I pride myself on being a technology savvy Virtual Assistant and a bit of a ‘tech head’. I’m pretty good at nutting out most problems with my PC software and helping others with their software issues. However, there is one problem with my Microsoft Outlook 2007 that has got me stumped and has been occurring since I bought my new Dell laptop last year. It freezes at will, shut downs, restarts, comes up with an annoying "The document template is not valid" whenever I try to open an email or an appointment. I also do not have an address book - I cannot link the file to my Contacts to get this happening. I have done some research and I realise it is a compatibility issue when upgrading from 2003 to 2007 or transferring 2003 files to 2007 (which I have done). The ‘fixes’ they suggest have not worked.

So I duly called Dell to see what they could do and to my surprise, I was told I only had the hardware warranty, not the software warranty. So $82 later, I now have the 12 month software warranty helpdesk support. This was something I omitted to look at when I purchased my new PC, perhaps arrogantly thinking I could handle any issues myself. It is a timely reminder that small business should have a software support plan in place, whether it be your partner who is an IT expert, a reliable accessible friend or family member who is expert in IT issues or a paid for helpdesk service, of which there are many around.

Dell were extremely helpful when I previously had issues with my PC not connecting to the Internet and dropping out. They fixed it remotely from Malaysia or wherever they are and because I purchased my system from them, they have all my details on file and I feel confident they can provide me with the support I require (hopefully infrequently!). Virtual Helpdesk Assistants helping a Virtual Assistant!

Now I just have to get around to calling them back to get this darn Outlook problem fixed …

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