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Born and raised in New Jersey, Nicholas Bredimus looked at airlines, software, and hospitality together and to the benefit of all three trades. This resourceful man has found work in a great many fields, from the high value home design industry through the essentials of air safety and computer programs to save manpower and time. Bredimus brings astonishing energy to any and all fields, too. With a quick look at Nicholas Bredimus’ roots you can easily see he was destined to achieve prominence. His clan can trace its roots as far back as the days of Rome’s glory and can boast of a broad background. The maternal family mingles Scottish and German ancestry. The paternal line, by contrast, comes from Luxembourg and England, from where his forebears eventually emigrated in the late 1800s.

After arriving in the US, the line still strove to climb in the world. Nicholas, as well as his siblings, was born to a father employed as a mechanical design engineer and his wife, a nurse. He settled for a time in Arizona, Texas, Kansas City and a city by the name of Reston in Virginia.

He’s taken on high powered posts within companies across the air travel sector — the majority of them very distinguished brands. Nicholas became a Vice President with corporations like Hughes Airwest, Trans World Airlines (TWA), and Republic Airlines respectively. But even with these accomplishments, above all the airlines have felt the need to thank him for his pioneering work in software design.

His trailblazing work on airplane maintenance software, now used in the entire air travel business while initially coded for US Airways, resulted in what is still his most famous achievement. And yet this stands as just one of his essential creations for the hotel business and for airlines. The reservation programs he designed are on their way to becoming as commonly used as the aforementioned software, while his room booking routine made it possible for a great number of hotels to integrate the first PC based infrastructure. He went on to design QuikTix, the world’s first automated ticketing network.

He has even served in quite a number of roles outside of software development, don’t forget. Major jobs with American Express and American Airlines were to come, and of course he established a company of his own in the early nineties. These days Mr Nicholas Bredimus has departed from his airline connections and from coding, but he’s still making the most of his skills. He’s at work now advancing architecture — blending the needs of esthetics with increasingly sophisticated technology and real concern for the ecology. All of which goes to demonstrate how much an untiring drive can achieve…

Please go to our tremendous website for Nicholas Bredimus info.

IT network managers have to fight the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mindset to win resources. With computer networks, that mindset is dangerously complacent. IT networks will keep pumping data until they die or let in hackers. Here are some winning arguments against “if it ain’t broke…”

IT Network Maintenance: Better Analogies

Don’t let your IT network’s budget get lumped with IT in general–or worse, operations in general. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” sometimes makes sense in IT or operations. Upgrading workstations or desks can cost productivity, making it self-defeating. You have to stress that IT networks are different from workstations or desks.

• IT networks are harder to repair.
• IT networks cannot be done without until fixed. You depend on them for email, web, file transfers, and in some organizations, printing, fax and telephone. If your network breaks you may be forced to rely on hand-written letters.
• IT network improvements rarely lower productivity on the front line. Instead, a faster, more reliable network can improve front-line productivity.

Here are the analogies you should stress to counter “if it ain’t broke”:

• Plumbing: IT networks will appear to function until they burst. The damage will be more expensive than maintenance ever could have been. In the meantime, you are losing productivity to all the little “leaks.”
• Dams: If a poorly maintained IT network bursts, the eventual flood will harm overall productivity.
• War: There is no such thing as “good enough” when you are in competition. With an IT network, you’re in a quiet arms race with hackers. You are also competing with your business competitors in terms of productivity.
• Health: Your IT network has to be in top physical condition. You can’t make up for bad habits with a week or two of “rejuvenation.” Meanwhile, your day-to-day performance will suffer.
• Cars: Don’t wait for your IT network to conk out. Get a regular tune-up of up-to-date equipment.

IT Network Maintenance: What Can Go Wrong

Now, let’s drive the point home. Here are some concrete, easy-to-explain reasons to keep your network up-to-date:

• Power supplies. Without redundant backups, your network is vulnerable to a shutdown. The lost productivity will make extra equipment seem inexpensive in comparison.
• Integrity. Faulty or contradictory data can break older networks. Newer equipment has solved these problems. Again, the potential cost of lost productivity makes newer equipment a good value.
• Firewalls. Hackers can leak trade secrets stolen from unprotected networks. Firewall software upgrades are relatively inexpensive.
• VOIP. Organizations worldwide are switching to VOIP–not just outside-line telephones but also switchboard and teleconferencing. If your network is out-of-date, it may fail when you eventually try this new technology.
• Speed. Older platforms such as 10BASET will throttle your bandwidth. You can now upgrade to a Terabit or more. Just think of the seconds, minutes, hours, and days lost as staff wait for email to arrive and web pages to load.

Final tip: show how cost-effective IT network maintenance really is. Get a firm cost estimate from a vendor. Just make sure your cost estimate is as competitive as it can be. You can often get new equipment at half the cost of retail by buying refurbished equipment.

Close your case for a better network with this wisdom: no matter what you pay, keeping your network up-to-date is cheaper than the consequences of letting it fall into disrepair.

Joel Walsh is a business and technology writer. Get an IT network cost estimate from Genesis Global, specialist in guaranteed used cisco switches: www.genesisglobalinc.com

An intranet is basically a private web based network. It uses all of the technology of the internet but is safe and protected behind a firewall that keeps unauthorized personnel out. Companies have been using them for years as a method of streamlining their internal communications.

Because a web browser can run on any type of computer, the need to maintain multiple paper copies of documents that are constantly changing can be eliminated. Documents like training manuals, internal phone books, procedure manuals, benefits information, employee handbooks, requisition forms, etc. can be maintained as electronic documents and updated at almost no cost. The savings in paper and other material costs can be significant

But the most powerful aspect of an intranet is its ability to display information in the same format to every computer being used. That allows all of the different software and databases a company uses to be available to all employees without any special equipment or software being installed on their systems.

This universal availability of information is sparking an era of collaboration unlike anything ever seen before. The departmental barriers that exist in many companies are slowing breaking down because now colleagues can share information readily using the company intranet.

Options for implementing an intranet

There are a variety of options for setting up an intranet. They include building your own intranet technology, purchasing and installing third-party software, or purchasing access through an extranet ASP. Here is a quick summary of the advantages and disadvantages of each approach:

1. Building it yourself
Advantages: Complete control of user interface design; ability to customize level of functionality; integration into internal systems, and direct access to user activity.

Disadvantages: High up-front development cost; requires staff expertise in the development of extranets, commitment of internal staff for 6 months to a year for planning, execution, review and implementation; and an ongoing commitment of internal staff for internal and client support, hosting, maintenance and upgrades.

2. Purchasing/installing third-party software
Advantages: Proven track-record of packaged solution; ability to choose functions and to
customize user interface, more rapid implementation compared to building it yourself.

Disadvantages: High up-front purchase cost; commitment of internal staff for customization and implementation; on-going commitment of internal staff for internal and client support, hosting, maintenance and upgrades; and extensive internal and client training

3. Using a Service Provider (ASP)
Advantages: Proven track-record of the application; low cost of entry and predictable cost over time; virtually immediate implementation; no commitment of internal staff for internal support, hosting, or maintenance; and upgrades at no cost by extranet experts, and savings on internal server use.

Disadvantages: Less freedom in user interface design, and fixed functionality.

In the final analysis…
The approach you choose depends on how you work, the technical and financial resources at your disposal, and how rapidly you need to move forward.

Rick Mosenkis is CEO of Trichys, providers of WorkZone extranet and intranet solutions for online
document sharing.