, thereby ensuring all the files located there are overwritten frequently, including the viruses.

Here’s how:

Internet Explorer 8

NOTE:  This tutorial applies to Internet Explorer 8 but the process is pretty similar to the other versions of Internet Explorer as well.  If you are not currently on Internet Explorer 8 I would encourage you to upgrade.

Open Internet Explorer

* Navigate to the “Tools” Button located at the top right of Internet Explorer 8.

* Navigate down to the bottom and select “Internet Options”.

* In “Internet Options” window, find the “Browsing History” section.  Click “Settings.”

* Within the “Temporary Internet Files and History Settings” windows you will find 2 important areas.  The “Disk Space to Use (8-1024)” and the “History”.  I set my history to about 5 days but the history is your choice.  The important piece is the “Disk Space to Use”.  Set this number to 8, the lowest Internet Explorer 8 allows.

There you go!  Internet Explorer 8 is ready to surf the vast world of the Internet, only safer.

Mozilla Firefox

NOTE: Firefox is a different Internet browser with lots of fun features and add-ons.  I would recommend you give Firefox a try.

Open Firefox

* Navigate to the “Tools” button located at the top left of Firefox and select “Options” at the bottom of the menu.

* In the “Options” window you will find a series of tabs at the top.  The “Privacy” tab is what we want to modify for safe surfing.

* The highlighted areas on the right picture are the import areas we will focus on.  In the “History” select the number of days you’d like to keep around.  In the “Cookies” area, locate the “Accept third-party cookies” and in the “Keep until:” drop down box select “I close Firefox”.  Now, let’s take a peek at the “Private Data” section of the “Options” window.  Make sure to check the box that says “Always clear my private data when I close Firefox” and uncheck the box that says “Ask me before clearing private data”.  Select “Ok” to apply your changes and select “Ok” again to the “Options” window to apply all the changes we’ve made to Firefox.

There you go!  Firefox is ready to surf the vast world of the Internet, only safer!

1. Memory
2. Security Suites
3. Hard Drive / Operating System
4. Ancient Systems

As promised, we’ll dig a little deeper with the next few entries. Today I want to focus on the issue dearest to my heart – item number 2 – Internet Security Suites.

For my personal computer, NO internet security suite is a suitable solution!

Extreme?!? Here’s the reasoning…

These suites are designed to dig their little hooks into EVERYTHING: your operating system, hardware drivers (network cards, modems…), office suite and email packages to name a few.

Did you know that each manufacturer has to create special removal tools for their respective security software because Windows can’t completely remove it? That should be alarming to most.

One big issue is that very few consumers configure these software packages correctly and that causes major problems with system performance and functionality.  More complicated doesn’t mean you’re more secure!

So what’s the solution?

I want a good antivirus program, typically bundled with antispyware features.  Since 99% of viruses come from the internet, I want an antivirus program that will watch both internet surfing and my email messages.  It must have high detection rates of both “in the wild” viruses as well as cataloged viruses.

Here’s a site to help:  http://www.av-comparatives.org/.  These guys do extensive testing on many antivirus programs and recommend the programs that catch the most and perform the best.

My antivirus of choice is ESET’s Nod32.  Its dirt cheap and a fantastic antivirus program with built-in antispyware features.  It has great all around protection and is consistently rated in the top 4 or 5 with 3 stars.

First and foremost, let’s look at our system’s memory.  Not having enough system memory accounts for roughly 70% of the frustrating slowness complained about by consumers and they don’t even know it!  You should always triple the recommend amount.

Second, and personally the most irritating to me, would be ANY internet security suite.  You know the ones, recommended to you by teenagers at the big brand stores.  Security suites like Norton Internet Security or McAfee Total Protection and Kaspersky Internet Security.  These types of software packages are responsible for about a 20% hit in performance on our computers.  And get this; they aren’t all that helpful in protecting us from the bad guys.

Third would be the hard drive and operating system problems.  I’m talking about badly fragmented hard disks and Windows registries.  They cause about 5% of our performance headaches and are easily fixed for free!

Last, would be the age of your system.  New software isn’t written for ancient computers.  And I’ve got bad news for you, if your system’s older than 4 years IT’S ANCIENT!

Over the next couple of months, I’m going to touch on each of these issues and what changes you can make to keep your network running as efficiently as possible. Keep coming back to www.small-horse.com for weekly IT tips.