Our CEO’s Idea of a Vacation

Susan Labandibar is on

vacation right now, but you

won’t find her at the beach. Instead, she’ll be in the

Borneo jungle.

That’s because Susan’s idea

of a vacation is to help save the orangutans and their

rain forest habitat as they

are threatened by

encroaching palm oil farms

and other environmentally

irresponsible practices.

Two years ago, Susan visited

Borneo for the first time.

There, she met Dr. Birute

Galdikas, the guardian angel of orangutans. Susan soon

became an active volunteer

and donor to help Dr.

Galdikas’s nonprofit,

Orangutan Foundation

International (OFI).

As part of her effort to help

OFI, Susan created the

Hutan Project here at Tech Networks of Boston.

Did you know TNB donates

20% of new revenue to save

crucial rain forest habitat?

This year, Susan’s tour is

even more ambitious. She’ll

continued inside

In this issue…

Help Desk on Demand

Our CEO saving orangutans

Get more donated software

Meet a Boston techie: Nick Ford

Preserving trees in South Boston

Just Make It Work: Introducing Help Desk on Demand

We’re pleased to make an important

announcement: we’ve reinvented our help desk

into a cutting-edge system we call Help Desk on Demand. It’s part of our commitment to

constantly innovate to bring you the highest-

quality service possible.

With Help Desk on Demand, you can tell

us the response time you need when you make your request for support. Whether you need

help in 15 minutes, 2 hours, 4 hours, or

8 hours, we’ll respond to your request in the

time frame you request. That’s right: if you

need an immediate response, an

experienced technician from TNB will

call you back within 15 minutes.

We’ll work with you when you’re available

to work with us. With Help Desk on Demand, we’re scheduling our responses to client

support needs so we’ll be there for you when

you need us. If you’re on your way to an

important meeting, we’ll be right there with

you. If you’re available to work with us tomorrow afternoon, we’ll schedule your

service call for when you’re free.

You’ll be updated on your problem while

work is being done, with the personal

experience of Help Desk on Demand. You’ll be talking to your support team in real time,

on your schedule.

Of course, Help Desk on Demand is

included for all our valued clients. It’s just

another way we’re improving our service for you. Our commitment to you is simply that

you will receive the support you need, when you

need it, every time you call. You’ll set the

expectations by telling us the response time

that you need for your situation and schedule.

And we’ll meet those expectations every time.

Everyone needs computer help from time to time. The next time you need support,

we’ll see you at our friendly, cutting-edge Help

Desk on Demand.

ISSUE

08 | AUGUST 2011

  Get Software Donations from TechSoup.org

Most of our nonprofit clients are

using TechSoup.org to get

commercial software at a very low cost. What could be a better

deal than that? If you haven’t

visited TechSoup.org in a while,

here are some of the products

available now:

Microsoft Office 2010

Standard or Professional

Plus—including the latest

versions of Word, Excel,

PowerPoint and Outlook, as

well as useful additional products like Access,

Publisher, OneNote, Lync,

InfoPath and SharePoint.

Intuit QuickBooks 2011

Norton AntiVirus 2011

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5

Design Premium

Microsoft Windows 7 Upgrade

Get Genuine!

If you have a copy of Microsoft

Windows that is not genuine,

Microsoft is offering nonprofits and libraries a one-time donation

of a full Windows 7 installation

(not an upgrade). You can place

only one request, for up to 50

licenses.

Find out more about these

low-cost upgrades at

TechSoup.org, or call us at

Tech Networks of Boston!

Good News! Improved Benefits from the Microsoft Software Donation Program This article is reprinted courtesy of

TechSoup.org. TechSoup connects nonprofits

with donated software. Visit TechSoup.org for

more information!

Beginning July 27, 2011, organizations

now have more flexibility regarding when

they can request Microsoft software

donations and in the product donations available.

How These Changes Benefit Your

Organization:

Request what you need, when

you need it: Organizations can now request Microsoft products as needed,

not just once per year. Also, there is no

longer a five-seat minimum requirement,

so an organization can request just one license if that is all it needs.

Get more complete solutions: Now you can request from up to 10

different Microsoft title groups in each 2-

year cycle, so you can build more

complete solutions that help you meet

your mission. And with Microsoft’s Get Genuine Windows offer, you can ensure

you’re running genuine versions of

Microsoft operating systems (see sidebar).

Easily see Microsoft details at a

glance: To help organizations manage their Microsoft donations, TechSoup has

created the Microsoft Donation Center

(accessible on TechSoup.org from the

Donation Request/History page under My Account), where nonprofits can get all the

pertinent details in one place.

Existing Microsoft cycles have

been reset: If you’re already partici-

pating in the Microsoft Software Donation Program through TechSoup, your cycle

has been reset! Your 2-year donation

cycle will start again when you place your

first Microsoft request after July 27, 2011,

and will reset every two years on the anniversary of that request. Requests

placed before July 27 will not count

against your new donation allotment.

With these improvements from

Microsoft and the new Microsoft Donation Center, now is an excellent

time for another visit to TechSoup!

  

Meet a Boston Techie Nick Ford, IT Consultant

Our CEO’s Idea of a Vacation

continued from cover

meet the founders of several

grassroots nonprofits, as well as

scientists from the Center for

International Forest Research in Jakarta. She’ll help them rescue

endangered animals, and publicize

the plight of the orangutan amid

rain forest destruction.

Susan will finish her trip at the Orangutan Care Center and

Quarantine in Borneo, in the

happy company of the Center’s

long-term volunteers and

intelligent, hairy residents.

Susan will be back in the U.S. on

August 31, insha’Allah. (That

means “God willing” in Arabic.)

Susan won’t be doing much

eating during the day, either: this month is Ramadan.

Help Susan’s Friends Save the Orangutans!

Orangutan Foundation Inter-national needs to raise $640,000 to save crucial orangutan habitat in the Rawa Kuno Legacy Forest. Your help is vital. Please visit

http://bit.ly/rawakuno

right now and Adopt Acres! It only costs $100 per acre to save this precious old-growth forest. 

Working Together to Save South Boston’s Trees TNB staffer Jennifer Brundage spends

her mornings working with Southie

Trees and Action for Boston

Community Development (ABCD)

to advocate for the preservation of trees

throughout South Boston. Jen helps the youth workers at ABCD to compare

architectural drawings with trees present,

taking scientific measurements and

entering them into a database.

Jen has produced an up-to-date inventory of all trees in the Old Colony

housing community, which is now being

redeveloped. Advocates will use this tree

inventory to educate the community and

the Boston Housing Authority about the importance of preserving them.

Urban Trees in Perspective: Can you guess where the photo

above was taken? Hint: it’s within a

few blocks of Andrew Square. E-mail

jennifer.brundage@techboston.com

with your guess!

Nick Ford is one of our highly experienced IT

Consultants, specializing in

servers as well as desktop

systems, and providing a

full range of computer

support to end users.

What’s a typical day

for Nick? He makes the

rounds to organizations

like Boston Day and

Evening Academy, United South End Settlements,

and Community Servings.

During a client visit,

Nick will check all IT

equipment to ensure server, network, and

workstation health. He’ll

also work with client staff

members when they need

deskside support.

Nick brings serious

experience to our clients,

along with his friendly smile and helping hand.

As a member of Network

Services at the Museum of

Fine Arts, he ran a

complex multi-server

system supporting over 800 users.

Nick has served three

tours in Iraq and

Afghanistan as an Assault Team Member with the

U.S. Army Rangers,

where he earned many

commendations including

a Purple Heart.

 

Retail Specials!

The retail store Tech Computers of

Boston offers specials to all TNB

clients and their employees. Visit the

store at 574 Dorchester Ave. to get

these great benefits!

15% off all labor for repairs

Virus removal, $136

(regular $160)

Operating system restore,

$127.50 (regular $150)

Diagnostic, $42.50

(regular $50)

One-hour tune-up, $68

(regular $80)

Refurbished desktop computers

from $150 to $350; refurbished

Dell 630 laptops, $325. Products

all come with a 180-day warranty.

Tech Networks of Boston partners with businesses and nonprofits to create and maintain sustainable, efficient and environmentally friendly IT operations.

574 dorchester avenue south boston, ma 02127

Services:

Benefits for Nonprofits:

Cloud service packages tailored to your needs Computer network setup and maintenance Hardware selection, service, and warranties Help Desk on Demand and emergency support Planning, budgeting and strategy for the long term

Features in our monthly Boston Charity Events newsletter Listing on giving.techboston.com if requested Special referral incentives