This month’s “Integrated Solutions for Retailers” magazine features an article entitled “Small Retailers: To Bundle, or Not To Bundle?” which includes industry experts from HP, Intuit, and Computer Troubleshooters.  New Jersey Computer Troubleshooters owner Andy Oeftering is the featured CT, offering his advice on POS solutions for small retailers.

The online version of the article may be found here.

The July 2009 issue of Business Solutions magazine features Computer Troubleshooter Doug Smith o the cover, with an article called “Five Steps to Building Client Relationships”.  An online copy of the article is available here.

In the article Doug outlines how he’s achieved 20% revenue growth year after year and increased his clients satisfaction through managed services and other solutions.

Computer Troubleshooters USA is proud to announce the launch of CTOnline.tv, a new website designed to fill a need among home computer users.  “We noticed that, especially during the recession, more and more people are choosing to reduce or discontinue their satellite or cable TV service since many of their favorite TV shows are now available, legally, online.” says Chip Reaves, CEO of Computer Troubleshooters.  “Many people are choosing to connect a simple home computer to their big screen TV and watch internet video right from their couch.  The challenge was trying to find and organize all of the high quality video sites which people want to watch, without many of the useless or dangerous sites.  That’s what we wanted to accomplish with CTonline.tv, and so far it looks like a huge success.”

CTOnline.tv is a free site, designed to be a “home page” for home computer users who want to find the best quality internet video sites.  The site is also designed to be regionally customized, since many online video sites (especiallly TV networks) are only accessible from within their country of origin.  A UK version of CTonline is already being tested, with more countries planned for the future.

CT’s affiliated brands were also highly regarded by Entrepreneur Magazine this month.

Computer Troubleshooters is affiliated with the MerryMeeting family of franchised brands, which includes Sunbelt Business Brokers, MTO Cleaning, and Inspect-It 1st, all of which did very well in this year’s Entrepreneur Franchise 500 ranking.

See http://www.merrymtg.com/content/view/110/

Computer Troubleshooters now offers a comprehensive PPO health policy through Blue Cross/Blue Shield to all US franchise owners and/or their employees.

Computer Troubleshooters, the world’s largest technology services franchise, has partnered with Blue Cross / Blue Shield to provide a group PPO health insurance plan to our franchisees.  Details on the plans is available at www.comptroub.com/downloads/ct_health_insurance.pdf

For the second time in two months Computer Troubleshooters will be featured in a PC World magazine article.  The new piece showcases a Georgia franchise location’s implementation of Cabinet NG, and will be in the February issue of the magazine.

The article is already online here, and has also been picked up by ComputerWorld.

Growth in IT has been hard to find in recent years. The inclusion of Computer Troubleshooters in the annual BRW Fast Franchise list has recognized the IT support network for its continued growth. The Franchise was founded in 1997 in Australia, it last was listed in the BRW Fast Franchise in 2006 as the number 1 export franchise and since then has grown to almost 500 locations in 27 countries around the globe.

“What makes the achievement even more remarkable it that we are also the largest IT support franchise in Australia, so combining growth with size is a significant accomplishment. It demonstrates that IT support businesses see great benefit in being part of a large group who have the scale and experience to help in many facets of their business” said Nick Roche National Director of Australia.

“Significantly it vindicates our objective of focusing on servicing the Small Business community who appreciate our local support model and the reliability of a Global brand. We are also now seeing that vendor support has increased as we have become a clear leader in the 1-20 seat IT support market, a market that has up until recently been quite fragmented for vendors”

The listing comes on top of the recent “Best in Category – Technology Franchises” awarded by the Franchise Business Review by the group in the US which is a measure of Franchisee satisfaction.

“To demonstrate achievement in network size, growth, and franchisee satisfaction is the triple crown of franchising,” said Roche “in corporate life this is like working for the biggest company, hitting all your targets, and topping the employee engagement scale”.

The group continues to capitalize on the increasing complex IT demands of small business where reliability and service is valued highly. Roche explained “Our model seems to work well with Small Business customers who want a trusted relationship with their IT advisor and don’t want to deal with the impersonal standards of support they may get from large IT organizations or random encounters they may have with small independent providers”

“We continue to strive to our goal of becoming the Australia’s leading IT support provider to Small Business – we need to continue to grow our franchise partners, franchise network, alliances and partnerships to make this happen over the next few years”.

About Computer Troubleshooters
Globally Computer Troubleshooters is the largest technology solutions network of franchiseowners providing onsite computer services to small businesses. Now in its 12th year of service, Computer Troubleshooters has more than 475 franchises worldwide in more than 26 countries. Computer Troubleshooters is Australia’s largest IT support Franchise with over 90 locations in all states across Australia.

The company provides a comprehensive range of computer and technology solutions to small business owners (typically with 1 to 25 staff). Computer Troubleshooters helps companies with technology issues including networking, maintenance, computer repair & service, managed services, and a wide variety of small business IT needs. The company offers the world’s only “No-Downtime-Guarantee” on its top managed services plan.

(See the press release here)

One Month Later, Windows 7 Very Popular

Decatur, GA (December 1, 2009) – On October 22nd Microsoft launched its Windows 7 Operating System, with all the fanfare and media attention it deserved. Many IT professionals, however, remember when Windows 7’s predecessor, Vista, launched with similar fanfare and positive reviews but quickly became unpopular with users and technicians alike. How has Windows 7 held up in it’s first month of real world usage? Computer Troubleshooters (the world’s largest IT support franchise with almost 500 locations globally) surveyed its franchise network in late November to find out.

The results of the global survey bode well for anyone who will be receiving a new Windows 7 computer this Christmas. Almost three-quarters of the Computer Troubleshooters surveyed indicated that they are running Windows 7 on their own personal computer(s). More than half (55%) have already installed Windows 7 on their customer’s computers, and a whopping 93% say that Windows 7 is a reliable alternative to Windows Vista or XP.

But when the question of whether or not to upgrade comes up, the data is more mixed. 48% of the Computer Troubleshooters surveyed recommend clients running Windows Vista upgrade to Windows 7 “immediately” while 45% recommend upgrading but not right away – following the traditional IT viewpoint that major upgrades should be in use for a few months before being considered for mainstream use. For customers running Windows XP the data is less enthusiastic – only 14% recommend an immediate upgrade, with almost 57% recommending upgrading “eventually” and almost 28% recommending sticking with XP. This indicates plenty of ongoing affection for the 8+ year old Windows XP operating system. Similarly when asked which OS is faster – in their experience – fully 84% of the Computer Troubleshooters chose Windows 7 over Vista, but only 36% say Windows 7 is faster than XP, with another 40% saying it’s “too close to call”.

When asked to choose their personal favorite OS, Windows 7 is the clear favorite with 54% of Computer Troubleshooters. Windows XP followed with 37%, and then Mac OSX came in a distant third with 3.7% of the votes. Windows Vista came in last with 1.8% of the vote (about 2% chose “other”, showing just how unpopular Vista has been perceived to be with the IT community).

Another question on the survey asked what “must haves” a customer’s computer needs before the Computer Troubleshooter would consider it for an upgrade to Windows 7. The most popular answers were related to the processor (dual-core recommended), followed by the graphics card (Aero-capable, prefer dedicated not shared), and memory (most recommend 2GB, though many said 1GB was sufficient).

“Overall the survey reflected what we have been hearing anecdotally” said Chip Reaves, CEO of Computer Troubleshooters Global. “[Windows] Seven is popular with the Computer Troubleshooters network, and seems to be equally popular with the IT community in general. It’s not perfect – no OS is – but with the first month under our belts now we’re very happy with the new Windows.”

Survey Results:
Q1: Since Windows 7 officially launched, have you installed it on your own computer(s)?
YES: 74.8%, NO: 23.2%, No Response 1.8%

Q2: Since Windows 7 officially launched, have you installed it on a customer’s computer?
YES: 54.8%, NO: 44.6%, No Response <1%

Q3: In your professional opinion, does Windows 7 seem to be a reliable alternative to Windows Vista or XP?
YES: 93%, NO: 5.5%, No Response 1.3%

Q4: For your customers currently running Windows Vista, do you recommend upgrading to Windows 7?
Yes, Immediately: 48.3%
Yes, but not right now: 45.1%
No: 6.5%

Q5: For your customers currently running Windows XP, do you recommend upgrading to Windows 7?
Yes, Immediately: 13.9%
Yes, but not right now: 56.7%
No: 27.9%

Q6: Based on your experience, is Windows 7 faster than Windows Vista?
Yes: 84.1%
No: 1.3%
Too Close To Call: 11.1%
No Response: 3.2%

Q7: Based on your experience, is Windows 7 faster than Windows XP?
Yes: 36.2%
No: 22.3%
Too Close To Call: 39.5%
No Response: 1.8%

Q8: Which OS do you personally prefer?
Windows XP: 37.2%
Windows Vista: 1.8%
Windows 7: 53.9%
Mac OSX: 3.7%
Other: 2.3%
No Response: <1%

Q12: Has Understanding Microsoft’s licensing programs been an issue for your customers?
Yes: 63.2%
No: 35.3%
No Response: 1.3%

About the survey: 215 Computer Troubleshooters were surveyed in 13 countries, between November 19 and November 30 2009.

About Computer Troubleshooters

Computer Troubleshooters is the largest technology solutions network of franchise owners providing onsite computer services to small businesses. Now in its 12th year of service, Computer Troubleshooters has more than 475 franchises worldwide in more than 26 countries.

The company provides a comprehensive range of computer and technology solutions to small business owners (typically with 1 to 25 staff). Computer Troubleshooters helps companies with technology issues including computer repair & service, problem prevention, virus and spyware remediation, website development and a wide variety of small business IT needs. The company offers the world’s only “No-Downtime-Guarantee” on its top managed services plan. The individual franchisees of the company are fully trained at pinpointing and solving a broad range of computer and technology problems.

In business since 1997, Computer Troubleshooters wins frequent awards from Entrepreneur magazine and Franchise Business Review as a top technology franchise.

Powerbuy, a service for small business owners in Australia launched this week with Computer Troubleshooters, Dell, Lexmark, and other notable IT companies as their launch partners.  Powerbuy negotiates group discounts with vendors on behalf of their small business members, and provides those discounts back to the customer via a cash back service.

For more information see the ITNews.com.au article here:
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/95407,powerbuy-baits-smb-community-with-cashbacks.aspx