In the spirit of the holidays, Emerge would like to thank each of its customers, vendors, and employees for another outstanding year. We attribute our continued growth and success to you. Emerge has continued to create jobs in our local community as a result of your willingness to partner with us. In the past year we moved our corporate headquarters to accommodate for our growth in people as well as additional service offerings. Additionally, Emerge realized several market recognitions for success including awards for winning the Business Courier's Fast 55, NKY Chambers Emerging 30, and the Business Courier's Best Places to Work in Cincinnati. These are all results of your continued partnership with Emerge, together we are having a great impact. We look forward to the opportunity to serve you in the future years to come!

And as always, please do not hesitate to contact us for any issue you may face in the upcoming months, as you know we will always be available to assist you. We give you much "thanks."

Sincerely,
Darron Scanlon, Richard Brown, Tim Witte and Jesse Kegley
Emerge Managing Partners

The vision of Emerge IT Solutions, LLC is to build a company where teamwork, pride and integrity are all a priority in our everyday workmanship. Emerge wants to be a company that our clients WANT to work with, rather than need, thus building respect and pride around our daily work environment. Emerge assists our customers to reach their highest business objectives in order to strengthen our trusted partnership. Emerge is not just another vendor, but we have a vested interest in the success of our customers and their organizations.

At the Emerge roundtable sessions, our group will discuss today's most concerning business and technology topics to provide a look at the needs and wishes of today's executives. This program provides a place to network with peers, learn about new technologies, ways to trim budgets, discover new solutions, and get advice from other technology experts.

Yes, as you've doubtless heard umpteen times, even the smallest business is vulnerable to a PC or network security breach. But you can find some peace of mind simply by taking some preventive measures. Better yet, by taking action before an incident occurs.

IT consultants believe that the most effective data security policies are those that treat security not just as an IT problem but as an underlying business process. What good are firewalls, for example, if you don't have a way for trusted business partners to access your network from a remote location? How effective is a software patch management service if telecommuting employees who are rarely in the office aren't encouraged (or forced) to update?

Step one for any security strategy means getting your entire organization involved in the discussion. If you're an IT type, find yourself a champion who has line-of-business responsibilities; someone who understands your company's customers. If you know very little about technology but want to protect your company's most precious intellectual property assets, find someone who can approach the problem both tactically and strategically.

"You can't just put locks on the windows," says Rory Sanchez, president of SLPowers, a security consulting services provider in West Palm Beach, Fla. "You need locks on the doors, bars around the windows, a dog in the yard. And, just in case, you need a shotgun by the bed."

Five questions to guide your security soul-searching

Before his company even thinks about recommending specific products, it focuses on understanding potential customers' business concerns, says Ralph Figueiredo, director of sales and business development for Aurora Enterprises, a data security consultant in Torrance, Calif., says.

Here are five questions that Figueiredo requires his sales team to ask business prospects. They may help to provide a logical framework for your own security soul-searching.

1. Who are your customers and business partners?

For Figueiredo, this question serves two main purposes. First, it helps him understand which data is most critical. For a services company like Aurora Enterprises, customer records are its most valuable assets. A manufacturing organization, however, might be more concerned about safeguarding certain pieces of intellectual property or product information.

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Want to Know "Your Team?"
by Gina M Susana, Emerge IT Solutions, LLC
 

We asked SARAH BUNT seven questions in order for you to get to know her better!

Q: Tell us a little bit about your family?
A: I am the proud mother of 2 children, Allison age 22 and Chad age 19.

Q: Tell us a little bit about your career?
A: I have been in Inside Sales/Marketing for about 20 years in varying industries but have been in the IT Industry for 5 years and love it!

Q: Who is your favorite super hero?
A: The Tick!

Q: During the year, who is your favorite charity group and why?
A: I serve the homeless working with my church at City Gospel Mission.
I also work on Fall food drives and serve Thanksgiving dinner at the Fall Feast at Duke Convention center each year.

Q: Do you own any pets?
A: Oh my, yes I do! I have 2 dogs, Madison (15) and Buddy (3), 1 cat Mama-Kitty (16) and a goldfish named Rufio!

Q: What type of hobbies do you enjoy?
A: Hiking, Working out, Reading and Gardening

Q: Finally, what is your favorite thing about working at Emerge IT Solutions, LLC?
A: The people!

VOIP-NEWS

1. Focus on the telephony systems that target your company's requirements.
IP-based phone systems are targeted to organizations primarily based on the number of employees you need to support, from the network hardware to the handsets. Although you want your system to scale easily as you add new users, you don't want to overprovision services — and pay for more system than you need now.

2. Identify the call features and functionality your organization needs.
Although many phone systems have the same basic calling and messaging features, the advanced features can vary significantly. Make a list of must-have features that includes call management and routing, conferencing, directory services, customer greetings and on-hold music, and auto-attendant functions. If you choose a premise-based phone system, identify also the IT management features you require.

3. Include a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution in your assessments.
SaaS is no longer an alternative choice for delivering a phone system. Many traditional telephony vendors now offer hosted VoIP services, which includes all the call routing, voice mail and other phone system features you'd get from an installed IP-based system. SaaS offerings require little investment in new infrastructure, they're easier to deploy than an on-premise solution, and they can more easily be upgraded to include new communications services, such as unified messaging and presence capabilities, as soon as you want them.

4. Ask about each telephony system's roadmap.
Last year was a tumultuous period in the telephony market as many companies announced mergers, acquisitions and reorganizations. As a result, some phone systems have been discontinued and others have been consolidated within other product lines. If you were considering systems from Avaya, HP, NEC, Nortel or 3Com, ask how they were affected by changes in company ownership. Even if the systems on your list weren't part of this industry shake up, find out what plans the vendors have for these products, both short term and long term.

5. Plan for your organization's future.
Choose a telephony system that can grow with your organization, scaling to support both additional users and more network traffic. Consider not only the number of employees you need to support with phone service now, but six months from now. Find out how easily you can add additional extensions as new employees are hired. Find out, too, how extensible the system is to additional locations if your company plans to add branch offices. Voice and communications technologies are changing at breakneck speed, and users' expectations of their phone services are evolving just as fast — you need a phone system that can keep pace.

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Cloud Benefits
 

At Emerge, we do understand that moving to remote datacenter management means a cultural shift, one that demands a lot of guarantees and guidance. For this reason, we have strict SLAs around security and ensure we get the highest levels of accreditation, which are often independently verified. And Emerge is particularly excited about industry standard certifications we achieved in Cisco, HP, VMware, etc. . . . This gives our customers peace-of-mind that the management of security, design, implementation and support of hosted systems at our LOCAL data center. So, don't be a server hugger all your life. Free yourself from the shackles and sleep easy at night knowing your servers are always in safe hands with Emerge.