417-863-1700

Worried About IT Outsourcing Costs?

JMARK will manage technology to increase your efficiency & profitability - giving you a competitive advantage.

IT Business Support that Increases Productivity

JMARK will streamline IT operations to enhance your employee performance, & heighten customer satisfaction.

We’re the Technology Experts, So You Don’t Have to Be

JMARK IT support services allow you to stay focused on your business & improve your bottom line.

When You Need IT Support, You Don’t Have Time to Wait

We provide around-the-clock monitoring & support services to improve your network health.

We’ll Keep Your Computer Network Safe and Secure

We prevent downtime, reduce your risk, & create peace of mind with JMARK’s powerful security solutions.

Eliminate Your Risk With A Free Comprehensive Network Assessment & Be Entered to Win an iPad!

DONT DELETE

JMARK Eliminates Technology Pain & Helps You Achieve Positive Business Outcomes


JMARK - Our People Make The Difference


Our Customer Focused Support

The JMARK Comprehensive IT Services & IT Support Solution

JMARK provides IT outsourcing solutions that really work to reduce complexity of IT for your organization. By properly managing technology specifically to match your business goals our strategy improves your organization's efficiency and profitability.

You need business IT support that increases productivity. We believe that technology should help you generate profit instead of burdening you with cost. By streamlining your IT operations we help you enhance employee performance and heighten customer satisfaction.

We're the technology experts, so you don't have to be. Our IT support services allow you to stay focused on your business and improve your bottom line. We provide round-the-clock monitoring and support services to improve network performance. We keep your data safe and secure which prevents downtime, reduces your business risk, and affords you peace of mind.

Our philosophy and culture build a roadmap for success.

Business profitability, personal customer service, and absolute accountability for every action are at the heart of the JMARK culture. It shows in everything we do, and our clients frequently comment that we've helped them improve their organizations as a result of their partnership with JMARK.

JMARK is selective in both the people we hire and the companies with whom we partner. Most of our employees have over 5 years experience in the industry and have delivered solutions for multiple companies.

We believe in a complete solution to every problem every time, and making absolutely certain our clients' businesses are better as a result of their strategic partnership with JMARK. If you're ready to see a change in the way IT serves your business success, you've come to the right place.

WELCOME
to the JMARK BLOG.

We pride ourselves on exploring IT and Technology topics that matter to you and your business success.

Tech Tip: Ninite and Adobe Flash

Posted by John Gable on Tue, May 14, 2013 @ 10:00 AM

There is a great website called www.ninite.com that techs and home users alike use to install tools like Google Chrome, iTunes, Java, and Free Anti-Virus tools like Microsoft Security Essentials.  It is a one stop shop for freeware programs.  The best part is that it installs these programs with just a few clicks — without the toolbars, adware, spyware, and other unnecessary additions that often accompany free software.  Another great feature is that if you already have these programs it updates them to the most current levels with just a few clicks.  I personally have used this site countless times over the last two years, and sing its praises every chance I can get.

Click Here to read entire article…

Four Ways IT Support Companies Drive Us Crazy

Posted by Darren Taff on Fri, Mar 29, 2013 @ 08:15 AM

Poor communication

It’s like those days when you wait, and wait… and wait for the TV repair person to show up.  You planned your day so you could be there at the right time and have people anxiously awaiting your return to the office.  And there you sit, alone, waiting.  We won’t get into the importance of being there on time, but really — how hard would it be for someone, anyone at the company to call and let you know they’re running behind?  Why is it that so many tech support companies will just leave us on the hook while they work their magic behind the scenes?  We don’t always care about the details, but a simple call or email once in a while to let us know how things are going?

Getting things almost done

You’ve taken care of all the paperwork and 5-minute meetings that had stacked up waiting for your attention.  Just in the nick of time the tech wraps up and you are once again able to get back to work — with one exception: you can do everything except that one really critical thing you never knew would break when they fixed the other stuff.  You take a deep breath, go to your happy place, and pick up the phone… again.

Sneaky ninja tech support

You step away from your desk for an hour and come back to a post-it note stuck to your monitor stating everything is fine now.  Huh? “Oh yeah,” you think to yourself, “I think I remember mentioning something about a problem a couple of weeks ago.”  And then you discover that all of your programs have been closed, your previously opened documents strewn to the far reaches of who-knows-where, and you can’t put your finger on exactly how, but things look… different now.  What did we need fixed again?

Over-geeking things

You’ve just been presented with a brilliantly-designed and intricate solution to all of the problems that have ever wasted ten seconds of your time, wrapped up in a nice neat package that took just over three weeks to put together. Can you say overkill?  Surprisingly, tons of IT support companies don’t get this, and spend days or weeks designing solutions we never knew would be so complicated.  If someone would have simply picked up the phone to let us know how things were going, we might have been able to stop the train before it left the proverbial station and saved everyone a lot of time and trouble.  That sounds a lot like the first item on the list.

Here’s wishing you a day free of IT-related insanity.

Which Tablet Best Supports My Business Needs?

Posted by Darren Taff on Fri, Mar 15, 2013 @ 09:58 AM

Windows vs iPad vs Android for Business

Tablets have certainly been around for long enough for everyone to have become at least somewhat familiar with them, but with all the options available you may be wondering how to go about finding the right one for you.  Which device is least likely to frustrate you or get left on the shelf six weeks after you buy it?  We think we have a few ideas to help answer that question.

Click Here to read entire article…

Microsoft Decides to Allow Transfers of Office 2013 After All

Posted by Darren Taff on Wed, Mar 6, 2013 @ 06:38 PM

Nevermind-shutterstock_1715235-resized-600

Last week we told you about a licensing policy that had would-be Microsoft Office 2013 customers in an uproar.  Under that policy, customers would have been unable to move Office 2013 to a new computer as was possible in previous versions of Office.

The policy was considered by some to be a hard push toward Office 365′s software-as-a-service licensing model.  This week, the company seems to have reversed the policy, as has been posted to the Office Blog.  The only major stipulation now seems to be that these transfers may only occur once every 90 days per installation key.

Does Microsoft’s policy change affect your plans to install Office 2013?  We’d like to know.  Drop a comment on this article, or look us up on Facebook or Twitter.

As we said in the previous article on this topic: If upgrades are in your future, we encourage you to lean on your dedicated NetCare support team for help making the best decision for your business.

Internet Safety Update

Posted by Thomas Douglas on Mon, Mar 4, 2013 @ 07:28 AM

Even the most prominent websites can be compromised and can create issues for unsuspecting users. On February 21st, WeLiveSecurity reported that NBC.com was compromised in such a way that some anti-virus software solutions were blocking users from accessing the NBC.com site. If users were allowed to go to the site, their computers could have been infected and compromised.

This is an everyday example of how important it is that every computer have the proper protection in place. The unfortunate reality is that one solution isn’t good enough for businesses to rely on for complete protection. While it’s true that some A/V packages did block users from accessing NBC.com, many did not.

Click Here to read entire article…

The Microsoft Office Feature More Annoying Than Clippy the Paperclip

Posted by Darren Taff on Tue, Feb 26, 2013 @ 08:41 PM

update: we have released an update to this article since Microsoft has revised their policy on activations of Office 2013.

clippy

Bloggers and consumers are roaring about the licensing model Microsoft has introduced with Office 2013. After reading the releases, blogs, and following link after link on Microsoft’s website, it’s no wonder.  While we aren’t asking anyone to like the new rules, we do want everyone to be aware of them in hopes we spare some of you some headaches and grief.

Click Here to read entire article…

Your New PC Might Not Work with Your Email Server

Posted by Darren Taff on Tue, Feb 19, 2013 @ 07:26 AM

We’ve been learning and — mostly — enjoying Microsoft Office 2013 around the JMARK offices.  There are some great new features, but we’ve also noticed there are a few surprises we thought you’d like to know about before they became problems.  Here are some of the big ones:

One major problem our email experts have noticed is that Exchange 2003 is not supported in Outlook 2013.  Go here for a list of the dated features they’ve left behind in the new version.  If your email server is running Exchange 2003 you may want to look at updating it before moving to the new Office version.

New PCs will come with Office 2013, not Office 2010.

New PCs with Office 2013 cannot be downgraded to Office 2010 (see next bullet).

An available — although very expensive — version of Office 2013 that allows you to downgrade to Office 2010 is available.  Let us know if you need it and we can help.

But here’s what you can do in the new version of Office.

Office can store files in SkyDrive and Office 365 online storage.

outlook

Microsoft has improved integration with Facebook and LinkedIn.

Like every version of Outlook, power users will love the new features. Here’s a quick start guide. Here’s a quick-start guide for Outlook 2013

Excel has some interesting and useful new features, such as flash fill.

Office 2013 has much better multi-monitor support.  It is now much simpler to run Excel and other Office applications on separate monitors.  Comparing documents is much easier now than it was with version 2010.

PowerPoint adds a nice dashboard mode when presenting.  With features like showing you the next slide or bullet point, and how long you’ve been on the current slide, this is very helpful if you do a lot of presenting.

powerpoint

One tool you may not have been using will be more prevalent as the Surface and other touch-enabled devices become mainstream.  Microsoft OneNote is used heavily in the JMARK offices to keep track of and share notes between colleagues.  Here’s a video demonstrating how it works on a tablet. The video is a bit dated (from before the Windows 8 release) but you’ll get the idea of where Microsoft is headed with touch support in the future.

All told, Microsoft Office 2013 is a great product, and has been beneficial in our environment at JMARK.  Our technicians are up to speed on the new features and changes.  If you need to make sure your office is ready for Office, your account manager and support team can help.

JMARK Experts Take a Look at Macs

Posted by Logan Roberts on Thu, Dec 20, 2012 @ 07:28 AM

Apple, Inc. may have dropped Computer from its name, but the Cupertino, CA company still produces a world class product that many people overlook. With only 8.5% of worldwide market share, the Mac is technically Apple’s underdog product. Many people are quick to discount the Mac as a professional business machine, but here are a few reasons you may want to give it a second look.

Software and Hardware: Made for each other

Every Mac is designed from the ground up to take advantage of all of the features of Mac OS X, Apple’s operating system. Likewise, OS X is built to leverage all of the technology built in to each Mac. Features like Power Nap allow you to stay up to date with all of your email, calendar events, software updates, and instant messages all while the computer is technically asleep. Multi-touch gestures are built in to OS X to allow for a new way of interacting with your content. Built-in sensors allow for extreme battery life, many times in excess of 10 hours!

Because OS X is designed specifically for the Mac, there are none of the dreaded driver issues that many PC owners experience right out of the box. Next generation I/O like Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 are standard on most Macs, allowing for the fastest data transfer available. Additionally, with the Retina MacBook Pro, Apple has produced the absolute best displays available to consumers. OS X was designed with these features in mind.

World’s Most Advanced Operating System?

Apple advertises Mac OS X as “The World’s Most Advanced Operating System”. Is it even possible to make this claim? Windows 8 has just been released; Linux versions are in a constant state of updating and advancement; What exactly makes OS X so special? As it turns out, several things. Mac OS X includes several features not seen in competing products. First, Mac OS X is built on a UNIX foundation. This a time tested, and industry recognized standard of stability and compatibility. In addition, application sandboxing protects your data and software from malicious software. Full disk encryption with FileVault meets and exceeds industry standards.

Built-in software like FaceTime and Messages allow you to communicate instantly with millions of people worldwide, all without installing a single piece of extra software. Adding a printer is painless because OS X automatically detects and installs the correct software. PDF creation and editing is built-in with Preview, and Exchange support is built into Mail without the need to purchase third party software.

Macs Don’t Do Real Work …Right?

One of the largest misconceptions about Macs is that they do not work in a real business environment. People believe they Macs won’t work with existing printers, scanners, or even other computers. This cannot be further from the truth. Most printers will work without any intervention, just plug-in and go. Built-in scanning software bests many third party options in both features and quality. Macs can authenticate to Windows desktops for file sharing, and can even be associated with Active Directory for user management. Additionally, Exchange support is built-in without any additional purchases. Macs can open Word and Excel documents without any document conversion, and can share them as well. If your business requires a specific app that only runs on Windows, you can install Boot Camp and run Windows directly on the Mac or use a solution like VMware Fusion that allows Windows apps to run side-by-side next to OS X.

Wrap-up

It was with these reasons in mind that I took a leap and changed my primary computer from a Windows 7 laptop to a brand new MacBook Pro. I am one of the only users at my office to do so, and I have no major issues to report. I run my Windows-only apps in VMware Fusion, right alongside my email in Mail, web in Safari, and documents in Pages and Numbers. I regularly share documents with Windows-based coworkers, and have no issues. In fact, I have noticed an increase in productivity, and a decrease in my time spent fighting my computer to preform as expected.

It may not be the dominant force in the industry, but the Mac deserves a second, or even a first look. I encourage everyone to at least give one a test drive and see how it can enhance their workflow and increase productivity. You may be pleasantly surprised.

About the Author

Logan Roberts joined JMARK on April 23, 2012.  He previously worked for a health care solution focused MSP in Southern Florida for two and a half years.  The five years prior, Logan was a Mac Genius/Business Consultant for Apple, Inc. and also earned his BA in Theology/History. His certifications include ACMT, ACSA, CompTIA A+.

JMARK’s Favorite Windows 8 Features

Posted by Thomas Douglas on Wed, Nov 28, 2012 @ 09:13 AM

In the JMARK NOC our technicians have been testing Windows 8 and reading everything we can find so we can support it when it comes to your network. One article we found especially interesting was one written by InfoWorld’s J. Peter Bruzzese. It covers several intriguing features about Windows 8. We have highlighted a few below.

The charms barWin8Start resized 600

The charms bar is basically a shortcuts bar that exists on the right side of the screen in Windows 8. An example of a shortcut available to users is that by clicking “settings” then clicking “power” they can put their computer to sleep. The charms bar has several settings for searching, switching to the Windows 7 desktop, if you liked that better, and for sharing.

Retrieving lost files

Loosing a file is the worst. Luckily, Windows 8 has a couple ways for you to protect your documents. You can recover lost files or different versions of the same file. If you are familiar with OS X’s Time Machine utility, the feature in Windows 8 works much the same way.

Windows on the go

Here’s a particularly nifty feature: With the Enterprise Edition of Windows 8, users can put their entire Windows environment on a USB drive and then take it with them. They’re able to then pull it up on any PC that is compatible with Windows 7 or 8.

Spotlight: Three New System Administrators

Posted by Stacie Brown on Tue, May 1, 2012 @ 08:02 AM

The JMARK Team added three new System Administrators in the last half of April 2012.  We would like to welcome Ryan Popp, Logan Roberts and Zack Rosa to our team.

Ryan Popp started his career at JMARK on April 16, 2012.  He has past experience in system administration in an MSP environment and working with Sonicwall solutions.  His certifications include MCP, MCTS, A+ and CCSA.

Logan Roberts joined JMARK on April 23, 2012.  He previously worked for a health care solution focused MSP in Southern Florida for two and a half years.  The five years prior, Logan was a Mac Genius/Business Consultant for Apple, Inc. and also earned his BA in Theology/History. His certifications include ACMT, ACSA, CompTIA A+.

Zack Rosa began working at JMARK on April 30, 2012.  Before joining JMARK, he was a level 1 help desk technician for Heartland Services, spent five years on the Geek Squad and repaired laptops/desktops for Apple Inc.