It’s true – we’re looking to grow our business and we’ve found that our best new clients almost always come from our best existing clients. So, for every client you refer to X-BAR that either signs a one-year support agreement or hires us to provide IT consulting or technology implementation services, we’ll send you $250 [...]

Microsoft has not officially announced pricing for Windows 7, but if you’ve purchased a desktop or laptop in the past 180 days, there’s still time to add Software Assurance for $109, which would entitle you to a free upgrade when it is released (compared to the anticipated $199 retail upgrade cost for Windows 7 Professional). [...]

Please join us on Thursday, August 20 to celebrate the completion of our 7th year in business. We’re working on the celebration details and plan to send them out next week.

This summer marks our 7th year of business!
We started way back in 2002 when there wasn’t even a ‘we’ in sight, subletting a desk from an interior design firm at the Northwest Work Lofts. The design company would close just nine months later, which provided a gentle nudge towards establishing our first office across the [...]

SonicWALL recently announced two new firewalls, the TZ 100 and TZ 200, based on their fifth-generation processing technology. These new devices dramatically increase the level of protection for small to medium-sized businesses.
The problem we had faced in recent years is that more economically priced firewalls weren’t keeping up with the increasing amount of bandwidth that [...]

Microsoft announced today that the next version of its desktop operating system, Windows 7, had been released to manufacturing. Windows 7 will be available to customers with volume licensing agreements on September 1, and to the general public starting on October 22.
We’ve been running a release candidate of Windows 7 in our office for several [...]

We use Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 and have several network drives that we map to various document libraries. While we can use the browser to navigate and retrieve documents, I find that using Explorer with mapped network drive letters is faster. It has also worked well for providing a seamless transition from our old [...]

You can use this form to download the PowerPoint slide deck from the How to effectively hire an IT company presentation I gave as part of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s Technology Thursday series, in partnership with Microsoft, on Thursday, April 16, 2009.

You can use this form to download the slide deck and project plan templates from  the 2-hour webinar, Project Management for the IT Services Company, I presented yesterday in partnership with ConnectWise, on Tuesday, April 7, 2009.
For those that were not able to attend, ConnectWise will be posting the video of the presentation next week [...]

Join X-BAR Founder, Brad Benner, and ConnectWise CEO, Arnie Bellini, on Tuesday, April 7th, at 1:00pm EST for a look at project management as a key ingredient in a successful IT services practice.
This 2-hour webinar for users of ConnectWise will cover:

What is a project and how is it different from providing day-to-day support?
The anatomy of [...]

Stop by our booth on Tuesday, May 12, 2009, 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm, at the Chamber’s annual tradeshow, an evening networking event where Chamber members provide detailed displays of their products and services. Learn more and register>>

Win more than $35,000 in products and services for your small business or organization!
Inspired by the popular show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Microsoft and Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce members have teamed up to present an Extreme Office Makeover!
One lucky small business or organization will win over $35,000 worth of products and services from: Microsoft, [...]

We’ve teamed up with Jessica Vreeswijk, founder of Terrabytes Consulting and GreenITTools.com, to bring you two 1-hour webinars on the importance of Green IT, how it can transform your organization’s sustainability practice, and how to conduct your own Green IT audit. May 7 & 14, 11:00am – 12:00pm.
Introduction to Green IT
Thursday, May 7, 2009, 11:00 [...]

Thursday, April 16, 2009, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
More than ever before, small businesses need their investments in technology to yield the rewards that are promised. The most important first step to making this happen is partnering with the right company, yet every day companies form sub-optimal partnerships that undermine the long-term success of their [...]

Part of our role as a trusted technology advisor is to look at the issues our clients are experiencing, identify common themes and trends, and create comprehensive approaches for dealing with these issues across our client base.
One of the more disruptive and time consuming issues we’ve identified over the past few months is spyware infections. [...]