by Holli Keyser

How would you like to work with a hero every day? That’s exactly what company Anchor Network Solutions (www.anchornetworksolutions.com) did when it hired the first CU Denver Boots to Suits student participant Tyler Heath.

Heath spent four years in the Army including a 20-month tour in Iraq as part of the infantry in the 82nd airborne division. In 2008, Heath began pursuing a degree in information systems at the University of Colorado-Denver and will graduate this spring.

In the course of background checks on Heath, Anchor Solutions CEO Vince Tinnirello searched his name online and saw the Boots to Suits 9News story featuring Heath and his mentor Rich Lewis, president and CEO of RTL Networks.

“Anyone with that kind of initiative; I’m going to invest in them and we’re going to do whatever we can to make them successful,” said Tinnirello. “I find military veterans are such easy hires because of their discipline.”

Earlier this year, University of Colorado-Denver veteran student Michael Petschel, along with veteran student services director Cameron Cook and vice chancellor Leanna Clark, approached the Denver Metro Chamber with an idea to help student veterans secure jobs. A few short months later, the concept became a reality and is making an impact in the lives of veteran students.

Boots to Suits is a comprehensive program designed to help veterans shift from their roles as service members to students, and from there, to business professionals and leaders in the community.

Thanks to the post-9/11 GI Bill and the withdrawal of troops overseas, veterans more than ever are seeking post-secondary education, and the U.S. Depart of Veteran Affairs expects the veteran student population to triple by Fall 2014.

That’s where the Boots to Suits program comes into play with four primary components:

• Mentor a Hero – The Chamber has assisted in matching 33 business leaders to mentor senior veteran students and is currently seeking more business professionals to become involved.
• Offer an Internship – Employers can recruit veteran students to work on special projects or assist in daily tasks.
• Hire a Veteran – In addition to the benefit of working alongside a highly trained and well-educated worker, there are new tax credits available to businesses who hire veterans. The Returning Heroes Tax Credit offers businesses that hire unemployed veterans up to $5,600 per veteran, and the Wounded Warriors Tax Credit offers businesses that hire veterans with service-connected disabilities with a maximum credit of $9,600 per veteran.
• Suit Up a Veteran – Many student veterans went directly from high school into the military and lack the professional business attire to wear to job interviews. As a result, the Suit Up a Veteran fund was established to help graduating seniors purchase a suit. For just $500, employers can give a veteran student a business suit as well as give back to someone who has given so much for our country.

**********

For more information on CU Denver Boots to Suits contact Holli Keyser at 303-620-8022 holli.keyser@denverchamber.org or visit www.ucdenver.edu/bootstosuits.

**********

Holli Keyser is executive assistant to Chamber President and CEO Kelly Brough.

If there is one single thing that makes Anchor Network Solutions great, it’s the amazing team of employees we have. Everyone on the team is instrumental to the company’s success and we want to take time to recognize them and help you get to know them better. So let’s kick off this month by sharing more about Jacee Dobbs, our Help Desk Manager.

Jacee reports to Vince Tinnirello, Anchor’s Chief Executive Officer and he had this to say about Jacee: Jacee was Anchor’s first employee. She started with us in 2002 fresh out of college, having no real experience in business. It truly has been a pleasure and honor to work with her, and it’s been fun to watch her business acumen grow over the years. Earning her Masters degree has been very helpful to her in understanding the needs of small businesses. Jacee is Anchor’s “Chess Master” as I like to call her. As our Help Desk Manager, her role has evolved from actually handling service requests to managing the entire Service Desk team. She is responsible for seeing what tickets we have out there, what the priorities are, and then moving the pieces around the chess board to ensure our customers needs are met. She does a great job and customers love her. We’re very lucky to have her!

Want to know more about Jacee? Read on!

Q. Is there a specific project or projects that you have worked on recently that you are most proud of?
JD: Not a true technology project but the overall changes we’ve made in the last year with our help desk have been challenging and rewarding. I love the new role I am in with Anchor and the ability to create and maintain a help desk that exceeds the expectations of our customers and peers.

Q. Specific clients that you have enjoyed working with?
JD: Each client has their own feel but there are several that Anchor has been able to forge a close relationship with which makes all the difference when dealing with people and issues. Having a level of trust where the client understands we have their best interests at heart and while we’re not perfect Anchor will always make things right is a wonderful place to be as a company. We have reached this with several clients and they are a joy to work with on a daily basis.

Q. What do you feel is your “power move” within the company?
JD: Overall, my ability to manage several things at once and see the big picture. Scheduling four technicians while balancing customer expectations and demands can be difficult but a huge part of running our help desk!

Q. What are your hobbies?
JD: I love crafts and reading. With summer coming, I am excited to start our garden and planting. Our second child is due in July however so my free time is slowly coming to an abrupt end!

Q. What car do you drive?
JD: Dodge Journey

Q. What is the last movie you saw?
JD: Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Q. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
JD: Table Rock Lake in Missouri. My family vacations there almost each summer and the lake is beautiful and peaceful. Great for skiing and boating!

Q. Any animals living at home?
JD: Nope.

Q. If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?
JD: Julia Roberts

Q. What have you not done that you really want to do?
JD: Travel more! I’ve been able to go to some great places including China while getting my Master’s degree but there is so much more I want to see and do. Raising our family is my focus now but I still dream of having the freedom to take one major trip each year. Egypt is high on that list!

Q. What is the last book you read?
JD: I just finished The Lucky One by Nicolas Sparks and am currently reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni.

Q. Favorite sports team and/or athlete?
JD: I don’t really have one. I went to college on sports and academic scholarships so I love to PLAY sports…just not watch.

Q. Anything else we should know about you?
JD: I grew up on a family farm in western Kansas and am excited to be back living close to my roots. My husband, Logan, is also from the same small town in Kansas and we’ve known each other for years…were high school sweethearts in fact! Logan, Adalynn (our 20 mo. old daughter), and I made the jump back home just over a year ago and are enjoying the change and slower pace of life. Ultimately we want to be back in the country with some land and have our eyes open for the opportunity. Growing up on a farm instills a lot in a child and something Logan and I want for our family as well. Speaking of family, ours will be growing by one this July as we are expecting our second child – a boy! I know going from one child to two is going to be a big change in our household but a journey we are excited to start. Any advice you can give for having a 2 year old and newborn is welcomed!

Thank you Jacee, for all your hard work managing the Help Desk team. We are very happy to have you as part of the Anchor family.

Each month Anchor Network Solutions will spotlight one of their many unique clients that look to us to manage their IT needs.

We will highlight best business practices, the challenges they face and why their relationship with Anchor is crucial in the running of their day-to-day business. We then give each client an opportunity to ask Anchor a question. It may be technical, personal or out in left field.

Read on to find out more!

First Up: Castle Pines and Castle Rock Orthodontics.

Located at 363 Village Square Lane, Suite 155, Castle Pines, CO 80108, and 718 Maleta Lane, Suite 201, Castle Rock, CO 80108, Castle Pines and Castle Rock Orthodontics goal is to create beautiful smiles, while helping our patients realize the benefits of increased self-confidence and an improved quality of life. We understand the concerns of each individual patient and strive to anticipate their needs. From start to finish, patients are taken care of like family.

We thank Andrew J. Dunbar, DDS, MS, PC, for his responses to the following questions:

Q. What brought you to your current role with Castle Pine Orthodontics?

Dr. D: I started my career as a general dentist in the US Navy in 1991. After 9 years of active duty, I decided to pursue my passion for Orthodontics and went back to school to become an Orthodontist. I have practiced Orthodontics in Castle Pines for 10 years and in Castle Rock for the past 4 years.

Q. What are some of the daily business challenges you face?

Dr. D: Orthodontics is a dental specialty that requires a great deal of visual data. We take photos and x-rays on all new patients and then use that information to develop custom orthodontic treatment plans. Our computers are a huge benefit to us for scheduling patients, managing insurance claims and the progression thru orthodontic treatment.

Q. As a leading provider of Orthodontics in CO, what makes Castle Pines and Castle Rock Orthodontics stand out from the rest of the competition?

Dr. D: The excellent care and customer service that we provide to our patients.

Q. What’s an ideal client for Castle Pines Orthodontics?

Dr D. Ideal patients are children, adolescents and adults who want to improve their smile while creating a long-term, stabile result; their bite.

Q. What do you do when you aren’t working?

Dr D: I love to golf whenever I can, and I also enjoy spending time with my family.

Now it’s your turn to ask Anchor a question:

Dr D: I am curious about the PC vs. Mac. Do Macs have virus issues? Which is better for my network?

VT: There was a time when we didn’t see many viruses on Macs, and opinions vary as to why. As we see Macs become more prevalent, we are also seeing more virus and malware attacks on these systems. In our opinion, it’s a numbers game. If you are a hacker, are you going to write viruses and malware programs for the type of systems most businesses use (Windows) or for the minority product (Mac)? So the answer is both Windows and Macs can get viruses, but we see more written to attack Windows computers as that is where the most deployments are. We expect this to change as we see more people using Macs.

While compatibility is getting better, Mac and Windows networks historically don’t play well together. We’ve typically seen Macs be used in graphic design environments where they really shine. Now we’re seeing traditional businesses integrate them here and there and expect that trend to continue. In fact, Anchor has just purchased a Mac so we can get trained up on them and support our clients. The key to determining if Macs are right for your business are 1) learning curve 2) will your business software run on a Mac and 3) budget, as Macs are more expensive. For example, Dolphin Imaging can only run on a Mac that emulates a Windows environment. To get it to work, you might as well just use a Windows pc and save yourself time, headache, and money! So the answer is for Castle Pines and Castle Rock Orthodontics, Windows is the right platform for your business.

Q. Castle Pines Orthodontics has been a client of Anchor Network for approximately 8 years. Why is the relationship with Anchor crucial in the running of your day-to-day business?

Dr D: It is imperative that we have our network operational or we cannot operate!

To learn more about how Dr. Dunbar and Castle Pines Orthodontics can help you, please contact

303.688.3837 or visit, Castlepinesortho.com or Castlerockortho.com

We welcome your feedback on our services. Simply click the “Write a Review” button on our Google Places page.

For every client that does a Recommendation for us, Anchor will send you a FREE Starbucks gift card!

Having the right kind of email system in place can do wonders for increasing productivity, especially for people on the go. It’s important to note the distinctions and feature differences of the email systems available to you, so you can be sure that what you’re using is the most efficient and cost-effective solution.

Whether you work from an office or are productive while on the go, email most likely plays a big factor in the way you go about your business. Unbeknownst to many, some types of email systems have certain limitations that by extension can also limit the level of productivity of your business, and especially for people in the organization who must also work while out in the field.

One major issue for many people is synchronicity. Many people need their emails to be accessible on their mobile phones, PDAs, or other mobile devices, and they need them to be properly synchronized with their desktop workstations. The need to constantly update conversations and email threads from mobile devices to desktops with certain types of email can prove to be tedious and unproductive– and some email system types don’t include this ability at all.

Depending on the way you use your email, especially when on the go, having full access and full control of your account can define how productive you and others in your organization can be. Besides providing a much better degree of synchronization and integration with mobile devices, certain types of email systems also have features for sharing and collaboration features that allow you to set schedules and share files from your mailbox, as well as central storage for emails that allows you to access your account seamlessly with any mobile device, regardless of where you are located.

Of course, having a full-featured email system might not be best for everyone. The key is to know whether adapting a more bare-bones system is cost-effective for your business (especially in the long run). Sometimes the top of the line may be needed, and sometimes all you need is a bit of tweaking on your less fully featured system. Not sure which is best? Call us and we’ll be glad to sit down with you and assess what kind of email system is best suited for you and your business.

The proliferation of websites and social media tools is making the job of monitoring what’s being said about you online increasingly difficult to do. But you need to somehow make sense of the sea of information available in these online tools, because depending on what’s being said—it can have either a helpful or a damaging effect on your reputation or your business. Here are some tools to help you.

Besides your own eyes and ears, there are plenty of tools—for free or for a price—available to help you monitor your presence online. The simplest of these is your familiar search engines such as Google or Bing. By simply searching online, you can find where your name or your company’s name appears in various websites. With Google in particular, you can set up “alerts” which will email you when a specific word or term appears in their website index.

What words or terms should you use? Start with your name, or your company name, then try the name of your products and/or services, and maybe even the names of your employees, directors, and other stakeholders. It might also be helpful to search for the competition as well. As results come in you can refine your search by expanding or narrowing the scope of terms you would like to search or be alerted on. If you want to be able to search across all different search engines and not just one or two, you can use Monitor This.

Next you can use specialized website or social media monitoring tools to search only specific sites or services as opposed to the entire Internet. One example is Greplin, which allows you to search all of your accounts or accounts that you own. This is very helpful to be able to execute highly filtered searches on specific information in your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn accounts, or your blog. Another option is Rollyo, which allows you to set up your own specialized search engines that cull content from public or open websites of your choosing.

Other more generalized tools include RSS feed readers—which allow you to consume news or information feeds from news sites or blogs. Examples include Newsgator.com, Bloglines.com, Google Reader or Pluck.com. Other generalized tools include those that monitor specific newsgroups or message boards like BoardReader.com, ForumFind.com, Big-Boards.com, BoardTracker.com, iVillage, Yahoo Message Boards, and MSN Money. Still others track changes to content of specific sites (Copernic Tracker, Website Watcher and WatchThatPage.com), as well as their domain information (DomainTools.com and BetterWhois.com).

The really interesting new services actually give you an explicit idea of the status of your reputation—especially if you are a relatively well known name or your business has an established brand. In this category are sites like Amplicate, which monitors general feelings or impressions about brands, businesses, or services; Klout, which tries to measure the influence of individuals based on their social interactions; and SendLove.to, which focuses on celebrities and media personalities.

There are literally dozens more tools you can use to monitor and manage your reputation online. To find out more, a great resource is here at the Duct Tape Marketing blog. If you have any additional suggestions, feel free to let us know!

Interested in setting up your company’s email in the cloud? Here are two options to consider—one from Microsoft, the other from Google. See how they compare.

Google Apps
Google Apps is a service from Google that started in 2006, with the introduction of Gmail—a hosted email service, and which later incorporated other apps such as Google Calendar, Groups, Talk, Docs and Sites. Google Apps allow customers an independently customizable version of these Google products under their own domain name. The entry level option is free, but the package offered for Businesses is a paid service with an annual fee per user and additional storage space.

1. Storage. Gmail, Google Apps’ email service starts with a sizable 7GB of free storage. Business users get 25GB. Bear in mind however that this storage space is shared with any data you have in other Google properties such as Picasa Web Album and Google Docs. Extra space can be bought however starting with USD $5 per year for an extra 20GB of storage. E-mail attachment sizes are limited to 25MB.
2. Calendaring and Task Management. Gmail can be integrated with the overall excellent Google Calendar application. Google Calendar allows you to easily share personal calendars with colleagues, or create shared calendars used by groups of people (such as a calendar to track meeting room reservations, marketing events and others). Google Calendar also offers a built-in, but somewhat underpowered task management tool. Tasks can readily be added with due dates, but not readily shared or cannot be nested or linked with other tasks.
3. Spam filtering, security and reliability. Gmail’s spam filtering features a community-driven system. Email tagged as spam by users help identifies similar messages as Spam for all other Gmail users. Generally the system works well, although some have complained that it can get over aggressive in its filters. In terms of security and reliability—Gmail has been criticized in the past with showing ads in its free Gmail service that display based on key words in the user’s messages—potentially violating their privacy. Its paid service offers however the option of disable these ads. Reliability is generally good with very few, but widely publicized disruptions in service.
4. Usability. Gmail offers a host of unique usability enhancements that make it different from most other mail services. For one for a web app it loads really fast, as Google has been known to studiously optimize web page loading performance for their products. Another is that it offers a threaded view of messages by default. It also uses a starring/labeling system to tag and segregate messages instead of using folders. Another interesting enhancement done recently is the ability to sort messages by “importance” where it learns based on your usage over time what email messages it thinks you think are important.
5. Mobile access. Gmail offers a version optimized for mobile devices, as well as support for a variety of devices for their native mail applications such as iOS and Android.

Overall Gmail is a solid mature choice if you are thinking of moving email to the cloud and are not afraid of being on the bleeding edge of cloud services and technology.

Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft Office 365, like Google Apps, offers a host of applications such as online versions of productivity tools which we all already know and use such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Most however work best when they are used in conjunction with your desktop-installed Office applications. Focusing on email, Office 365 offers a Hosted Exchange service, which transforms the mature, business-proven on-premise application to an on-demand service. Compared to Google Apps, it is quite new—being introduced only last June this year, although its suite of products in an alternate form has been around for much earlier.

1. Storage. Microsoft’s Hosted Exchange email service gives users 25GB of storage. Attachment file sizes are limited to 35MB. Additional storage can be purchased for $2.5 per GB per user per month.
2. Calendaring and Task Management. Exchange integrates a mature feature set for personal productivity including calendaring, resource management, and task management. As an example tasks can be grouped, color coded and easily sorted. Emails can be converted as tasks and so on.
3. Spam filtering, security and reliability. This is an area where perhaps Microsoft easily outshines Google with Exchange’s roots as an enterprise-class application. It offers spam protection, antivirus and others via Microsoft’s Forefore Online Protection for Exchange technology. It offers other features such as more full features user management, identity access management, mail archiving, etc. If you are in a highly regulated industry like financial services or healthcare these features may be essential for your business.
4. Usability. While the web apps of Office 365 is not as fast loading or as slick as Google, it does offer familiarity. Modeled after their desktop brethren, or directly integrating with them—they offer a smoother migration experience for users specially if they have been weaned on Outlook.
5. Mobile access. Like Gmail Microsoft made sure to support a variety of devices on launch, as well as integration with a variety of devices—specially enterprise stalwarts like Blackberry mobile phones.

Overall Office 365 is a solid choice if you are thinking of moving email to the cloud but may be hesitant with changing the apps your users already know and use. Also if you are a business with strict policies related to security and compliance—this service may be something your auditors and IT people may be more comfortable with.

Interested in learning more? Can’t decide which to try? Let us know and find out how we can help get you the right balance between your existing IT systems and infrastructure and the cloud.

It’s the dilemma of many smaller businesses lacking the budget for advertising that many of their bigger competitors have to be able to establish a better presence in a specific market. However, the rise of the use of social networks now allows these smaller firms to reach thousands to millions of people – at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising and marketing.

One of the most difficult challenges smaller businesses face is having a bigger presence in the market. While many of these companies offer good, quality services at much more affordable rates, they are many times overshadowed by larger firms that have bigger budgets to spend on marketing, advertising, and the like.

Things have changed, though, with the advent of social networking. What was once a simple, social, get-to-know-each-other tool between people on the internet has now evolved into a tool that small businesses can take advantage of in order to get their voices heard.

The gist of social networking for business is the simple concept of reaching potentially millions of people at a mere fraction of what is normally spent on advertising and traditional marketing. The wide reach of social media allows businesses to find their voices and showcase what they can do. The playing field then moves from an unfair balance of advertising budgets to a battle of service quality and value for money, as it should be – and many smaller firms can compete effectively in this arena.

There are many ways to tap into the social networking phenomenon to boost your online presence and aid in your marketing. If you are interested in knowing more about this, please contact us and we’ll be glad to assist you in developing strategies that fit your specific requirements and needs.

While it is the concern of every business to be as cost-effective as possible, it is not a good idea to skimp on your investment in a proper and solid security system for your business data and information. For instance, cost-cutting on your router/firewall might seem like a good idea at the start, but in the long term, it’s a risk you cannot afford to take.

In business, protecting important information and data is paramount. This is why it is recommended for any sort of business to invest in a security system that will prevent any cyber-attacks that might be launched against you.

Unfortunately, though, it’s lost on many that a security system is not just made up of one single thing – software, better staff, better hardware, et cetera. A good and solid security system is composed of several factors working together to create a virtual chain that envelops your business and keeps it safe.

And one of the most underestimated links in this chain is the router/firewall. Many businesses are content using the most basic and cheapest option available on the market, without realizing that their security chain is only as strong as its weakest link. And if you make do with a cheap router/firewall, odds are you’ll get what you pay for – not much.

While basic routers might work fine for homes or individual users, it is a much different scenario when it comes to business operations where basic just doesn’t cut it. Plus, there’s more at stake with business data, so why take the risk with cheap routers that lack the proper security features?

With viruses, malware, and the cyber thieves behind them continuing to grow and evolve, it is important that you understand what it takes to protect your system and your data – and invest in the best solution. Remember that it can take only one incident, one infiltration, to bring your whole business down.

We realize that every system is different and every business has its own specific needs, so if you want to know more about getting the right router/firewall for you, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

For many people, smartphones have become essential tools in conducting not only personal communications, but also for business purposes as well. However, the rise in smartphone use has also increased the number of models released into the market, which can confuse would-be buyers. A few pointers are in order to help put things into perspective.

For many people these days, smartphones have become more of a necessity than a luxury. Being able to stay in touch through constant access to the internet and the thousands of mobile smartphone applications available has made smartphones an indispensable tool.

But with the boom in smartphone use, there also comes a conundrum for many: Which smartphone should I get? With so many choices out there, it’s becoming difficult and confusing to pick the right one. Here are a few quick and simple tips that you might find useful when canvassing the market:

1. Know what you want.
What do you need a smartphone for? Each handset has its own strengths and weaknesses. There are smartphones that integrate email and web browsing and put more focus on multimedia such as audio and video – while there are other no-frills, no-nonsense models that trim features down to those that are the most basic and essential.

2. Consider your carrier.
Carriers are important because there are some smartphones that are only available with certain carriers, or carriers that limit certain features of a particular smartphone. You do have the option of getting an unlocked phone (meaning the device does not come with carrier requirements), but this has its own set of pros and cons that you have to weigh as well.

3. Get a feel for your choices.
Nothing beats actual experience, so visit local stores to get the physical feel of each phone. Is the keypad big (or small) enough for you? Is the device too thick or too thin? Do you like the user interface or is it too complicated for you? These are just some of the questions that you can answer once you get an idea of how it actually feels to use them yourself.

4. User feedback is important.
Talk not only to sales people but also to other people you know. Your friends and acquaintances have actual experience with various smartphones, so ask them what concerns and issues they have with their particular models.

If you have additional inquiries about how you can better use your smartphone for your business, please give us a call and we’ll be happy to assist you.