September 2008 - Direct2Dell

I recently shared information about how to reach Dell Chat Support. Direct2Dell reader JQ responded to that post telling us that they hadn’t been able to locate Chat Support in Malaysia.

Good news! We have Chat Support in Malaysia, too! In fact, Dell offers Chat Support for several countries and in a variety of languages.

Finding Chat Support in your country:

A chat icon and link will be visible on the country’s Dell Support site home page, support.Dell.com, when Chat is a support option for that country. If you’re not sure how to access Dell’s country specific support pages please go to support.Dell.com and scroll to the very bottom of the page. You will find a country selection dropdown like the one pictured below:

Select the country in which you need support. The Chat support option will be found on the pages under the “Support” heading. You will need to opt for support from the country where your system was purchased.

If you are wondering if Chat Support is available where you are, the below should be a handy reference

Countries offering Chat Support:

Anguilla, Antigua, Australia, Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Montserrat, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Asia, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela.

Languages supported in Chat:

• · English
• · Spanish
• · Portuguese
• · French
• · Japanese
• · Simplified Chinese
• · Korean

Language support will vary by region.

Note: Hong Kong & Taiwan Chat Support in Traditional Chinese will be offered in the coming weeks.

Remember, if chat is available in your Country / Region all you need to do is click the link that looks like the image below. If you don’t see this link on your country’s support pages we hope to have our chat support available to you soon.

I’ll be back soon to share with you the top 10 reasons our customers tell us they love chat support.

We recently covered the importance of knowing and dealing with security threats as a small business.  As a follow up, it time to take it a step further by emphasize that online security is one of the biggest threats to small businesses. By using your web browser, opening emails, instant messaging with colleagues or using unsecured wireless, businesses run the risk of exposing their data and systems to viruses.

In order to prevent this from happening, there are steps that need to be taken in order to ensure that data and IT are protected.

· Have the right security systems such as Norton or McAfee in place to help combat viruses

· Make sure to install all updates for your operating system, security software and web browser

· Do not download files from unknown or questionable sites

· Block pop ups and install a firewall to stop unwanted information from outside resources from being share

· Implement employee policies that limit file sharing through other sites other than the work email system.

Another great resource is Dell's support site where small businesses can find great IT tools and systems that protect against and alert of security threats.

Last week, I had the opportunity to stop by a Green Room Session at Oracle Openworld with Tod Arbogast, Dell's Director of Sustainable Business. Just before coming out to OpenWorld, we found out that we were a winner of Oracle's prestigious "Empowering the Green Enterprise" award for progress against our goal of becoming the "greenest" technology company on the planet.  Dell's achievements over the past year and a half been well documented on the pages of this blog, but a quick summary includes our energy-efficient products, our industry-leading recycling program, "Plant a Tree for Me" and "Plant a Forest for Me," and the recent news that we are the first in our industry to achieve carbon neutrality.

I caught up with Oracle CIO Mark Sunday after the Green room session and asked them a few questions for this post.

San Francisco has been a blast.  Huge letters placed on a mountainside overlooking the city anoint San Francisco "The City of Industry."  The industry I've seen here has ranged from concerned and engaged innovators applying the technology that made this city famous to average citizens helping to clean up our planet for a greener future.  New ways of living and thinking are being born here, and there is definitely a sense that something truly special is going on.  We still have plenty of videos to upload from our time here.  Grist's Sarah van Schagen has been busy at work (that previous link will take you to her latest blog post updates) talking to the people of this city that have devoted countless hours to improving our planet and leading us to a future we can be proud to pass on to the generations that follow us.

Stay tuned.  While you're at it, check out our Qik page for the streaming videos I've been sending throughout the trip. There all also recent updates over at ReGeneration.org and there will be more here as well. On to Nevada!

When building a small business, technology needs grow just as quickly as your expanding business. At the same time, however, IT needs to be affordable and easy to implement. In deciding what IT is necessary to upgrade, small business owners need to have a strategy in place to ensure that systems don’t ‘max out’ and investments are made.

Startup Nation shares some great tips on what needs to be done in order to upgrade technology systems in the right way that fits your business:

1) Identify the problem: Acknowledge what needs fixing

2)  Determine What You Need: Work with an IT consultant to understand what are the right IT tools for the business

3) Develop a plan: Having an implementation strategy in place to ensure that new systems are installed seamlessly with the rest of the business.

4) Install the Equipment: In many cases, it’s helpful to have an IT expert on hand to make sure everything is installed in the right way.

5) Maintain the Equipment: In order for the equipment to last as long as the business, it’s key to maintain it that system failures are avoided.