Mosaic Technologies Blog

NAMESERVER OUTAGE - NOTICE

2011-06-18T02:07:00.002-04:00

At approximately 11:45 the Mosaic Nameservers were knocked offline.

We have identified the cause of the problem and we are currently working to resolve the issue.

There is currently no estimated time for recovery.

We will keep you posted as we progress.

Thank you.

Did you know that business can write-off for capital expenditures up to $250K!

2010-12-13T12:45:00.002-05:00

Did you know that Congress has extended the amount small businesses may write-off for capital expenditures to 250K!

IRS Tax Code Section 179 can save your business lots of money!

Time to upgrade your server or servers? Need new computers for your business? How about upgrading all your firewalls to the latest technology? New VoIP phone system? CCTV Cameras? Notebooks for all your field reps?

Congress extended the amount that small businesses may write-off for capital expenditures in 2010 to $250,000, and that means this may be the best year ever to upgrade your infrastructure!

Business Equipment:
Business owners who acquire equipment for their business, such as computers, servers, network & security equipment and other tangible goods, usually prefer to deduct the cot in a a single tax year, rather than a little at a time over a number of years. This deduction is known by its section in the tax code, a Section 179 deduction.

Under Section 179, businesses that spend less than $800,000 a year on qualified equipment, may write-off up to $250,000 in 2010. The rules are designed for small companies so the $250,00 deduction phases out when a business purchases more than $800,000 in one year. (Companies cannot write off more than their taxable income).

Benefits of a Non-Tax / Capital Lease:
The benefit of a Non-Tax/Capital Lease is that it can take advantage of Section 179: expense up to $250,000 if the equipment is put in use in 2010. In addition, you may depreciate any excess on the depreciation schedule for that asset. Examples of Non-Tax/Capital Leases include a $1.00 Buyout Lease, an Equipment Finance Agreement (EFA), and a 10% Purchase Upon Termination (PUT) Lease. Example: Assume you finance business equipment, put it in use in 2010, and take advantage of Section 179. Your tax savings could be significant:

An example of a typical server installation and how this applies might look something like this:
Cost of equipment: $9,500.oo
Section 179 reduction if expenditures are over $800k: -
Dollar for dollar phase out if over $800k: $9,500.oo
Section 179 write-off amount: $9,500.oo
Regular First Year Depreciation Deduction: -
Total First Year Deduction: $9500.oo
Cash Savings on your Equipment Purchase: $3,325.oo
(Assuming a 35% Tax Bracket, Deprecation 5 years)
Lowered Cost of Equipment after Tax Savings: $6, 175.oo

Tax Code Section 179 & Election to Expense Detail:
The election, which is made on Form 4562, is for the tax year the property was placed in service or an amended return filed within the time prescribed by law. The total cost of property that may be expensed for any tax year cannot exceed the total amount of taxable income during the tax year. Section 179 property is property that you acquire by purchase for use in the active conduct of your business. To ensure property qualifies, reference Publication 946.

This expense deduction is provided for taxpayers (other than estates, trusts or certain non-corporate lessors) who elect to treat the cost of qualifying property as an expense rather than a capital expenditure. Under Section 179, equipment purchases, up to the amount approved for a given year, can be expensed (deducted from taxable income) if installed by December 31st. Non-Tax leases qualify for this deduction in their year of inception. Any excess above the expensed amount can be depreciated depending on the equipment type. Not all states follow federal law. Contact your tax advisor for the specific impact to your business or visit www.irs.gov.

Further Detail:
Reminder: to take advantage of the tax incentives, your business equipment must be put in use by year-end. You should contact your tax advisor to learn about the specific impact to your business.

We can help you maximize this as we offer leasing and financing... Please email sales@mosaictechnologies.com or call 240-399-3900 for additional information!

Mosaic Announces New Business Continuity Winter Promo

2010-12-09T18:09:00.005-05:00

Was your business one of the many that were “Stuck in the Snow” last year?

How much business did you lose as the result of the down time? Well, before the snow flies again this year, you should start working on the business continuity plan that will keep your business running no matter what the temperature is outside! Move your email, data and other critical business applications to Mosaic’s fully redundant, always available Cloud...and eliminate the risk of business disruption this winter.

The Mosaic Technologies’ Bulletproof Business Cloud service encompasses all your critical business technology needs -

• Offsite MS Exchange Email Server - Your own private email server - dedicated to you!
• Offsite Data Storage and Backup - Encrypted and offsite for ultimate business continuity
• Offsite Server Colocation - No Power? No Internet? No Problem!
• And more!

Call us now to learn more about how the Mosaic Technologies’ Bulletproof Business Cloud service can protect your business. For a limited time, we are waiving setup fees and offering a 10% discount* on all of its Managed Cloud and Managed Network Services solutions to eligible customers!

If fact, we invite you to personally visit our facilities and get a free assessment of your existing computer network infrastructure.

Don’t delay! Our Managed Cloud and Managed Network Solutions are a life-saver if you are looking to avoid the power and internet related outages experienced throughout the region last year.

This offer is only good until January 15, 2010*. In order to get you into the cloud and protected, you need to act fast!

Visit us at www.mosaictechnologies.com/winter or give us a call today at 240-399-3900 to schedule your visit and assessment and let’s start implementing your Bulletproof Business Cloud services.

We look forward to working with you!

Best Regards,

Scott Samborn
President and Co-Founder
Mosaic Technologies, Inc.

* In order to be eligible for the free iPad, you must commit to a 36-month agreement before 2/15/2011.

Congratulations! Its a Blog!

2009-11-28T20:10:00.002-05:00

So here I am, Scott Samborn, co-owner of Mosaic Technologies, a growing Managed Services Provider in the Metro DC Area, and I am finally getting my butt into gear with a blog. Do I know what you're thinking? - tech guy, tech company, so how come this is my first blog entry, late November 2009? Probably the best reason is laziness... I often have ideas pop into my head to write about but by the time the phone stopes ringing and I have a minute to write, the thought is gone or the drive to memorialize it is gone.

It's almost the new year, and 2009 has been a wild ride so I decided its time to get this blog going. We (Jason, My business partner and I) have made a lot of changes at Mosaic Technologies this year, including cutting out unprofitable areas, firing those that (really) needed firing and hiring some of those that we (really) needed to hire. So far all these changes have been positive. We are positioning ourselves to continue and grow this roll in 2010.

One of the best things that we did this year was attend the Connectwise Summit a few weeks ago. The education was invaluable - Do I sense a mastercard comercial? -

- Flights to Orlando for 4, $1000
- One week with family at Disney, $3000
- A large Coke (mostly ice) with no refills (they don't do refills at Disney) $2.49
- 3 Days with 1200 other CW partners -$Priceless

I think one of the many interesting things that I learned at CW is that we are very similar to other Managed Services Providers around the world in terms of growth. Jason and I have been very succesful at getting to where we are now, building mostly through word of mouth, with some help from good SEO and a few stabs at advertising. But to really grow to the next level we need to become a Sales Organization. This is going to mean some major changes for the whole company. We promoted Bill P and Brandon G to VP's - they now fully manage their teams and they have been doing fantastic jobs. The rest of this year will be focused on defining and detailing processes so that Jan 1 we can start buildinng a Sales business.

This will be a interesting and challenging effort as neither Jason nor I have ever done professional sales before (only accidental sales?). So, taking advice from friends and partners, here are some of the things we plan to start ASAP:

- Hire a coach
- Join HTG (already applied, now waiting for the process)
- Start attending CW User Group meetings
- Look at potential Sales People
- Look at Sales Outsourcing/Telemarketing companies
- Start reading all the books that have been gathering dust on the shelves
- Sell Sell Sell

We are committed to significant and profitable growth in 2010, and we know it will be a interesting challenge. Things are going to start moving very quickly as the rest of the year flies by. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and that you are thankful for all that you have received.

Time flies when you're having fun!

2009-03-05T21:02:00.004-05:00

Its amazing how many sites I visit where the content hasn't been updated for more than a year. In fact, its even more amazing how fast time goes by when you think about it in these circumstances. It seems like I added something to this blog just the other day, and more than a YEAR has passed! Scary!

Well, I have never thought of myself as much of a blogger, so I have already forgiven myself for huge gap of time between posts in this...not to mention that I can probably count on one hand the number of people (outside my staff) that might even read this...but I promise that I would never let my web site go unattended for such a long period of time.

So in this post I thought I would share a few things you can do to make your site more interactive, engaging, accountable and have it generate more leads and sales. We recently sent these ideas out to our Customers in a monthly email newsletter.

Hopefully they will give you some ideas for your own site.

Live Chat

Reduce operational costs and increase sales!

A single question answered from a Live Support agent can be enough to close a sale. Integrating Live Chat on your website can accomplish the level of instant client care that is required to keep you ahead of your competitors and increase your website sales while reducing your operational costs.

Phone, fax, staff and other support operations can add up to lots of expenses. Live Chat will enable you to communicate instantly with your visitors and pass crucial information at virtually no cost.

Lightbox

With Lightbox you can dazzle people that visit your website with your latest promotional piece, an interactive photo gallery or an audio/video presentation.

Lightbox allows you to present video, pictures and audio to your customers, but doesn't force it on them. With a Web 2.0 look and feel, it will captivate your audience while spicing up your website with very little cost.

This is one of the most popular website enhancements being incorporated into existing sites.

Signup Forms

If you want to maximize the revenue of your service you need to maximize completion rates of your web forms.

Unless you have some revolutionary ideas to impress your visitors at first glance, it is not enough to simply enable users to sign up on your site. To make it possible for your services to reach maximal exposure you must provide users with a good user experience. Forms need to invite them, describe to them how the service works, explain to them why they should fill in the form and suggests the benefits they'll get in return. And, of course, it should be extremely easy for them to participate.

CAPTCHA Spam Protection

A CAPTCHA is a challenge-response test most often placed within web forms to determine whether the user is human. For example, humans can read distorted text, but computer programs can't.

The purpose of CAPTCHA is to block form submissions from spambots - automated scripts that harvest email address from publicly available web forms.

If your website needs protection from abuse, it is recommended that you have a CAPTCHA installed on all your forms. There are many CAPTCHA implementations, some better than others. Let Mosaic help you stop the SPAM and regain control of your online forms.

Analytics and Web Site Traffic Analysis

Do you know how many people visited your site yesterday, last week, last month? If not, Mosaic can help. We can add a very powerful Web Analytics package to your site that will not only tell you how many people visited your site but how they found you, what keywords they used, how long they stayed and what part of your site most interested them.

If you like real-time statistics with a lot of interesting reports on the people coming to your site, call us now!

I drank the kool aid

2008-12-03T21:32:00.001-05:00

I have finally come around to the iPhone. It is because we all needed =20 new phones in the office and the Verizon hardware was pretty bad. =20 Definitely did not want a blackberry.

Now I have to say that I really like this iphone. I am still getting =20 to know it and will post the kook things I come across.

How to increase the return on investment of your website

2008-01-04T11:23:00.000-05:00

The most critical part of increasing your website’s return on investment is making sure the site provides a clear call-to-action and (just as importantly) a functional, easy-to-use follow through mechanism. This call-to-action and follow through mechanism will increase your conversion rate (the number of click-throughs that result in a sale or other call-to-action) regardless of the action you want a visitor to take.

An effective call-to-action should provide a clear, concise message that answers the following three questions:

•What should I do next
•Why should I do it
•How do I do it

To create an effect call to action, you should incorporate the following elements:

• Visibility: Be sure to put your call to action in a place on the page that is visible at first glance. This means that ideally your call-to-action will be “above the scroll” (a location on the page that can be viewed in your browser without scrolling) generally in the middle or right hand side of the page.

• Clarity: Make sure that your message is clear. Use short, simple words and phrases to get the visitors attention. Include graphics but avoid cluttering things up with too many graphics.

• Incentives: Offer incentives and other rewards when a visitor follows he call-to-action such as “Free 60-Day Trial” or “25% off Online Registration”. Something that will make it worthwhile to follow the call to action.

• Engaging: Use engaging, instructive words and phrases to hook the visitor. “Register Here”, “Call today” or “Get more information” etc.

• Urgency: Create a sense of urgency. Limit the offer to a specific period of time, number of customers or number of orders.

Once you have engaged your visitor with an effective call-to-action, you need to decide what you want the visitor to do next and provide a functional follow through mechanism to complete the conversion. Decide what you asking your visitors to:

• Register for something
• Buy something
• Become a member
• Post a review or response
• Make a phone call
• Fill out a form, etc.

Whatever it is you are asking the visitor to do, it is critically important that the follow-through process be relatively simple to accomplish and that the follow-through mechanism is functioning properly. There is nothing worse than having a prospective customer follow your call-to-action only to discover that they cannot follow through to conversion because of a technical glitch.

These sorts of technical issues are quite common, and as much as anything, the failure of the follow-through mechanism is responsible for the poor return on investment of many websites. Not only that, these technical failures will significantly devalue a company’s brand and corporate image because potential customers relate this technical failure to the overall ability of the company. One could argue that it is better to do nothing than to have a poorly or non-functioning call-to-action on your website.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you should vary your call-to-action from page to page within your site. Different pages will appeal to different types of visitors. Some calls will work better with loyal returning customers, where other “softer” calls-to-action will appeal more to new or prospective customers.

Finally (the secret sauce for those still reading the article), never under estimate the power of your web site traffic reports! Every site should have a service monitoring web site traffic so you can get the fantastically detailed and informative reports about click-through and conversion data for every call-to-action on your site. These reports will allow you to actually measure which calls-to-action are working and which ones are not. They will also help you determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your overall Technology Enabled Marketing strategy…but I will save that discussion for another article.

Prepared for SmartCEO Magazine
By Jason Bach, Principal & CEO, Mosaic Technologies, Inc.
On October 22, 2007

Mosaic Technology Enabled Marketing Services

2007-09-08T13:45:00.000-04:00

Over the last 9 months, we have seen a dramatic surge of interest in the Mosaic Technology Enabled Marketing services we provide, however most people still don't completely understand what "Technology Enabled Marketing" really means.

Mosaic Technology Enabled Marketing is a business process that makes your web site the focal point of your marketing efforts. It then leverages a variety of technologies to attract people to your website, engage them once they arrive, collect information while they are there, and finally returns a wealth of analytic and statistical data to your marketing department which allows them to measure the results and make more educated marketing decisions moving forward.

In 2007, companies have spent roughly 50% more on their "Technology Enabled Marketing" budgets than on more "traditional" advertising/marketing channels. The days of yellow pages are coming to an end...and the demand for inclusion in search engines is on the rise.

In 2008, Mosaic Technologies looks to further expand its Technology Enabled Marketing offerings and provide an even more comprehensive, sophisticated and accountable solution for its Clients.

From keeping your website up-to-date to providing more sophisticated search engine optimization services, Mosaic Technologies can help you increase the visibility of your website using Technology Enabled Marketing services.

If you or your company are interested in getting more information about the Mosaic Technology Enabled Marketing services and the benefits it provides, please give us a call today at (240) 399-3900.

Welcome to the Mosaic Technologies Blog!

2007-08-24T23:10:00.000-04:00

Thank you for visiting our new blog! We look forward to keeping your informed about news and events happening at Mosaic Technologies as well as informed with information related to Technology Enabled Marketing and the other services we provide.