1. Should you contract with Passkey or have your own internal IT department?
2. Will we help train someone at your office to do certain computer tasks?
3. Windows Vista Home or Business/Ultimate?
4. What should you look for in a firewall?
5. Should you use static IP addresses for your DSL or T1 internet connection?
6. Should you set up an Antivirus solution?
7. Does your office need to get workstations from your software vendor?
8. Does your office need a new server?
9. How long has Passkey worked with Financial Services companies?
10. What is our area of on-site service?
11. What certifications do we have?
12. Do we only work with businesses in the financial services area?
13. Is Passkey a Preferred Vendor with certain software manufacturers?
14. Do we do training in management system products like AMS or Applied?
15. Do we write programs or database applications?
16. Why do we tell you how to do things yourself?
17. Will we work in the evenings or on the weekends?

1. Should you contract with Passkey or have your own internal IT department?
The answer is: it depends. If — after you consider all the expenses — you can save money with an internal IT department, then by all means do that.  The expenses include salary ($40,000 to $80,000+ per year for each certified employee) plus ongoing training costs and benefits. Salary needs to be adjusted to account for payroll costs, vacation, sick time, et cetera.  In addition, you must provide phone and computer equipment and office space for those people.  Finally you should consider costs of employees leaving your company and the costs of rehiring and orientation.  All the above costs are included in our hourly rate and you don't have to worry about keeping us busy 40 hours per week every week.  Also, we have the benefit of having a large pool of experience with a number of companies similar to yours from which we can draw.  If you call us about a problem, there's a good chance that we have already seen that problem or one similar to it and can resolve it quickly.


2. Will we help train someone at your office to do certain computer tasks?
If you want us to, we certainly will!  This works very well and can save your agency time and money.  It helps to have someone at your office working as a CSR, receptionist, or bookkeeper who can answer basic automation questions and who can work with your vendor or with us over the phone.  Employees can get many of their questions answered soon by this person and only call on us for support when major problems exist or when doing more extensive setups and upgrades.  You will want to modify this person's job description to include this work with the normal tasks.  We can help get him or her ready by demonstrating procedures that can help prevent problems and giving suggestions on how to do basic troubleshooting before calling us.


3. Windows Vista Home or Business/Ultimate?
Windows Vista has  few more vulnerabilities that Business and Ultimate would not but that is not the biggest concern when implementing these machines into a business environment. There are a few tricks missing when it comes to the home edition that are very commonly used in our line of work, like remote access and domain PC.


4. What should you look for in a firewall?
Your router probably provides NAT (Network Address Translation) and the ability to be a DHCP Server and allocate IP addresses as users sign in.  Some firewalls may not give you any more protection than that, and thus are of no additional help to you. Advanced levels of security provided by other firewalls include Stateful Packet Inspection and application layer filtering. These capabilities involve looking inside the network traffic for signs of trouble. Another benefit of some firewalls is to prevent users from accessing certain web sites and to maintain a log of sites visited.


5. Should you use static IP addresses for your DSL or T1 internet connection?
Static IP addresses are publicly known on the Internet, meaning that they are more accessible to hackers on the web.  If you use static IP addresses, it is important for you to have some additional security in place involving NAT by your router. Even better, you may implament a firewall with additional security features.


6. Should you set up an Antivirus solution?
YES!  We have seen too many instances where a virus has disabled a key workstation or a company's entire network requiring extensive costs to remove from the system and certain files to be restored from backup tapes. Anti-Virus can be set up to automatically download updated virus definitions according to a schedule and do scheduled scans of your hard drive.  For networks small and large, we recommend a managed network solution such as Symantec Corporate Antivirus, which puts much of the protection under the control of your server and system administrator.


7. Does your office need to get workstations from your software vendor?
Generally these vendors allow offices to purchase workstations on their own.  We strongly suggest that you research the workstation requirements (even get a quote that you can use as a guide) and get a separate quote from Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc... matching it.  Using the recommended requirements instead of the minimum requirements will give you a better chance of using the workstation longer.  Pay particular attention to the processor (Intel Pentium 4 or Core 2 Duo instead of an AMD or Intel Celeron); also, be careful to get versions of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office that will work with your office's software solution.


8. Does your office need a new server?
Maybe. If your server does not meet the minimum requirements for your enterprise's software solution and it cannot be upgraded easily and cost effectively to more RAM or disk space, then yes, you should get a new server.  If you can meet the minimum requirements, then maybe the answer is no — since any time you can delay a computer purchase you will probably get more for less in the future. Something to consider, though, is whether getting a new server might improve your office's automation and make your users more efficient (more efficient = happier). This needs to be balanced with workstation upgrades because sometimes an upgrade to a workstation will help the end user more than a server upgrade.

9. How long has Passkey worked with Financial Services companies?
Since January, 1991. Some of our clients who use us for network support, cabling and custom database development and support have been with us since we incorporated in 1991.


10. What is our area of on-site service?
Currently we serve companies with offices in Minneapolis/St. Paul and the surrounding suburbs, but we do drive to their associated offices in other areas.


11. What certifications do we have?
Microsoft - MCSE Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer; Novell CNA; Symantec - SAVCE; and Hardware - CompTIA A+.


12. Do we only work with businesses in the financial services area?
Over 80% of our current clients are some form of financial services companies, but we do work with small businesses in other industry groups.


13. Is Passkey a Preferred Vendor with certain software manufacturers?
Although we work with many software products to date, the only proffered vendor relationship we have is with AMS Services, Inc. (an Insurance Agency Management system). Software products with which we are familiar include: Applied Systems, DOCStar, PaperWise, ProLaw, Amicus, Cobra, AutoCAD, Bid2Win, AGTEK and others.


14. Do we do training in management system products like AMS or Applied?
Not at this time; however, we have helped companies arrange for training from users from other companies in the past. We do training in various components of the Microsoft Office Suite.


15. Do we write programs or database applications?
Yes we do, and yes we have. We always encourage companies to review existing software for applications already written that may fulfill the requirements.  Purchasing an existing package may mean needing to scale back your requirements but it has the added advantage of sharing the development and support costs with many other users.  If no such product exists, we would be happy to discuss writing a package for you or writing a custom application with you.


16. Why do we tell you how to do things yourself when that means you may be able to do them without needing us?
Believe it or not, we get asked this from time to time. While showing you how to do things decreases work for us, we realize that your budget has limits — if you can do basic automation support within your company, that makes funds available for tasks that require someone with more experience. We are glad to do whatever our clients want, but we certainly want to help your dollars go further. The better your system runs for less money spent, the better we look as your support provider. We are prepared to train you in managing your own workstation preventative maintenance if you would like to do that.


17. Will we work in the evenings or on weekends?
Yes, if necessary or if it will help.  Evenings are the best time to do work that involves running cable, downing the server or other major network components.  Major upgrades to your agency management system are also best done when we don't need to move people away from their workstations during the workday.