“We run our business on an email process.”

Business Email System

“We run our business on email” is a very common phrase we hear when doing our initial consultations with customers. Further investigation nearly always reduces this to “we run our business on an email process”. The difference is subtle but very important; a business that runs on an email system like Google business email needs the ability receive blocks of text and images, and send blocks of text and images.

The Business Email Process

Businesses that run on an email process use email as a medium for all of their other tools and software:

• CRM systems
• Mapping and integration into ERP and PSA systems
• Automating finance and accounting systems
• Managing events and calendars
• Accessing files internally
• Sharing files externally

The Invisible Glue

This type of email process is something we take for granted even more than email itself. When executed well it is invisible, but it lives on a complex web of service integration that is driven by things that require acronyms and flow-charts to explain.

As we move at speed into a world where users and employees can access their business applications from anywhere, and on anything, the days of doing this integration at the user-side has passed us.
Try setting up your Google business email system to automatically perform an action in your Gmail based on something that happens in your CRM system – you just can’t, and neither can your IT department. Today these things have to be done server-side, and for that to happen you need tight integration between the servers that you control and those that you outsource to your email provider.

Buy Systems, Not Applications

Microsoft has been much maligned for decades for providing piecemeal solutions; selling bricks rather than houses. The fanfare when Google announced its rent-a-house business email solution has died down as larger businesses realise that living in someone else’s house has its disadvantages; you have to live by their rules.

The Importance of Google Apps Alternatives

The advent of Google Apps, and formerly Google Apps alternatives like Zoho and Salesforce, changed the conversation for the benefit of the consumer and drove the industry, including Microsoft, from selling individual bricks to selling solutions. You no longer buy an Exchange server, you buy an email solution. But as eVantage Technology has discovered, companies don’t need an email solution, they need an email process solution, and this requires some thought about the rest of your business and how it’s going to work with your new email system.

The Google Business Email House

The Google business email system is a self-contained “rent-a-house” solution that works very well for many companies, generally smaller companies that have to worry about upfront cash costs more than long term Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). When it comes to needing an integration platform for your business email process, it may be time to look at Google Apps alternatives.

Google Apps Alternative

Microsoft currently has a 95% market share in business productivity applications and a 75% share in server operating systems.  These numbers are higher in the midmarket sector where the money isn’t available to move to integrated non-Microsoft systems.

It’s a statistical probability that your company is already running most of its business-critical applications on a Microsoft platform of some kind.

The ability to administer Office 365 via the command line to perform advanced technical administration and integration tasks, as well as Microsoft’s development of a single, standard authentication platform called Azure Active Directory and the almost universal use of Microsoft Outlook in business today makes them a contender for providing a platform for your business email system.

Now, 18 months down the line, the aim of this article is to report back on my experience as a customer as it relates to the way Microsoft treats security and privacy with Office 365.

One of the most common generalisations/assumptions about cloud technology is that cloud is less secure than traditional IT infrastructure setups and that your data isn’t safe in the cloud. This assumption is so commonly dished out that cloud providers often find themselves doing a much harder job of convincing clients to transition from traditional IT to cloud-based solutions than they anticipated (I believe this questioning is healthy and don’t want it to stop). Dispelling the “un-secure” assumption should be a full time job for cloud providers; a job with which Microsoft set the bar when it released Office 365.

As a customer I find this so refreshing from a service provider and I struggle to find anything similar that gives this extra peace of mind.

On May 3 this year, Office 365 received certification under the US Federal Information Security Management Act, adding to a list of security and compliance certifications and audits that include EU Model Clauses, HIPAA, Safe Harbor, ISO 27001 and SAS70 Type II. Microsoft Office 365 is transparent with these certifications and audits and regularly publishes them (click here to see http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/trust-center.aspx.)

On the Office 365 Trust Center Microsoft states: “We understand people have high expectations of any service provider and an interest in understanding where their data resides, who can access it and what we do with it. To that end, we created the Office 365 Trust Center to enable customers to learn more.” As a customer I find this so refreshing from a service provider and I struggle to find anything similar that gives this extra peace of mind.

One security feature of Office 365 my firm enjoys day-in and day-out is the antivirus and spam protection. To give an example, and Kudos to the Microsoft team for giving enterprise client administrators the ability to view email traffic stats, in the past week our company, which owns over 160 mailboxes, received 3709 spam messages of which only six are false positives. This is a remarkable level of accuracy by any spam filtering standards.

It’s reassuring to know that companies like Microsoft are committed to protecting customers

A few of the Office 365 features that I value include:

• A financially backed 99.9% uptime Service Level Agreement
• Data centres with SAS 70 and ISO 27001 certification
• Geo-redundant data centres and automatic failovers
• Enterprise-grade disaster recovery
• Up-to-date antivirus and anti-spam protection

I have been in technology long enough to know that cybercriminals are increasingly sophisticated, resourced and determined. It’s reassuring to know that companies like Microsoft are committed to protecting customers like me from online security and privacy threats through constant innovation and product development.

As users of technology products and services we must always remain diligent to keep these threats at bay, we should always challenge our cloud vendors to maintain a high level of security and privacy standards and certifications that are visible to the public; something that Microsoft has shown with Office 365.

Author : Bobby Jimenez, Chief Technology Officer, Sindicatum Sustainable Resources

This article has been reproduced with kind permission of www.techadvisory.org 

The 19th century industrialists, when offered electricity as a service for the first time, could only see how their lathes could be made to run more reliably, cheaply and safely -­‐ they would not have been able to begin to see the possibilities utility power would bring them. Even basics like lighting to run extra shifts would have eluded them at first.

Today we are faced with the same challenge: what will we able to do when we really begin to harness the benefits that Cloud computing brings?

What makes Cloud Computing truly compelling is that it enables business to focus on what really matters to them

It is becoming increasingly apparent that Cloud Computing can no longer be ignored by any business. There are many drivers to its adoption, and many different implementations ranging from self-­‐managed on-­‐premise facilities to publicly available software and infrastructure services.

What makes Cloud Computing truly compelling is that it enables business to focus on what really matters to them. Every business has a Unique Selling Proposition, a core reason for being in business. Usually computer systems and infrastructure get much attention because they are high-­‐risk and complex factors, but rarely are they the core reason a business exists.

Cloud Computing provides businesses with the freedom to be remarkable.

One simple illustration of this concept may help: before email, business usually had to compromise on how many prospects they could reach directly. Their choices involved issues of cost and scaling; the outsourcing phone calls usually results in a diluted message. But with email, businesses only need concern themselves with the messaging -­‐ they could ignore issues of how many of their prospects or customers to reach, and focus on the things that most matter.

Another example -­‐ imagine starting a fishing business with one boat and one net. How big a boat? How big a net should you buy? Should you invest heavily just in case you come across a 500 tonne school of fish, or go for something smaller, realizing that the large school will get away? Cloud Computing is like being able to buy a boat and net that elastically grows while at sea if you come across a large school.

Cloud Computing provides businesses with the freedom to be remarkable. Like the 19th century industrialists who were offered electricity as a service for the first time, we can only begin to imagine the possibilities of what Cloud Computing will bring when we start to focus on the possibilities and not the technology.

Author : Alan Perkins, ACCA Board member/RackSpace Director of Product and Technology for APAC

This article is reproduced with kind permission from Asia Cloud Computing Association

About the Asia Cloud Computing Association: The Association, launched in November 2010, is a forum for hardware and software developers, carriers, enterprise users, policy makers, and researchers. We drive the adoption of cloud computing in Asia by addressing regional issues of regulation and policy, security infrastructure and awareness As the only forum focused on cloud computing issues in Asia, The Association is a place for collaboration and innovation for all stakeholders with an interest in Asia’s cloud market. www.AsiaCloud.org

Microsoft Office 365 – Microsoft’s largely cloud based version of Office – is a popular Office product for many reasons. One advantage is the sheer number of features across the suite which allow you to do almost anything. There are some lesser-known features which are just as useful too, one of which integrates your mobile phone into an Outlook notification center.

Did you know that Outlook for Office 365 can send you text message alerts? To achieve this you need to first establish a rule for Outlook Web Access/App (OWA) – Office 365′s webmail (browser) version of Outlook.

There are two classes of notification you can set up: Notifications for calendars, or notifications for email. When you create a rule, you will receive a text message whenever the rule’s parameters are met.

Here’s how you can set this feature up:

1. Open Outlook Web Access in your browser. The standard address is usually: https://mail.yourcompanydomain.com/owa. It’s important to note that you need to go to Outlook Web Access.
2. Log in using your Office 365 username and password.
3. Select Options – located in the top-right of the window – followed by See All Options.
4. Click Phone from the list on the left side of the window and then Text Messaging.
5. Pressing Turn on Notifications, selecting your Locale: and finally your Mobile Operator.
6. Press Next and enter your phone number with the area code, and without the country code.
7. Click Next again and check your phone. You should get a pass code in a text message that you will need to enter. After you receive this, press Finish.
8. Setting up rules
9. After you have set up OWA to send you text messages, you can look into the two different types of alerts. As mentioned above, the first are calendar alerts. Pressing Set up Calendar notifications will allow you to establish rules related to your calendar. For example, you can create a rule where you will receive a text message when you have a meeting scheduled with a specific client or employee.

If you would like to receive text message alerts for your email, you can click on Set up email notifications using an Inbox rule. You have many different rules you can set up. For example: You can make a rule to receive a text whenever you get an email that contains the words: Update.

To get the most out of these features we suggest you play around with them and come up with something that works for you. Don’t go overboard though, as you probably don’t want to be receiving text messages every few minutes. Also, it’s important to be aware of how your mobile carrier charges for texts. If you get charged for incoming texts, this feature could cause your mobile bills to skyrocket. Interested in learning more about what Office 365 can bring to your business? Give us a shout, we can help.

This article has been reproduced with kind permission from www.techadvisory.org 

If you’re a Mac user, chances are pretty high that you use the Mail program as your main email hub. Mail is a great program as you can have multiple accounts tied to it, ideal for the busy manager with more than one account. If you use Microsoft Office 365 in your office, did you know you can set up Mail to send/receive emails from your Office 365 account?

Here’s how to configure Mac’s Mail program to enable you to send/receive emails from your Office 365 account(s).

For OS X 10.7 (Lion) and later

1. Open System Preferences by clicking on the icon with the cogs on the launch bar or pressing Command (⌘) + Spacebar and typing: System Preferences.
2. Click Mail, Contacts, & Calendars.
3. Click +, located underneath the list of accounts on the left-hand side of the window.
4. Select Microsoft Exchange from the list of services on the right.
5. Enter your name as you would like it to appear on sent emails, your email address and password.
6. Hit Continue. The next screen should be an Account Summary screen, ensure the information is correct and hit Continue.
7. Ensure Mail, Contacts and Calendar are selected from the next screen. This will link the Mac programs Mail, Contacts and Calendar with their Office 365 counterparts.
8. Press Add Account.
9. Open Mail and your account will sync.
10. Try sending a test email. Ensure that you select your Office 365 account as the sender if you have more than one account linked to Mail.

For OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

1. Open Mail, usually located on the launch bar at the bottom of the screen. If you can’t find it, it’s located in your Applications folder.
2. From the menu bar select Menu followed by Preferences. You can also hit ⌘ + , to open preferences.
3. Select Accounts on the window that opens.
4. Click +, located underneath the list of accounts on the left-hand side of the window.
5. Select Microsoft Exchange from the list of services on the right.
6. Enter your name as you would like it to appear on sent emails, your email address and password.
7. Hit Continue. The next screen should be an Account Summary screen, so ensure the information is correct and hit Continue. Note: You may get a screen asking to put in your server address. If you do, contact the administrator in charge of Office 365 for the relevant addresses.
8. Ensure Also set up: Address Book contacts and iCal calendars are ticked in the Account Summary screen.
9. Hit Create and your account should sync.
10. Try sending an email and just ensure to select your Office 35 account as the sender if you have more than one account.
11. If you have any more questions about Office 365 for either your Mac or PC, please contact us, we can help.

This article has been reproduced with kind permission from www.techadvisory.org 

Microsoft Office has grown from a simple office suite, offering a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software, into a product that allows users to run a whole office. Because products like Office 365 are made up of a number of individual programs there often needs to be a mesh that combines all the output into one central area. This program is SharePoint.

SharePoint is a great way for companies to enhance Microsoft Office 365′s capabilities. It has many benefits that small to medium business owners can take advantage of. Here’s five of the best.

1. Office Web Apps
SharePoint can be linked with Office Web Apps (the browser based version of Office), which will give your employees access to their documents anywhere they have access to a Web browser with an Internet connection.

2. Easier sharing of documents
When working with different Office programs, some files can become so large that they can’t be shared over email, or take too long to upload and send. SharePoint provides users with a central location they can save their documents to. This makes it easier for parties to access and share information. Tools like PowerPivot, for example, make it possible to share massive spreadsheets.

3. A collaborative environment
When you have multiple employees working on the same document, keeping updated can be tough as each user will likely have different versions saved on their computer. This makes updating a hassle. It’s even harder when users are located in different locations and rely on email or teleconferencing to work together.

With SharePoint’s central file system, users view the same document. If changes are made by one person they will immediately show on the document. This coherence promotes and makes collaboration more effective, while also making it easier for managers to collate, view and make changes to ensure all users are on the same page – quite literally!

4. Simplified way to find documents
SharePoint supports many different file types beyond the ones used by Office. For example, there are media plugins that allow videos stored in the library to be streamed from anywhere in SharePoint. This central library, if used by all employees to store necessary files, is easily searchable and employees will be better able to quickly find the information they need. No more having to ask Jim from HR about where to find tax forms, just search on SharePoint.

SharePoint’s server based software also makes it easier for businesses to combine different systems into one central system where information is accessible.

5. It’s manageable
SharePoint also provides tools that make it easier for content managers, team leads, etc. to coordinate documents and user activity. This program has been designed with administration, deployment and use in mind, giving companies a convenient way to stay on top of all the information they generate. If you have employees leave the company, the information and documents they worked on are already on SharePoint, so you don’t have to worry about not being able to find files on hard drives.

SharePoint brings a lot of functionality to Office 365 users and can be the key to not only efficient document creation but management as well. If you would like to learn more about how you can extend your business capabilities with Office 365 and SharePoint, please call us.

This article has been reproduced with kind permission from www.techadvisory.org 

One of the more important components of computers, and any electronic device really, is the hard drive. The most popular drive is the hard disk drive (HDD) which has been in use in computers since the mid 1950s. It’s safe to say that these drives are a little past their prime but luckily there is a replacement: solid-state drives (SSD).

You’ve likely heard of SSDs – drives that have no moving parts – and you may have even looked at the price of them. Yes, they are more expensive when compared with the aging HDD platform, SSDs however have a number of benefits over their cheaper cousins.

Here’s five benefits of using SSDs in your company:

This article has been reproduced with kind permission from www.techadvisory.org 

Many countries’ economies are facing uncertain times. Growth in China has slowed, the US is facing a fiscal cliff that could ruin the US economy and any relient economies associated with it. It’s in these uncertain times that many companies are doing more with less and when it comes to IT, this means budget cuts. When these need to be made, many companies will look at cutting service contracts, something that may come back to haunt them in the future.

Below are five of the more common issues businesses face when they decide to allow IT support contracts to lapse.
Increased response and resolution time – The way almost every company works is they provide support to paying customers before they provide support to others. If your systems bought from a vendor three years ago crash, and you didn’t renew the support contract, you will be facing prolonged downtime and potentially high replacement costs which could be detrimental to your business.

1. Increased response and resolution time – The way almost every company works is they provide support to paying customers before they provide support to others. If your systems bought from a vendor three years ago crash, and you didn’t renew the support contract, you will be facing prolonged downtime and potentially high replacement costs which could be detrimental to your business.
2. Poor implementation of updates – One of the main jobs of the IT provider is to ensure that all systems are up-to-date, or at the very least are running the same version of software as other systems. Without this valuable service, it is almost guaranteed that users will be running different software versions which could pose security and integration risks.
3. Lack of diagnostic and analysis tools – IT providers often utilize robust diagnostic and analysis tools that can help determine what issues are causing problems. On the other end, many IT service companies are set up to be proactive, and will usually look for and fix potential problems. This business model minimizes downtime, which can be hard to do without a costly internal IT department.
4. Reactive support – The proactive nature of many IT service providers really helps, but when you don’t renew contracts, your service will likely go from proactive to reactive. Meaning you likely won’t know anything’s wrong until it really goes wrong. So instead of systems being down for an hour for monthly maintenance, they could be down up to a week or longer. This is something no business wants.
5. Increased hardware overhead – With a good service provider, your systems will last longer. This equates to lower hardware overhead over a longer period. Without them, companies will often see higher overhead due to having to replace equipment more often.

Yes, we agree, it can be hard to justify paying what seems like a high monthly fee to keep your systems running, especially in this difficult financial climate. However, the potential of both lost revenue from crashed systems and replacement costs often make IT service providers an integral and valuable part of your technical systems.

If you’re facing budget cuts, why not talk to us, we may be able to work with you to develop a plan that meets both your needs and budget.

This article has been reproduced with kind permission from www.techadvisory.org 

Apple is famous for its secrecy regarding new product launches, both externally and inside the company. Many Apple employees below the higher management levels may not even have full knowledge about the products they are working on and often find out about new products around the same time as you and I.¹ A clandestine corporate policy helps Apple protect its highly innovative trade secrets, but can also result in first generation products that do not meet consumers’ expectations.

Being secretive means letting as few people as possible know about new product releases. This means restricting access to lower level managers, the people on the ground responsible for the individual components of the product; and beta testers, the group that assures the quality of the final product. Even the partial absence of these two important groups can mean bugs and errors, or missing features; the curse of first generation Apple products.

Since many of these problems are not realized until the first consumers get their hands on new products, the early adopters of Apple products effectively become their beta testers. By the time the second and third generation products are released, many of the problems identified by the early adopters are resolved and missing features added through hardware and software updates. The majority of consumers purchase Apple products in this phase of the product life cycle and thus receive high quality, market tested products.
Because of Apple’s forward thinking technology and innovation, early adopters get to use products that are often years ahead of the market; on the other hand average consumers purchase products that are market tested and feature rich. In fact, both consumer groups get exactly what they want and should be satisfied rather than disappointed by the curse of first generation Apple products.

¹Lashinsky, Adam. “The Secrets Apple Keeps.” CNN. January 18, 2012.

What we don’t see is moderately messy server rooms, or nearly tidy server rooms, or slightly chaotic server rooms.

This dichotomy exists in other areas of human habitation as well.  When was the last time you saw a slightly scary street, or an almost derelict building?  Streets are either safe or scary; buildings are either maintained or derelict.

There is a theory that was embraced by an American policy commissioner called Broken Windows Theory that accounts for the dichotomy in streets, and in my experience it applies to server rooms as well.

The Broken Windows Theory, for those not familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s work that popularised it, concludes that broken windows in buildings lead to serious crimes, not from them.  This initially seems counter intuitive, but if you imagine a broken window that goes unrepaired, vandals may break more windows, leading to doors being broken, squatters moving in, drugs becoming a problem and a crime hotspot appearing.
My theory is that messy server rooms lead to a badly managed IT ecosystem, not from it.  A patch cable not routed properly because there isn’t time, or it’s only temporary, leads to another because “someone else had already done it”; maybe of the wrong colour because it was to hand.  Maybe this leads to patching into the wrong switch or VLAN because it’s easier.  The bridge between that and bypassing segregated networks is a short one.  The ethos that allows that behaviour would turn a blind eye to overly generous administrative rights, and when a new virus hits the networks it’s Goodnight Vienna
.