Posts filed under ‘General’
IVDesk Announces Plans to Become Publicly Traded – Growing Demand Prompts Accelerated Growth Plan
MINNEAPOLIS, MN October 15, 2012
In response to increased demand for its IT solutions, IVDesk today announced plans to become a publicly traded company through its holding company, IVDesk Holdings Inc. The public registration statement is planned for early 2013.
“IVDesk started as a small business with an innovative solution focused on providing small and medium businesses access to IT equipment and services once reserved for Fortune 500 companies,” IVDesk CEO Bill Sorenson said. “We are launching this public process to allow us to accelerate our growth to meet increasing demand for our solution and allow others to benefit from our success. After perfecting our hosted services offering in the marketplace, we believe we offer a mature and trusted solution.”
The company holds its business assets in the Delaware holding company. IVDesk recently closed on the initial round of financing that will be used to expand the company’s sales, marketing and customer support resources.
IVDesk Holdings, Inc., the parent company, will continue to maintain its headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. IVDesk retains all of the executives and employees that have successfully built and matured the business. IVDesk’s investors include fund managers and business leaders supportive of the company’s growth plans.
“Our existing customers will see no change in our day-to-day operations or support,” IVDesk President and COO Jim Polakowski said. “These actions provide a major positive impact on our ability to grow while maintaining our commitment to uncommon customer service and support.”
About IVDesk
IVDesk provides small-to-mid-sized businesses with a secure, reliable and surprise-free way to run IT. The company provides a complete outsourced IT solution for customers. This includes hosting all of a customer’s desktop and application services, providing 24/7 helpdesk support, and providing complete backup and disaster recovery solutions. This increases customer data security, improves employee uptime, increases mobile accessibility and eliminates IT hassles and surprises, while reducing IT costs by up to 50 percent over in-house IT solutions. IVDesk was a pioneer in hosted IT outsourcing, and continues to lead the industry as more and more organizations move to a pay-for-use model for their IT services.
Andrea Jarvis
Media Relations
612-213-2787
Cloud Computing with IVDesk Solves Compliance Issues
Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) running their own local IT servers and services continue to struggle to meet compliance requirements. Audits are difficult, security complex, access to the offices requires more management, etc.
IVDesk is seeing a dramatic increase in RIAs moving to the hosted Cloud based solution. Run all the applications each RIA uses, secure access from anywhere there’s an Internet connection, 24×7 helpdesk, monthly fee per user, no capital costs.
Applications we’re currently running are: Axys Suite, ProTracker, Portfolio Center, Junxure, Schwab, Morningstar, Ebix CRM, etc. Includes Office 2010 with Outlook, files and folders, updates, etc. Remember that we run all of your applications, no matter what they are, in the Cloud.
Find out now about moving to the service that other RIAs have been flocking to. Get out of running IT and back to focusing on your customers.
Bill Sorenson – CEO
bsorenson@ivdesk.com
Why? It’s the ‘Insurance’ that We Provide
Like any other company, prospective IVDesk customers want to know what differentiates us from our competitors. One obvious difference is that while most of our competitors do not offer real and comprehensive cloud computing, IVDesk has been doing so for 10 years. We are the only company that will put all your applications in a fully redundant private corporate cloud environment.
Although ten years of experience with cloud computing is enough to impress most prospects, there is another subtle but very important difference (for cost savings and security). IVDesk provides ‘Insurance’ that on-site servers and ‘partly cloudy’ MSPs do not. Let us explain by what we mean by ‘insurance.’
1. IVDesk Data security systems and protocols are far more stringent than our customers could achieve with on-site servers. This includes encrypted remote access from laptops, not to mention eliminating the need for any company data on laptops.
2. The IVDesk environment is built to eliminate all normal risks associated with on-site server failure or local disasters. If you have a fire and/or water damages your offices and servers, you could rent a hotel conference room, turn on your laptops and be back in business with all necessary data. Immediately!
3. IVDesk customers will never experience a debilitating server failure. IVDesk has made an unusual investment to provide backup (redundant) server technology for failover protection within minutes. If your on-site or co-located server fails, your business could be down for hours or perhaps days and experience significant repair or replacement costs as well.
4. The IVDesk 24X7 help desk is available to all our customer’s employees. In your eyes, we don’t go on vacation, take sick days or charge you for after-hours calls. You don’t pay any extra to talk to our network experts.
5. If you are on IVDesk, opening a new office will be a simple matter of providing internet access, and adding new users to IVDesk. We can have your new location up and running in a matter of hours and without capital investment.
6. You will have predictable costs (monthly user fees) through the term of the contract. Once setup, you are assured that user fees will not change during the contract term.
As further evidence of what differentiates IVDesk, notice the cost savings chart. Our costs will be lower than outlays for new equipment, programming and support for internal systems. More importantly, the grey column components represent the ‘insurance’ (value-added benefits) described above. You won’t realize the redundancy, HIPAA or FINRA compliance with co-located or on-site servers.
There is an enormous difference with IVDesk. Would you drive a car without insurance? Why take a risk and rely on traditional hosted services. Come to IVDesk and get on the ‘cloud’ – with ‘insurance.’
APEX Awarded MHTA Teknē – IVDesk Key Supplier
Minnesota High Tech Association awarded APEX Print (www.apexprint.com) a Teknē award for Technology Services & Consulting last night at the 12th Annual Teknē Awards celebration. APEX edged out two other finalists and many more nominees in the “small-and-growing companies” category.
IVDesk was a key contributor to the myEasyView® and mySecureBill® solutions that were the core of the award and we’re honored to be included in attendance and recognition. APEX has been a great customer and partner in the development of, what has become, the industry leader in the statement-processing industry.
Please join us in congratulating APEX on their win! You can read the press release here.
Bill Sorenson
bsorenson@ivdesk.com
www.IVDesk.com
Moving Junxure to a New Mapped Drive or Location – Where are my Documents?!
Junxure is similar to other CRMs and applications that connect to external files. With Junxure, external files can be connected in 3 different areas. These files related to Documents, Emails, and Estate Documents. The files themselves live on mapped drives (P:\JunxureData\Junxure\CompanyFiles for example) but their location, is saved within the database itself.
So, if you ever need to move Junxure to another environment, another server, another mapped drive, etc., these files end up disconnected from the Junxure records themselves. So, calling Junxure Support should help, don’t you think??? Well, their answer for everyone is the same. Go into each contact with documents, delete the documents and then go find them and re-attach them. You’ve got to be kidding.
So, there is an answer and it’s very easy. You’ll need to go into the database and run some simple queries to find out how they’re saved now and then to change them. We had a few clients move to us just recently and needed to fix it. So, here’s the fix:
First, the old location was P:\Junxure\CompanyFiles\… and the new location is really S:\JunxureData\Junxure\CompanyFiles. So we need to find these files, verify that they are saved currently in the old location, do an update to the records to change them, and verify the change. Before you start, MAKE SURE YOU GET A GOOD FULL BACKUP OF THE DATABASE! This should always be the case, but, worth reminding all of us.
To find the records you can issue these commands where Client_Junxure is the database name:
SELECT [ClientActionDocumentID]
,[ClientActionID]
,[DocDesc]
,[FileName]
FROM [Client_Junxure].[dbo].[tblClientActionsDocuments]
WHERE LEFT(FileName,2)=’P:’
SELECT [EstateDocumentID]
,[ClientID]
,[Filename]
FROM [Client_Junxure].[dbo].[tblClientEstateDocuments]
WHERE LEFT(FileName,2)=’P:’
SELECT [EmailAttachID]
,[EmailID]
,[FileName]
FROM [Client_Junxure].[dbo].[tblClientActionsEmailAttachments]
WHERE LEFT(FileName,2)=’P:’
This will return the records and allow you to see that P: is the current drive. If you don’t know the current drive, just remove the WHERE clause.
Ok, next let’s fix it. The update commands are listed below to change the P:\ to S:\JunxureData for all the records:
UPDATE [Client_Junxure].[dbo].[tblClientActionsDocuments]
SET FileName=’S:\JunxureData’+ RIGHT(Filename, LEN(Filename)-2)
WHERE LEFT(FileName,2)=’P:’
UPDATE [Client_Junxure].[dbo].[tblClientActionsEmailAttachments]
SET FileName=’S:\JunxureData’+ RIGHT(Filename, LEN(Filename)-2)
WHERE LEFT(FileName,2)=’P:’
UPDATE [Client_Junxure].[dbo].[tblClientEstateDocuments]
SET FileName=’S:\JunxureData’+ RIGHT(Filename, LEN(Filename)-2)
WHERE LEFT(FileName,2)=’P:’
You can go back and run the initial SELECT queries to verify that everything has changed and all is good. Then, get into Junxure and start opening documents as well.
You would think that Junxure would have a fix for this or at least information on how to do the above, but, they don’t release that. Give this a try after you do the backup and good luck. As with anything like this, this is for information purposes only and any problems that you may cause are your responsibility.
Good Luck!
Bill Sorenson
CEO
www.IVDesk.com
Get Rid of Your VPNs! – Host All Your Applications with Cloud Computing
You may be one of those organizations with a number of different locations all connected with VPNs. Don’t get me wrong, VPNs are great and provide secure connectivity across public connections perfectly. Great solution for transmitting data from location to location. But companies use them to run applications across and that’s where the mistake is.
By using a VPN to connect to a central application or file location, you’re hand-cuffing the user with poor performance. So poor in fact that most remote locations where this occurs struggle every day. You have a centralized application, or many of them, that users across the country need access to and that’s they way the “industry” thinks it should happen. Not productive!
A VPN isn’t the answer, in fact, it allows the problem to exist. The answer is hosting that application in the cloud at either a data center or by utilizing a cloud service like IVDesk. By moving the application to IVDesk we can make it available to all locations and have the user experience as good as if they were right next to the servers. Imagine that all your applications run very fast from every location across the country. No more slow-downs, no more waiting, just connect, login, and go!
That’s how all our customers work and have been working for almost a decade! Connect from any Internet connection securely, run all your applications from within a virtual remote desktop, and work as if you were in the main office all the time. Even when you’re working at night from home or remotely from a hotel anywhere.
Get connected today and get more information about moving your applications to a centralized hosted location, IVDesk. Besides the obvious benefits, cost saving can be dramatic. Give us a call today to get a review started and see if there’s a fit for you.
Thanks,
Bill Sorenson
CEO
www.IVDesk.com
Big Business Cloud Benefits for Smaller Companies – A Cloud Technology Primer
We all know that, because of the internet, a two person company in Bangalore India can now compete for business with larger companies in Delhi, Europe and the US. ‘Logistics,’ provided by a popular shipping company can help a small business outwit a larger established company across the street. Now, with the advent of cloud computing, the advantages that large businesses have over smaller businesses continue to disappear.
Although cloud computing has been available for almost a decade, many smaller businesses are not aware that they too could reduce capital expenditures and eliminate internal IT functions, all while increasing employee and customer access to their applications on a secure hosted solution. Barriers to discovery of cloud computing for smaller businesses might be the distracted executives trying to limp along on dated server technology, perhaps an IT technician protecting their job, or simply a lack of an understanding about the technology that is available to businesses of any size. The following items are plain language descriptions of cloud technology and associated benefits available to every business.
Access from Anywhere on The Cloud – The ‘Cloud’ is named after the picture of a cloud that systems designers use to represent the internet. Any business can move their applications and files for Outlook, Office, QuickBooks, CRM and proprietary applications to servers hosted at a secure data center, and access them via the internet.
Familiar Desktops with Microsoft Server Applications – Your ‘cloud’ desktop will appear virtually the same as it does on your laptop or desktop. IVDesk uses the Microsoft Windows Server Platform, and Microsoft Terminal Services to provide remote access to company networks and Microsoft Exchange Server as the primary email system. The goal is to provide faster and totally secure access to your data in the same environment (desktop) you had on you local network.
Security and Availability at a Tier III Data Center – Most businesses don’t build their own buildings. Many people lease their cars or trucks. Why buy and maintain your own servers when it can be handled for you? IVDesk provides servers at a very secure data center that is available more than 99.95% of the time. These data centers have multiple power sources to ensure access and several levels of security to protect your company data.
Recovery with Hot and Cold Backup and Redundancy: What do you do when your local server crashes? Will you have immediate recovery? Cloud computing providers like IVDesk will configure your systems to ensure that if there is any hardware failure, a backup system (virtual server) is immediately available for recovery within minutes with no lost data.
Secure Internet Transmissions with Encryption – Your companies data is held and protected in the data center and your access to that environment is encrypted using current technologies. No data is moved to remote computers or crosses the Internet unless you want it to. Everything stays secure with only your keystrokes and screen changes crossing your encrypted connection. Needless to say, your data is safer staying in the data center then it is sitting on a server in your office closet.
Special Company Needs Via Virtual Private Networks (VPN) – Every company is different. There are very few applications that can’t be hosted on the cloud. VPNs are occasionally required for special printing or file transfer needs. They are an extension of the hosted servers to facilitate these unique tasks and included in the IVDesk service as needed. Once again, secure and hosted technology is available to help you improve productivity and efficiency while reducing costs.
In the long run, it is the technology that is eliminating the barriers to economical cloud computing solutions for smaller businesses. But the technology is only important to the technicians at providers like IVDesk. As an executive or user, all you want is for the applications and data to be available wherever you are and at any time. With cloud computing, this can be achieved with ease and you can dedicate your time running your business and not worrying about technology. On the cloud, it’s all taken care of for you.
Check out www.IVDesk.com and let us help you move to the cloud today!
Gerald Matykowski
Director of Sales
IVDesk
gmatykowski@ivdesk.com
Small Companies Benefit Most from Cloud Computing
Larger organizations have been taking advantage of the cost structures of “cloud computing” for over a decade by hosting key applications in data centers, optimizing server utilization, and running closely monitored services.
Small companies have not had access to much more then the “buy another server” option before hosted services became available. Today, small companies have great access to completely hosted solutions for all their applications and get dramatic benefits beyond just no capital investments in IT.
Small companies are now seeing:
1. Dramatic increase in redundancy of services compared to running things themselves.
2. Actual “Pay for Use” by user instead of buying equipment and licenses and being stuck with the payments or purchase.
3. Disaster Recovery in a manner that a company could lose access to their location completely and the computer systems would be available from any Internet connection.
4. 24 x 7 support for every employee built in to the service so no more concern with each call to the Helpdesk costs more money.
5. The ability to run all of a company’s applications in the cloud with access from everywhere.
6. Helpdesk staff that speaks user’s language and doesn’t talk down to your employees.
Get started looking at this today with IVDesk. We’ve been doing full cloud computing environments for 10 years specifically for companies less then 100 employees. Take advantage of all the benefits that larger companies have had access to and get our or running your own IT shop.
Bill Sorenson
CEO
www.IVDesk.com
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