<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[IT Direct - Articles]]></title><description><![CDATA[IT Direct - Articles]]></description><link>http://www.itdirect.com/</link><copyright>Copyright IT Direct</copyright><generator>sNews</generator><item><title><![CDATA[Value Pricing for IT Outsourcing]]></title><description><![CDATA[Value Pricing for IT Outsourcing  IT Direct charges a competitive per-minute rate or support plans. Clients can choose the right support plan to fit their needs. IT Direct does not add a surcharge for after-hours or emergency service, and does not charge for travel time&nbsp; if you are&nbsp; a&nbsp; client on the All-in-One support plan.    Key features and benefits of IT Direct&#39;s value pricing include:    &nbsp;    Full Comprehensive All-in-One Support Plans  IT Direct provides support plans that bundle your all of your office needs, without requiring to hire three or four companies to do the job. IT Direct can customize a support agreement that includes your telphone, internet, cabling, printers, computers, and CCTV equipment. By having IT Direct provide you an all-in-one support agreement you will have one point of contact for all your technology needs. We even provide replacement of hardware that may need to be replaced after the manufactures warranty. * speak to a representative for more details    Competitive By-the-Minute Rates  IT Direct charges competitive per-minute rates for access to seasoned support professionals. IT Direct&#39;s certified consultants are fast, efficient and experienced. By charging a competitive by-the-minute rate and solving problems quickly, IT Direct offers clients the best return-on-investment available South Florida for small business IT support.   &nbsp;    Simple Engagement Model or Retainers without Surcharges  IT Direct&#39;s simple by-the-minute engagement model requires no complex contracts, retainers or hidden charges. Many competitors have minimum charges or other extra fees that drive up support costs. For remote support, you pay only for the actual time spent working on your problem. If it only takes ten minutes to solve your problem, then you only pay for ten minutes. For regularly scheduled on-site service work booked more than 24 hours in advance, you pay only for the time when our expert is actually on-site solving your problems. No onsite charges, travel fees, or expenses. Just our competitive per-minute rate. For urgent same-day on-site service calls, you may have to pay for our consultant&#39;s travel time, but never an increased emergency rate.  &nbsp;    Low Overhead Through Leveraged Technology  IT Direct delivers services in the most efficient way possible in order to provide fast, low-cost solutions. By leveraging technology, IT Direct streamlines service delivery and minimizes administrative overhead. IT Direct&#39;s remote support and proactive monitoring drive support costs down dramatically by resolving problems quickly and avoiding catastrophic failures. IT Direct&#39;s sophisticated virtual office environment allows IT Direct&#39;s consultants to spend more time on fixing IT problems and less time on logistics. IT Direct&#39;s unique internal support database allows IT Direct&#39;s consultants to analyze and resolve problems quickly and to collaborate with colleagues to find best-of-breed solutions.   &nbsp;    Remote Support  IT Direct is a pioneer in providing secure remote support to business networks worldwide. When practiced correctly, remote support offers significant productivity enhancement and money savings by solving problems in a fraction of the time that would be required for an on-site service call. IT Direct&#39;s remote support experts know how to resolve problems quickly, and IT Direct&#39;s low-granularity pricing model for remote support protects clients from having to pay for services are never delivered.   &nbsp;    Proactive Monitoring  IT Direct is an experienced support firm in the use of Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), state-of-the-art software that proactively monitors key network servers to identify potential problems before they can disrupt your business. MOM automatically scans event logs from critical servers, then filters and analyzes these system events based on an extensive, continually updated support database. When MOM detects a problem, it executes special corrective scripts or generates alarms to notify designated service personnel. MOM also produces trend reports so you can track the health of your network. All of IT Direct&#39;s special IT outsourcing support packages utilize Microsoft Operations Manager to keep business networks up and running with minimal intervention by service personnel.]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.itdirect.com/home/value-pricing-for-it-outsourcing/</link><guid>http://www.itdirect.com/home/value-pricing-for-it-outsourcing/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Wireless Services]]></title><description><![CDATA[IT Direct&rsquo;s Wireless Consulting Services offer small businesses a fast, affordable way to select and integrate the latest wireless technology. Few small businesses have in-house IT staffs with the expertise or time to keep up to date on the fast-changing world of wireless products and services, and even fewer have the field experience to cut through the hype in order to identify and integrate optimal connectivity solutions.     IT Direct&rsquo;s extensive background both as an integrator and consumer of wireless technology makes it possible to offer expert consulting support for a broad range of wireless applications. Consulting services available from IT Direct cover a variety of wireless technologies including:     &nbsp;    &middot;&nbsp; Mobile Connectivity and Synchronization  IT Direct&rsquo;s wireless consulting specialists can help you integrate RIM BlackBerries, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and Smartphones into your IT network by offering expertise in network infrastructure, data synchronization, security, and mobile application development. Find out more about IT Direct&rsquo;s mobile connectivity and synchronization consulting.     &nbsp;    &middot;&nbsp; Wireless In-building Networks  If you are using 802.11 (WiFi) wireless networking to expand the reach of your office LAN, IT Direct can help you design a viable WiFi topology, recommend appropriate hardware and software components, and integrate access points, wireless LAN client adapters, bridges, antennas and accessories. IT Direct can also help you create a wireless security strategy that fits within the security plan for your entire business network. Find out more about IT Direct&rsquo;s wireless LAN consulting services.     &nbsp;    &middot;&nbsp; Building-to-Building Wireless Bridging  IT Direct offers expert wireless consulting to help you plan, implement and maintain point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wireless bridges that give you an inexpensive way to integrate multiple buildings into a seamless network.     For an example of IT Direct&rsquo;s consulting services for building-to-building wireless bridging,&nbsp; contact IT Direct&nbsp; to find out how.    ]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.itdirect.com/midsize-bussiness-it/wireless-services/</link><guid>http://www.itdirect.com/midsize-bussiness-it/wireless-services/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[One Laptop, One Child]]></title><description><![CDATA[  At IT Direct, we support the idea that every child no matter how poor should have access to technology. That is why we support the One Laptop One Child non-profit organization. We are truly in awe of how Mr. Negroponte and his team where able to create a laptop that will cost $100-150 dollars. It has Wifi and you can power it with a pedal if it runs out of power and you cannot recharge it.    Its ideas like these that can change and inspire children to learn. We have taken the liberty of including the frequently asked questions from their website laptop.org:            FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS    Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of One Laptop per Child, answers questions on the initiative.    What is the $100 Laptop, really?  The proposed $100 machine will be a Linux-based, with a dual-mode display-both a full-color, transmissive DVD mode, and a second display option that is black and white reflective and sunlight-readable at 3x the resolution. The laptop will have a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory; it will not have a hard disk, but it will have four USB ports. The laptops will have wireless broadband that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network; each laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc, local area network. The laptops will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data.    Why do children in developing nations need laptops?  Laptops are both a window and a tool: a window into the world and a tool with which to think. They are a wonderful way for all children to learn learning through independent interaction and exploration.    Why not a desktop computer, or-even better-a recycled desktop machine?  Desktops are cheaper, but mobility is important, especially with regard to taking the computer home at night. Kids in the developing world need the newest technology, especially really rugged hardware and innovative software. Recent work with schools in Maine has shown the huge value of using a laptop across all of one&#39;s studies, as well as for play. Bringing the laptop home engages the family. In one Cambodian village where we have been working, there is no electricity, thus the laptop is, among other things, the brightest light source in the home.    Finally, regarding recycled machines: if we estimate 100 million available used desktops, and each one requires only one hour of human attention to refurbish, reload, and handle, that is forty-five thousand work years. Thus, while we definitely encourage the recycling of used computers, it is not the solution for One Laptop per Child.    How is it possible to get the cost so low?  * First, by dramatically lowering the cost of the display. The first-generation machine will have a novel, dual-mode display that represents improvements to the LCD displays commonly found in inexpensive DVD players. These displays can be used in high-resolution black and white in bright sunlight-all at a cost of approximately $35.    * Second, we will get the fat out of the systems. Today&#39;s laptops have become obese. Two-thirds of their software is used to manage the other third, which mostly does the same functions nine different ways.    * Third, we will market the laptops in very large numbers (millions), directly to ministries of education, which can distribute them like textbooks.    Why is it important for each child to have a computer? What&#39;s wrong with community-access centers?  One does not think of community pencils-kids have their own. They are tools to think with, sufficiently inexpensive to be used for work and play, drawing, writing, and mathematics. A computer can be the same, but far more powerful. Furthermore, there are many reasons it is important for a child to own something-like a football, doll, or book-not the least of which being that these belongings will be well-maintained through love and care.    What about connectivity? Aren&#39;t telecommunications services expensive in the developing world?  When these machines pop out of the box, they will make a mesh network of their own, peer-to-peer. This is something initially developed at MIT and the Media Lab. We are also exploring ways to connect them to the backbone of the Internet at very low cost.    What can a $1000 laptop do that the $100 version can&#39;t?  Not much. The plan is for the $100 Laptop to do almost everything. What it will not do is store a massive amount of data.    How will these be marketed?  The laptops will be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. Initial discussions have been held with China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria, and Thailand. An additional, modest allocation of machines will be used to seed developer communities in a number of other countries. A commercial version of the machine will be explored in parallel.    When do you anticipate these laptops reaching the market? What do you see as the biggest hurdles?  Our preliminary schedule is to have units ready for shipment by the end of 2006 or early 2007. Manufacturing will begin when 5 to 10 million machines have been ordered and paid for in advance.    The biggest hurdle will be manufacturing 100 million of anything. This is not just a supply-chain problem, but also a design problem. The scale is daunting, but I find myself amazed at what some companies are proposing to us. It feels as though at least half the problems are being solved by mere resolve.    Who is the original design manufacturer (ODM) of the $100 laptop?  Quanta Computer Inc. of Taiwan has been chosen as the original design manufacturer (ODM) for the $100 laptop project. The decision was made after the board reviewed bids from several possible manufacturing companies.    Quanta Computer Inc. was founded in 1988 in Taiwan. With over US $10 billion in sales, Quanta is the world&#39;s largest manufacturer of laptop PCs; the company also manufactures mobile phones, LCD TVs, and servers and storage products. In addition, Quanta recently opened a new US $200 million R&amp;D center, Quanta R&amp;D Complex (QRDC), in Taiwan. The facility, which opened in Q3 of 2005, has 2.2 million square feet of floor space, and a capacity to house up to 7,000 engineers.    How will this initiative be structured?  The $100 laptop is being developed by One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a Delaware-based, non-profit organization created by faculty members from the MIT Media Lab to design, manufacture, and distribute laptops that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. OLPC is based on constructionist theories of learning pioneered by Seymour Papert and later Alan Kay, as well as the principles expressed in Nicholas Negroponte&#39;s book Being Digital. The founding corporate members are Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Brightstar, Google, Marvell, News Corporation, Nortel, and Red Hat.    Nicholas Negroponte is chairman of One Laptop per Child and Mary Lou Jepsen serves as chief technology officer. Other principals involved in developing the $100 Laptop are: Walter Bender, Michail Bletsas, Mark Foster, and Jim Gettys.    Fuse Project and Design Continuum have collaborated on the laptop design.     ]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.itdirect.com/it-for-all/one-laptop-one-child/</link><guid>http://www.itdirect.com/it-for-all/one-laptop-one-child/</guid></item></channel></rss>