Radical Support -- E-Newsletter

March 2010
In this issue

■ Message from the COO
■ Computer Usage Policy
■ Smile - You're on the Phone
■ Recover Excel Workbook
■ Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff

Derek Alldredge

Derek Alldredge is one Radical Support employee that most people have never seen. That's because Derek works remotely as a Tier 2 resource on our help desk. He uses his seven years of experience in IT to get our customers' problems fixed and running properly.

This Savannah native specializes in operating systems and hardware for desktops and server. He is also proficient in Windows 98 through Windows 7, Exchange and firewalls. Before joining Radical Support in January 2008, Derek worked as a network administrator for a credit union.

In his spare time, Derek enjoys spending time with his three children, playing baseball, shooting hoops and hiking. Derek has a passion for cooking and grilling. His specialty is fajitas.

What would Derek do if he won the lottery? After paying off debts and investing for the future, Derek would enjoy a relaxing trip throughout Europe.

Sandwich every bit of criticism between two thick layers of praise.

- Mary Kay Ash

Message from the COO

First Quarter Updates

Well, like most of you (I presume), I have had just about enough of the cold weather and I am ready for spring. There are lots of exciting things going on here at Radical Support helping to heat things up.

For starters, we want to reach out and give a great big welcome to the clients formerly serviced by APT. We are excited to have many of their clients sign up with us for new services. Welcome!

Radical Support is now up to 34 team members. That sure is a long way from 3 or 4 guys working from their bedrooms! (Okay - sorry for the bad visual.) You may also have noticed that we made the Inc. 5000 list this year. We have you, our clients, and all of our staff to thank for our success. Thank you!

In other news (no pun intended), we were featured in the Birmingham Business Journal with one of our clients last month. We also have some radio work we are doing and soon, we hope to be providing technical tips to the listening audience.

I hope everything has started off great for you and your business this year. If we can do anything better to serve you, drop us a line and let us know.

John Mamon
Chief Operations Officer
jmamon@radicalsupport.com
770-542-0042

Acceptable Computer Usage Policy
-Eric Reynolds
Wood Networks, Senior Technician

Whether presented as part of the company handbook, or as a standalone document, an Acceptable Computer Usage Policy is a must in today's workplace. Having a good policy in place will clearly communicate to the staff what is acceptable and what is not. The main reason behind Acceptable Computer Usage Policy is to protect computer investments and company data. Here is a look at what should be contained in an Acceptable Computer Usage Policy.

Smile - You're on the Phone
Used with permission of Joel H. Weldon & Associates, Inc.
http://www.SuccessComesInCans.com

Forget the research evidence, the dozens of pages of documentation and the years of prodding by communications consultants. Do your own survey right now. Pick up your telephone and call ten companies or businesses in your area that provide some sort of customer service, such as banks, brokerage firms, business equipment or insurance companies. Ask to speak to "a manager." If you get through, explain that you called to evaluate their telephone techniques. Then give the manager a brief report, hang up, and record your findings.

Chances are your research will prove that the most common errors you encounter in telephone answering are among the "dirty dozen." Here they are:

3 Ways to Recover a Corrupted Excel Workbook
reprinted with permission from the HP Small Business Center

It's your worst Excel nightmare: a damaged or corrupted workbook. This can happen for a variety of reasons -- and the good news is that there is a variety of ways to retrieve your damaged file.

If a file is corrupted, Excel should normally perform an automated recovery. However, if that doesn't work, there are a few other options you can try.

1. Recover or repair the file manually with Excel
The steps for manually recovering a workbook are quite simple.

1. Select "Open" from the File menu. In Excel 2007, click the Office button and select "Open".
2. Using the Look In control, locate and specify the corrupted workbook.
3. From the Open button's dropdown list, choose "Open and Repair".
4. If this is your first attempt to manually recover the workbook, click "Repair" in the dialogue box that appears.

Just for Laughs

Radical Support
585 Colonial Park Dr., Suite 201, Roswell, GA 30075 * 770.542.0000
sales@radicalsupport.com * www.radicalsupport.com