Moving and Storage Business News

The News Review:

- Plasmon Names Steven Murphy Chief Executive Officer
- Selling your home in a buyer’s market
- ALAN ROSENBERG: After a fire, a year of thankfulness
- Ng: Top brands in 2007
- AUSTRALIA’S MERMAID MARINE QUADRUPLES 2007 REVENUE.

Plasmon Names Steven Murphy Chief Executive Officer
ARNnet – Nov 22, 2007
I am excited for the opportunity to work with Plasmon’s customers, partners, and innovative team to lead this business to a new level of growth and success. Powell, interim CEO, said, “Steven Murphy’s experience in piloting one of the largest privately held independent storage management software companies will be invaluable to Plasmon as we realize the next stage in the evolution of this company. Murphy’s strategic and operational management skills made him the commanding choice to lead Plasmon to its full potential.

Selling your home in a buyer’s market
ThisWeekNews – Nov 22, 2007
When preparing your home for sale, first thing is first – clean and de-clutter. A thorough cleaning is a must, and if you have a lot of clutter it may be a good idea to rent storage space during the time when potential buyers are looking at your home. Ask your Realtor about storage space; his or her brokerage may have partnerships with moving companies offering discounts on storage facilities and vans. You also should consider painting and re-carpeting in neutral hues. If a home has torn carpeting or chipped paint, some buyers may struggle to look past the defects and are not able to imagine how the home could appear. In addition, some buyers may take into account the inconvenience of painting or re-carpeting themselves, which may reflect in their bidding price. As a seller in a buyer’s market, it is important to be aware and understand the current state of the market.

ALAN ROSENBERG: After a fire, a year of thankfulness
Providence Journal – Nov 22, 2007
By the time I got home a half-hour later, the fire was just about out. But for us, the story was only beginning. From the driveway I phoned our insurance company, and was told that an adjuster would be back to me within an hour. And indeed he was, calling to say he was very upset: He’d been trying to load $2,000 onto a debit card to tide us over — the money would eventually come out of our settlement, but the company knew there would be lots of short-term expenses, and wanted to make it easy to pay for them — but he was having technical problems. I didn’t even know the insurance company offered this service, and he was upset that he couldn’t provide it immediately?Meanwhile, neighbors had materialized to offer help. One took the birds out of the November chill. Another took the dog…
Every wall and ceiling that wasn’t replaced would need to be repainted. But the insurance company could line us up with a contractor, and if we used their contractor the work was guaranteed for two years. We had replacement-cost coverage, so we wouldn’t be limited to reimbursement at the current value of used items, except for those that had been in storage in the basement. And the contractor could start work almost immediately, limiting the amount of time we’d be living in the motel. AS OUR TIME at the motel drifted past, our reasons for being thankful only multiplied. The adjuster seemed part social worker as he helped us get used to our situation, telling us to call him night or day. The contractor worked diligently to get us the house we wanted, offering us lots of choices and getting things done quickly and skillfully.

Ng: Top brands in 2007
sunstar.com.ph – Nov 22, 2007
These are Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Toshiba and Samsung. Although in many countries hard disk sizes are fast normalizing at 300 gigabytes to 500 gigabyte disks, in Asia, the best sellers are still in the 80 gigabyte to 160 gigabyte range. Do we really need such a big storage? For some yes, but for some no. In the last few months, we see in our local market companies that are starting to consider thin client computers that are powered by one-gigabyte to four-gigabyte solid state drives (these are disk drives that have no moving parts akin to the memory that are used in thumb drives which retains the data even without powerunlike the RAM chips of the computer which loses data the moment it is powered down). If the PC is for personal use, yes, we need to have a big hard disk to store digital songs, pictures, video and, yes, games. But for a pure corporate setting where the important files are stored in the server anyway, and the company dictates only a handful (or maybe even just one application) to run, then a one-gigabyte to four-gigabyte hard disk is enough. In fact, this disk space range is preferred so that employees will not store personal pictures, downloads or games inside their machines.

AUSTRALIA’S MERMAID MARINE QUADRUPLES 2007 REVENUE.
Free with registration – AsiaPulse News – AccessMyLibrary.com – Nov 22, 2007
–> COPYRIGHT 2007 Asia Pulse Pty Ltd PERTH, Nov 22 Asia Pulse – The boom in offshore gas and oil exploration and production continues to underpin Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd’s (ASX:MRM) strong earnings outlook, the company says. Chairman Tony Howarth told the company’s annual general meeting today in Perth that revenues were strong in October. He said Mermaid Marine, which services the offshore oil and gas industry, mainly in Western Australia, was “on track to continue our growth in the first half.