digital partners_™ Apple Corporate Sales • Professional Systems Integrators

The biggest disruptive force in the computer equipment market is not [the cloud], but Apple. – Andrew Bartels

In his Global Tech Market Outlook for 2012, Andrew Bartels, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, focused not on the major shifts in Enterprise computing in the cloud, but that Apple is taking the workforce by storm.

This year Apple will sell an estimated $19 billion in Macs and iPads to enterprises. The growth marks a 58% increase over corporate spending in 2011. What was once a small trend with executives insisting on their own Macs, has now spread across departments. More and more employees are requesting to use the operating systems they use at home. The result? More Apple computers in the workplace.

The upsurge is also fueled by the demand for an increasingly mobile sales force. iPads have become the standard as corporations see how easily sales materials can be demonstrated as well as day-to-day operations managed on the go. Apple has reacted by ramping up corporate sales through reselling partners.

As an Apple reseller for close to twenty years, digital partners is uniquely positioned to use its longstanding relationship with Apple to help its clients get volume discounts. If your enterprise is playing catch up with integrating Macs and iPads, give us a call. Our systems engineers can answer questions about integration and our Apple specialists can help you find the right hardware for every position.

Every year successful companies take a fresh look at how they can improve practices and continue to grow. For most companies, no matter the industry, this is often work smarter, not harder. Being safe and streamlined is the result of smart thinking, not sweat-drenched work.

One place smart practices fuel growth is in enterprise data centers. Companies with electronic storage risk damaged equipment or injured technicians. Server boxes are bulky, often heavy, and cost thousands of dollars to replace.

With one easy addition to your server space arsenal, companies can lower operating costs, reduce risk of energy, and streamline server deployment. ServerLIFT solutions are designed to safely and efficiently lift servers and IT equipment in today’s data center environment. Both manual and fully controllable electric server lifts are available and have form factors designed specifically by data center employees to meet the toughest challenges with loading and unloading servers.

digital partners is a ServerLift authorized reseller and can work with your data center teams to find the best-fit server lift for your environment. This year, think smarter by eliminating extra risk and costs by adding the one tool that will aid your data management team to be more productive than ever. Give us a call to find out more or get a quote on the ServerLIFT SL-500X or the SL-300X.

A recent article from Forrester Research reviewed the challenges that Information Technology and Operations teams faced in 2011 and listed the growing challenges in the coming year. Concerns with transitions from local storage to backup in the Cloud, mobile device management, and hardware updates have moved to front and center for IT planning. Above all is the need for IT departments to demonstrate value.

As companies look ahead to appropriate budgets for 2012, it is important to focus not only on operations maintenance, but also on increased agility and mobility. Securing data across mobile devices like smart phones and iPads is essential. Your company’s digital assets should be easily accessible but only to those within the corporation. Our mobile device management (MDM) and security team work with companies to conduct MDM security audits and pre-assessments for MDM tools like MobileIron. Set up a beginning of the year review with digital partners to see how you can save money for all four quarters by securing and managing your mobile devices.

Updating systems with digital partners has never been easier. Through our strengthened relationships with Adobe, Autodesk, and Apple, we can help you build department-specific bundles with the hardware and software you need. Our service team can help you configure and deploy machines. Call dpi’s Enterprise specialists to find out more about beginning of the year specials and bundles.

Preparing for 2012 does not have to be difficult. Hardware refreshes and mobile device management are great value propositions. Contact digital partners for answers to your questions and some hands-on help.

digital partners is excited to announce our new trio of app development training classes to prepare you to design and develop the next great app. Budding developers and app experts alike can gain new skills by enrolling to take beginner, intermediate, and advanced level classes, as well as other advanced topics.

It’s easy to enroll. Just give us a call and let us know which course you’d like to take. We’ll take down your information and provide you with more details about the class and costs.

Software Development on iOS devices

Apple provides a development environment named Xcode for software development on their platforms including iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad as well as Macs. The preferred language used to develop is called Objective-C. The goal of the classes is to provide a practical course on development for these mobile devices while also covering the key aspects of the Objective-C language.

None of the classes teach basic programming. It is expected that any participants taking any of the courses, including the beginner course, have a working software development knowledge on any platform and they also understood typical code constructs like if checks, iterative loops, debugging and object-oriented programming paradigm.

Dedicated to providing its customers the latest in technology solutions, digital partners has developed new relationships with leading software, professional solutions, and hardware providers.

This year, dpi has added Autodesk to its lineup, offering Autodesk’s AutoCAD and Maya design and modeling software. AutoCAD is the industry-standard 2D and 3D design application, aiding engineers, architects, and designers in conceptualizing plans. As an Autodesk authorized reseller, digital partners helps companies find the best-fit AutoCAD family for their needs.

digital partners continues to be the leading provider of mobile device management (mdm) solutions, working closely with MobileIron to assist companies ranging from small- and medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 corporations manage and monitor their mobile devices, including iOS devices like iPhone and iPad. A cross platform, hosted or cloud solution, MobileIron gives IT departments the power to manage apps, access controls, and data exchange. By being a MobileIron Partner, digital partners is uniquely positioned to help companies leverage MobileIron’s mdm solution at a low cost. View our mobile device management page to find out more about this exciting partnership and customized solutions for your mobile workforce.

Skullcandy balances their commitment to great sounding and eye-catching headphones and accessories. dpi has partnered with Skullcandy to offer the full range of sound accessories compatible with iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

At dpi, we offer the most innovative solutions, and are on the leading edge of new technologies surrounding Apple & its eco-system. We  provide you and your business with the best solutions for mobile device management, network back-up, AutoCad, data storage, video solutions and much more. Give us a call to find out more about each of these partnerships.

The long proponent of having a Windows-only workplace, Forrester did an about-face and released a new report saying that Mac users are often the most productive at a company and continuing to support their technology needs means growth over-all. A Forrester survey of 590 IT executives and decision makers found that the top-earners and performers at companies are opting to use Apple computers – even at their own expense. This class of the lead 17% of employees find that using an Apple laptop over a company-supplied Windows PC allows them to work more quickly and present a professional image. Top performers state that Windows PCs are slowing them down and look cheaply made.

Accordingly, Forrester recommends that IT departments start supporting Macs in the enterprise in order to keep up. Insisting on a PC-only work environment will only hinder workers who are using new technologies to be more productive and find better solutions for customers.

For more about the Forrester research findings you can see Hell freezes over: Forrester urges IT to support the Mac, an article from Philip Elmer-Dewitt.

Incorporating Macs into your workplace does not need to be an IT nightmare. Call digital partners at 314-863-8008 to get a custom audit of how incorporating Macs as well iPhones and iPads can be simple, secure, and cost-effective.