Share what you know with millions of people

Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content

×

Tony Elam

Follow Following Unfollow

IT/IS Manager, Patterson Companies

43 points

10 years in various capacities of IT. Areas range from over the phone support, strategic planning and project management. Size of companies range from small/medium regionally based businesses to larger national businesses. All past experiences have lead to me ...

10 years in various capacities of IT. Areas range from over the phone support, strategic planning and project management. Size of companies range from small/medium regionally based businesses to larger national businesses. All past experiences have lead to me to pursue leadership and management positions inside of the IT industry.

Affiliations include but not limited to: Effingham Mentoring Program, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Effingham, One Hope United Family and Children's services, Christina's Smile.

» read more » read less

WEB: Patterson Co.

June 28, 2011

Tony Elam and 2 other people answered this question

How important is it ask yourself "What can I afford to spend versus what do I need to spend?"

Mark,
This is a great question and is sure an answer that you will get a lot of traffic on it as it could apply to any area. Marketing, IT, Staffing, etc.
I have an IT background, so I will answer from that perspective.
Normally ... more

Fiscally Responsible

Personal Wealth

June 10, 2011

Tony Elam is now following Sean Rivers

June 10, 2011

Tony Elam and 4 other people answered this question

How can you avoid disrupting your business operations when migrating to VoIP?

Sean did a very good job recapping what is needed. I would stress number 8.
During our implemantation we had a testing period where actual users perform a plan that they helped create.
My team runs the telephone solution for our call center and it was ... more

Information Technology

May 27, 2011

Tony Elam and 6 other people answered this question

Encryption & security have major business implications. Who should make these decisions?

Working for companies in all sizes, from multi-billion dollar companies to one with a couple of million dollars in revenue, it varies greatly.
Larger companies can justify the shared service of a security team and should fall in line with the statements of John above, who ... more

Information Technology

April 16, 2011

Tony Elam and 12 other people answered this question

How are you spending your tax refund...business or personal use?

I agree with some of the posts up top. We try to get as close to no refund as possible. But, what little we do get back goes into personal savings.
Paying taxes is necessary for the government to provide the services the private sector ... more

April 11, 2011

Tony Elam recommends this answer by Geoff Devine

Are there any disadvantages to VoIP?

Your telephone service is only as good as the network you are using. For the most part, the legacy public telephone network is very reliable. It was designed in monopoly times where no expense was spared. The least reliable part has always been the last ... more

Information Technology

Equipment Redundancy

April 11, 2011

Tony Elam and 4 other people answered this question

How frequently should companies back up their virtual servers?

Brielle,
There are two different ways to answer your question. I am taking this question as you want to back up the virtual clients on the host server or cluster and not the host servers them selves. Either way I would recommend the same back ... more

Information Technology

April 6, 2011

Tony Elam and 2 other people answered this question

Do you use SharePoint 2010 for your document management needs? How does it compare to other systems?

Lauren,
We currently use it for document management and personally like it. The great thing about SharePoint is that you can do whatever you want with it. The bad thing about SharePoint is that you can do whatever you want with it.
So, I would caution ... more

Information Technology

Document Management

April 4, 2011

Tony Elam asked a question

What solutions do you use for Wake on LAN technology and how did you deploy it?

Information Technology

Desktop Administration

Feb. 15, 2011

Tony Elam is now following

Feb. 15, 2011

Tony Elam is now following

Feb. 15, 2011

Tony Elam and 6 other people answered this question

What questions should I be asking my employees about their telecom needs?

Jhnathan,
Both Kathy and Alan have great points that should be taken into consideration. One thing that I would add is to spend some time and visit another business that is in the area and see how they use their phone system. You can often ... more

Information Technology

Small Buisiness

Nov. 10, 2010

Tony Elam and 1 other person answered this question

Real-time IT asset management: "business-critical" or just "nice to have?"

Michael,
Asset management is becoming more and more of a must have for companies. My team managers over 600 computer in 4 different locations and without our asset management, rudementry as it is, we would not be able to plan for future hardware deployements, proactive ... more

Information Technology

Aug. 5, 2010

Tony Elam and 8 other people answered this question

How often should I be backing up my servers?

Dan,
My impression is that you do not know for sure if your vendor partner is backing up to data on these servers they are hosing for you in their 'cloud'. Most vendors for the services you mentioned offer a backup service as back of ... more

Managed Hosting

June 29, 2010

Tony Elam and 3 other people answered this question

What call recording software do you prefer?

Jay,
My company has implemented a call recording service from Witness who was purchased by Verint just prior to our implementation. We had some difficulties installing the solution, but I chalk that up to the transition difficulties the company went through. Since then we have ... more

Information Technology

May 10, 2010

Tony Elam asked a question

Internal Incident Management for Call Centers

Information Technology

Contact Centers

April 22, 2010

Karen Roberts selected a best answer for

san vs nas: What's the difference?

san vs nas: What’s the difference between SAN (Storage Area Network) and NAS (Network Attached Storage) systems? For my small healthcare office, is one type of system better than another? Any recommendations would be helpful. more

Information Technology

Network Attached Storage

Servers and Storage

Storage Area Network

April 21, 2010

Tony Elam and 4 other people answered this question

Have you created a business continuity plan?

Lindsey,
Working on it now, will let you know in a few months how it has come along.
Are you looking for assistance in yours, or is it general market research?
Thanks more

Information Technology

Continuity Plan

Feb. 16, 2010

Tony Elam and 1 other person answered this question

What are best practices for data center management?

Adam,
There are many items that we need to implement from a process and procedures standpoint that will help your datacenter run smoothly. Some of the things we do internally to help eliminate downtime:
- Document and adhered to a policy for change management. Any ... more

General Management

Information Technology

Feb. 2, 2010

Tony Elam asked a question

How to handle software compliance

Information Technology

Following 4 Topics

General Management

Information Technology

Unified Communications

Following 1 Person

Followed by 7 People

Knowledgeable in 6 Topics

Information Technology

#655 of 2263

Servers and Storage

#54 of 157

#6 of 24

#16 of 27

#69 of 104

#372 of 749