Tag Archives: Microsoft Exchange Server

Expert Corner: Remote Access on a Budget

I work in one town but our main office is in another town. I had to figure out how to make sure our employees can use the software we use. Here is what I do to make it all work. We manage about 3,000 clients and have three offices 45 miles from each other, along with a number of our employees who work from home one or more days a week. We don’t have server farms or a bona fide IT department. Other than a fast internet connection, a Netgear gigabit router and a Cisco switch, we use the cloud and other free tools to manage our systems because we live on a budget. I am a sales person, first and foremost. If I’m not selling, we’re not making money. I don’t have time to spend on the road outside of client meetings and sales presentations. The question has always been, how can I get software and minor hardware issues handled without having to drive an hour just to fix a very simple problem? We started off by using a Web-based management system called AMS360 (www.ams360.com). Any associate can work with a client from their office or while the agency principal is lounging by the pool in Fort Myers Beach. This has completely changed the way we do business. We got rid of the file cabinets and now have all documents, client notes, and expenses for future client contacts in one place. In the millisecond world we live in, clients believe that quotes and changes need to be handled within the minute, not the hour. Because of this access, I am able to complete tasks from the client’s office and provide them with a confirmation email before ever leaving the meeting. As a management team we can review associate interactions with clients by reviewing activities created for each client in the management system. This allows us to change our methods or identify potential problems with the sales structure before it turns into a problem. Tech support is another major issue. Over the years, I have had to deal with fixing simple issues over the phone, explaining something to an associate who doesn’t even know where to find the Windows control panel or how to set the properties on their multi-screen workstation. One of my new favorite applications for doing tech support is called LogMeIn.com. I first install the LogMeIn client on every one of our remote machines. Then I can easily make any software change without leaving the office. If the computer boots up and has Internet access, I can control it. I use the free version that allows me to see all computers, monitor computer use, and just about anything else except play sounds or transfer files. I have even used my laptop to show a presentation on a workstation connected to a projector within the same conference room. Transferring files between our offices was always a big question mark. It’s now a breeze. I found a free Web app called Dropbox. This is a form of online storage, but the idea is you can share files and folders with anyone who has a Dropbox account (such as our own employees). I simply install an app on my PC, then drag and drop files into folders within my Dropbox account for others to access. I have created folders to share with the office staff and other colleagues. Each folder is shared only with a defined group or individual. I even placed the article I am writing now in my Dropbox for later review and retrieval. It replaces having to email a file — one that was probably too large for the 5MB email limit on the mail server and also does not give my colleagues access to the original source file. Another area of irritation for us has to do with managing virus protection on remote computers. We use a product called Sunbelt Vipre (www.vipreantivirus.com). We can update virus definitions automatically or make changes to our remotely defined groups, such as sales staff, customer support workstations, laptops, and other groups I have created. It allows me to filter websites for content by keyword and monitor use without using an onsite firewall, which means less PC maintenance for me. One of the best parts of Vipre is the ability to generate custom reports about everything from individual computer use to spyware or virus threats. Our fourth area is the life blood of office communications: email. For that, we use a combination of Microsoft Outlook and Gmail.com. We do not have an Microsoft Exchange Server within our organization, so we use Gmail to control the flow of email to our smart phones. Setting up our Charter hosted email to forward a copy of every email to our individual Gmail accounts saved us thousands of dollars since we would have spent that on an Microsoft Exchange server. Basically, I send a copy to my laptop and one to my Gmail account. This syncs seamlessly with my BlackBerry Bold 9650. Outgoing email looks and feels like I am sitting at my desk when, in reality, I am probably powering through lunch and trying to catch up on the morning’s email. I manage the email with the BlackBerry’s option to delete e-mail on the mailbox and on my phone. Ok, you are probably asking: why do that? Isn’t it better to save e-mails on the server? After a few months of deleting emails accidently from the phone and the mailbox, I found that I wanted copies to remain in Outlook on my laptop so I could add them to the management system with client notes and the files that just don’t work on a phone. So I didn’t want to keep e-mails on the server; I wanted to force myself to keep them. Let’s face it: software vendors go out of their way to integrate with Outlook. It’s true that I have to delete something twice, but Outlook routes email to folders easily to save them. Time is money and I am not making money unless I am selling something. I don’t have the time to spend on the road when I can do most of my tech support from my own office. It just makes sense to utilize all the tools available to manage information and systems remotely.

Incoming: Can You Save on E-mail Software?

Web-hosted e-mail is gaining popularity but for some small and mid-sized businesses, it just won’t do. “Many companies, for technical, political, or cultural reasons will never want their e-mail hosted in the cloud,” says Alan Elliot, vice president of sales and marketing at Mirapoint Software, Inc. which provides an e-mail server solution. “E-mail is a commercial tool, so the company may want some users to remain behind the firewall at all times, or it may have to comply with stringent policies about how data is handled. The company may want to retain deeply detailed records, and it may want to be the first to know if there’s a problem.” For many companies, serving mail in-house means two things: Microsoft Outlook running on users’ desktops, and Microsoft Exchange Server running on the company’s server or servers. With Outlook the clear market leader in business e-mail, it may well be the right choice, especially if users are accustomed to it. And it may seem just as logical to support it with Exchange on the back end. But Microsoft Exchange Server is not your only option for supporting an in-house Outlook e-mail system, and it certainly isn’t the least expensive one. “The big cost of running Exchange is almost always the people you need to maintain it,” explains Richi Jennings, an independent industry analyst and e-mail expert. “Good IT people who know about Exchange and can deal with it when all hell breaks loose are expensive. And with a few hundred users, you might easily need two full-time equivalents.” Instead, you may be able to tame costs by opting for one of several less-expensive e-mail server systems, while users continue using the Outlook they know and love. There are many systems that can support Outlook on your server. Here are three that are geared for the small and mid-sized business market: Gordano Messaging Suite When compared to the standard configuration for Microsoft Exchange Server, Gordano Messaging Suite licenses cost about $400 less for 25 users, and the savings increase exponentially as the user count rises, according to a price comparison provided by Gordano, which launched its first commercial e-mail product in 1995. There’s bigger savings on maintenance, though telephone support for users is not included in the license price. Gordano Messaging Suite can be, and often is, managed by non-technical staff at client companies. “It’s simple to install,” says John Stanners, advisor to Gordano and former managing director. “Our office record for installing it on a server was less than a minute, and then we were ready to start adding users.” In addition to supporting Outlook, Gordano has a webmail client that is hosted on an internal server and runs in a browser on users’ desktops either at the office or at home. That eliminates the hassle of maintaining Outlook on the desktop. “It was designed to look and function as much like Outlook as possible, and when you walk by people’s desks it’s difficult to tell who’s using Outlook and who’s using our webmail,” Stanners says. Ipswitch iMail iMail Server from Ipswitch offers 90 percent of the features Microsoft Exchange Server does, says Brad Senter, marketing manager for Ipswitch. The exception is unified communication functions: iMail Server, first launched in 1994, can’t do things like send voice messages to users’ inboxes. But the cost is significantly lower, with licensing costs of $34.95 for the iMail server, and $12.95 to $15.95 per user, depending on the number of users. Though iMail Server is installed in some very large companies, including one with more than 300,000 users, it was created specifically for small and mid-sized businesses, he says, which allowed the company to build a lower-cost product. “Twenty-five percent of our customer base is companies with fewer than 100 users. Typically, they have one IT person who’s responsible for everything. It works for them because our software is designed for administrators. It’s easier to learn and to maintain.” Mirapoint Mirapoint takes a different approach to in-house e-mail: Instead of providing software to run on your server, it ships an appliance with the e-mail software already hard-wired in (and, if desired, a second smaller appliance for archiving). “The box is fully integrated, so caring and feeding are minimal,” Elliot explains. “Once configured, it can truly be an ancillary responsibility for someone.” The appliance starts at $10,000 he says, with user licensing ranging from $50 a year to $10 a month, depending on desired features. “Mirapoint was approximately half the price of a Microsoft Exchange solution,” reports Dan Bailey, IS director of Norton Sound Health Corporation, a tribally-owned non-profit health care organization in Nome, Alaska that has been using Mirapoint for several years. “The other factor was the limitation of the IS staff. This is a small staff responsible for a large network and the manpower isn’t there to spend a lot of time maintaining Exchange.” Questions to ask If you’re thinking of supporting Outlook with a non-Exchange server, Jennings recommends reviewing several factors in addition to cost. “You should consider what the webmail experience is like because users may access the system from a computer in café or at a trade show. And what is the mobile interface like for someone using an iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android phone?” Companies considering Exchange alternatives should address these issues, he says, in addition to the one they always consider, which is how similar or dissimilar the experience is for users accustomed to Exchange. “That’s the number-one question everyone thinks about,” he says. He advises asking very specific questions about exactly which Exchange functions will and won’t work for employees using Outlook on alternative server software. “Often, the devil is in the details.”

Incoming: Can You Save on E-mail Software?

Lost a Smartphone? Track It and Erase Data

The unfortunate reality for those who lose a smartphone is the cost to replace the hardware should be the least of your worries. Rather, the data that resides on the smartphone — including potentially sensitive information about your company’s plans, sales, and customers — isn’t something you want falling into the wrong hands. “Organizations have been hearing a lot about the threat of mobile security breaches. However different from PCs, the threat on mobile isn’t the compromise of the device itself to be taken over and used for malicious ends, it’s the data that resides on these devices that should be the critical area of focus for organizations,” says Chris Silva, executive vice president for research and service delivery at IANS, a Boston Mass.-based IT research company. “Therefore, the threat of viruses and malware, while still nascent and therefore not an area of intense focus, is not where most organizations should be focused. Rather, their sights should be set on how to protect the data on devices such as customer information, e-mails, contact details, and other sensitive information,” adds Silva. Locking a smartphone with a password isn’t enough. Instead, many vendors, and third-party software developers, are offering ways to remotely wipe the data from lost or stolen smartphone. “The way it’s done is a small packet of data is sent down to the device’s firmware, remotely, that will start to scrub the device of its information,” explains Ken Dulaney, vice president of mobile computing at the Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner research and consulting group. “Most consumers could probably care less about this, but it’s incredibly important for businesses to have a remote wipe feature in place for its employee’s phones.” Using GPS and/or cellular triangulation, you might also be able to track a missing phone — say, if you left it at a nearby restaurant after a business lunch — or if stolen, the information could be given to the authorities to pursue. Whether you use a BlackBerry, iPhone, or Windows device, here’s a look at the offerings (and cost) of what’s available today: iPhone Apple’s MobileMe service ($99/year), which synchronizes all of your information between Apple devices — such as e-mail, contacts, and calendars — can also be used to remotely lock, wipe, or locate a lost or stolen iPhone. When you realize your phone is missing, the first step is to log into your MobileMe account on a computer and remotely set a four-digit passcode lock to prevent anyone from using it. Then, you can have it ring (in case you left it under a pile of clothes), type a text message that appears on the iPhone’s screen (e.g. “Please call me if found”) or you might want to locate the phone on a map. If this, too, proves unsuccessful, you might want to remotely wipe the iPhone’s data, which is also an option once logged into your MobileMe account. Or you can do this through a Microsoft Exchange Server wipe command, too. Windows Phones Designed for Windows Mobile 6.0 phones (and newer), Microsoft’s My Phone (free) offers a number of handy features including automatic back-ups of your phone’s info (such as contacts, e-mails, and text messages) and the ability to access it all online. Once you sign up for the service, you can erase your phone if it is missing by sending a command to restore the device to its original factory settings. My Phone can also find your lost phone by pinpointing the last location it was synchronized. Many phones — including the upcoming Windows Phone 7 devices — will have My Phone already bundled on the phone but it’s also available as a free download. BlackBerry There are a few free third-party tools available for users of Research in Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones. For one, SmrtGuard lets you remotely track or wipe your phone. A “Pro” version of the software also gives a “data protection package,” enabling you to backup and restore your data. BuddyGuard also lets you remotely access, lock, wipe, or retrieve a missing BlackBerry (via GPS). Similar to MobileMe, you can also have the BlackBerry emit a loud tone — even if the phone was left in silent mode — if you suspect the device is somewhere in the home, car, or office.

Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3G vs. Storm

Many handset makers have attempted to deflate the immense popularity of the almighty iPhone (from $199 with two-year AT&T plan), yet most have not succeeded. Whether it’s the iPhone’s large touch-screen, fast 3G and Wi-Fi speeds, thousands of downloadable apps from the App Store, or integrated media player, this trendy phone has become a cultural icon with consumers and increasingly, among corporate types, too. That said, many mobile workers who rely on a BlackBerry smartphone for its secure and fast push e-mail have been reluctant to make the switch to Apple’s trendy device. Now, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) is hoping it has struck gold with its newly-launched BlackBerry Storm ($199 with 2-year Verizon plan), a smartphone that attempts to offer the best of both worlds for customers who want it all: the reliable BlackBerry operating system with support for secure e-mail that’s pushed to the phone, as well as an iPhone-like touch-screen interface to navigate through content. In fact, the BlackBerry Storm’s touch-screen is the first that actually depresses when you press on the soft QWERTY keyboard and with an audible “click” to confirm letters or numbers have been selected. Some users believe both of these extras make it easier to type messages compared to the iPhone. So, are these fancy screen features — as well as expandable memory and a removable battery — enough to unseat the iPhone? Has RIM created the “perfect storm” to win over the working world? We spoke with a couple of technology analysts for their professional opinions. Carrier concerns According to Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at the New York-based JupiterResearch, now part of Forrester Research, deciding which smartphone to invest might not be too difficult a task. “For many, the carrier you’re with might determine which of these two smartphones you’ll pick up,” says Gartenberg. “Unless you’re willing to switch carriers — for yourself or the entire company — Verizon customers might opt for the BlackBerry Storm while AT&T customers will go with an iPhone.” In other words, the network might be the leading factor, says Gartenberg. Company support If carrier is not an issue in your decision to buy a BlackBerry Storm or Apple iPhone, it might boil down to what your company supports. “What’s on the backend of these devices, what it connects into, will help you make a smart smartphone decision,” explains Gartenberg, who suggests talking to your company’s IT person about server and e-mail support. “Apple is trying to make inroads into the business space, such as announcing Exchange ActiveSync with full Microsoft Exchange support for push e-mail, contacts, and calendar,” confirms Tim Doherty, associate research analyst for small and mid-sized businesses at IDC, a Framingham, Mass.-based research firm. “With the Storm, RIM is extending its reach into the consumer market and the touch-screen space, but remains firmly anchored in its framework of enterprise features and functionalities on a robust operating system,” continues Doherty. Small and mid-sized business customers seeking a touch screen experience have a rock-solid business platform to consider; RIM does not have to convince the market that its device will work in a business environment, he adds. Doherty says the mobile applications your company relies upon will also be a key decision maker when choosing a smartphone. Personal choice After carrier consideration and backend support, buying a smartphone for business comes down to personal preference. “The iPhone’s media playback and third-party app selection is much greater than the BlackBerrys,” says Gartenberg, “plus the iPhone offers Wi-Fi when the BlackBerry Storm does not.” But not everyone likes the iPhone’s touch-screen interface — especially when it comes to typing lengthy e-mails (which must be handled vertically). The BlackBerry Storm’s built-in accelerometer, on the other hand, will automatically flip the QWERTY keyboard horizontally when holding the device sideways for e-mail. There are other issues, too. “Despite Apple’s efforts, it has some shortcomings as a business device,” believes Doherty. “The iPhone lacks copy/paste functionality — a big deficit for even moderate volume e-mail users from any size company.” “And the iPhone’s lack of voice dialing could be a sticking point for field force and sales force workers who travel between multiple job locations or client visits,” Doherty adds. There are, however, many third-party apps that remedy these known iPhone shortcomings. Ultimately, says Doherty, there will likely be room for both devices in the small and mid-sized business market.

Alternatives to Microsoft Exchange

Many small and mid-sized businesses rely on Microsoft Exchange servers and services to manage e-mail and collaboration processes. But there are a growing number of alternative products on the market, each trying to chip away at Microsoft’s market share by delivering similar functionality for less money, making its software available on a non-Windows platform, or offering unique products and services not found in Microsoft Exchange. What Microsoft Exchange is Developed by the Redmond, Wash. software giant, Microsoft Exchange is the leading messaging and collaborative software solution, widely embraced by both small and mid-sized businesses and larger enterprises. Installed on a company’s premises, this server-based software is used for managing e-mail, calendaring, contacts, and tasks — all part of the Microsoft Office suite on the client end. Exchange also supports mobile and Web-based access to company info. Additionally, Microsoft’s offerings offers data storage, shared folders, and unified messaging solutions — such as accessing your voicemail box via e-mail or listening to your e-mail over the phone. “I wouldn’t say it’s the ‘de facto’ server solution but it’s certainly the leader in both revenue and the number of organizations,” says Mark Levitt, vice president of collaboration and enterprise 2.0 strategies at the Framingham, Mass.-based IDC research firm. “Because Microsoft has established itself as a provider of many applications and products, companies see value for a single source that offers a variety of management solutions, all using the same underlying Windows platform,” Levitt says. “Plus all upgrades and patches for multiple products can be handled by one company, which is very appealing.” The trouble with trying to compete According to Gary Chen, a senior analyst for enterprise research at the Boston, Mass.-based Yankee Group, e-mail management is “pretty much a two horse race” between Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino and Notes. “Exchange is definitely the leader — they’ve come up a lot over the past few years — though [IBM] Lotus Notes has really put a lot of effort into making a resurgence, and they have some interesting things on their roadmap,” says Chen. “Exchange can be hard to manage and the alternatives are cheaper, so [competing products] may find a niche for themselves.” Along with IBM Lotus Notes, Chen says Novell GroupWise is also a popular alternative for mid-sized businesses. “There are clear advantages to going with an accepted platform like Exchange, though,” concedes Chen. “In terms of the skills, ecosystem, and add-on products that you can take advantage of, Microsoft applications dominate [small and mid-sized businesses] and mid-market, and Microsoft has been integrating heavily with Exchange and SharePoint.” For some companies, e-mail isn’t a top priority, adds Chen. “Many rely on advanced functionality, applications that might be critical to their business, like unified messaging and shared folders – something Exchange does well.” PostPath and others Levitt says there are many alternatives to Microsoft Exchange. Along with IBM Lotus Domino and Notes and Novell GroupWise, competing integrated collaborative environments (ICE a.k.a. “groupware”) include Oracle Collaboration Suite, Yahoo!’s Zimbra Collaboration Suite, and PostPath, “which looks just like an Exchange server to other Exchange servers and to Outlook clients,” says Levitt. Sina Miri, spokesman for PostPath, which Cisco agreed to acquire on Aug. 27, says their clients prefer PostPath to Microsoft Exchange Server for a few reasons. The most critical is PostPath performs better on all hardware, says Miri. “This is especially true with modest and even low-end hardware, plus it’s low maintenance due to its architecture and the use of the file system as opposed to Exchange and its Jet database,” explains Miri. Standalone e-mail server software competitors include Sun Mail Server, CommuniGate, Ipswitch, MailSite, Gordano, Mirapoint, Scalix, and the Unix-based Sendmail. Levitt says free hosted consumer-oriented webmail services are often used by individuals for business purposes — such as Yahoo!, Gmail and Windows Live Hotmail — or free mailboxes bundled into Internet connectivity services, such as AOL, Comcast, Earthlink, Research in Motion, Verizon, and so on. Linux, too Linux has grown to be a low-cost alternative to Windows, says Levitt, and so companies like IBM, Novell, and Sun “have embraced the alternative operating system with competitors to Microsoft Exchange, which operate on the Windows platform.” The open-source movement can’t be ignored, says Levitt, especially with relatively high upfront costs for Microsoft Exchange, “not to mention ongoing upgrades, some of which you have to pay for, as well a licensing complexities when you’re dealing with multiple computers.” On the flipside, however, it might be harder for IT people to manager alternative software, which might add to your bottom line. “Many rush to open-source products because there is no initial check to write, but you don’t get anything for free,” cautions Levitt. “There are always associated costs when you’re dealing with a product not as well established or supported as Microsoft Exchange.”

Will the iPhone Fly as a Business Tool?

Gadget geeks will forever remember June 29, 2007, as the date Apple unleashed its much-hyped iPhone, a digital Swiss Army Knife that fused a handful of features — mobile phone, camera, media player and Wi-Fi-enabled Web device — with a graceful touch-based navigation interface. It became a sought-after consumer sensation, and remains as one to this day, but it seems Apple and third parties are trying to find a way the iPhone could also double as a clever business tool. But is there room for the iPhone in a world dominated by powerful smartphones with cutting-edge e-mail delivery, such as the BlackBerry? We spoke with analysts on whether or not it’s possible. Nathan Dyer, senior analyst for enterprise mobility at the Boston, Mass.-based Yankee Group, believes it can happen, and transforming this consumer product into a business tool will likely come from Apple opening up the platform to software developers. “The ‘holy grail’ in the mobility space for businesses is maximizing productivity and effectiveness of its workers, regardless of their location,” says Dyer. “Mobile workers need access to the same applications and corporate data that they have in the office — and it’s these third-party software vendors that will provide the infrastructure hooks to make the iPhone ‘business class’.” In March 2008, for example, Microsoft officially announced it was offering built-in support for Exchange, it’s messaging and collaboration platform, on the iPhone. “This is significant,” believes Chris Hazelton, senior analyst, mobile device technology and trends at IDC, a Framingham, Mass.-based technology research firm. “With Exchange ActiveSync on the iPhone, mobile businesspersons can connect to a company’s Exchange server behind a firewall.” Hazelton says Microsoft is also considering building Excel, Word, and PowerPoint accessibility into the device, which also means those receiving corporate e-mail on the iPhone can view and edit Microsoft Office attachments. Pro: Intuitive design and functionality When asked what might help the iPhone’s chances of catching on as a business device, Dyer says the device is extremely powerful and intuitive to use. “It takes complicated functionality, such as Wi-Fi integration and embedded Web searching, and makes it intuitive to the user.” Dyer adds, “The Safari Web browser on the iPhone has enormous potential to shift how workers access and generate content.” Hazelton says the iPhone’s popularity makes it an attractive alternative to other smartphones: “When I look at the history of the BlackBerry, it was a sign of prestige that you were important enough for the company to give you email anywhere you need it,” says Hazelton, “and now the BlackBerry is a standard for mobile workers.” But maybe it’s time for BlackBerry to move over, because there’s a new status-symbol for business users. “Now the iPhone has that air of elitism and prestige — executives want the iPhone in their world — so IT departments believe they have to account for that,” says Hazelton. The iPhone’s extras, such as a camera and music playback, also make it an appealing phone, says Hazelton. “You’ve got this willingness to carry device with you — you can load it up with music, movies, photos, and podcasts, which can make a long flight for an executive a better one.” He adds that the HTML browser is perfect whether you’re checking inventory or sports scores. Con: Lacks a compelling productivity story for IT Despite its growing popularity, Apple doesn’t have very much brand recognition — especially among IT departments — argues Dyer. “That, and the iPhone lacks a compelling productivity story to justify investment at this point.” One common issue, for some, is the “soft” keyboard, opposed to the BlackBerry or Treo with its button-based QWERTY keyboard (note: some BlackBerrys offer a condensed “SureType” keyboard). “The messaging interface [on the iPhone] is very cumbersome and takes some time getting used to,” says Dyer. But Hazelton says the keyboard isn’t an issue for everyone. “Yes, with the iPhone you actually need to look at the keyboard because there is no tactile feedback, it’s a different type of experience, but I can’t say one type of keyboard takes longer to type an e-mail than the other.” Hazelton says not many iPhone users know you can drag your thumbs across the soft keyboard and lift up when you get the desired letter. “If you can master this, you can text as fast as any BlackBerry.” Finally, security is an issue for all mobile devices, claim Dyer and Hazelton. The iPhone is no exception, especially as it has built-in Wi-Fi connectivity. Hazelton, however, says the next-generation iPhone software should support Cisco Virtual Private Network (VPN) and other security measures to help protect company data.

The Cable Guys Offer IT Services

A few months ago, Comcast swooped in with an offer some small businesses couldn’t refuse: e-mail, calendaring, and document sharing, all courtesy of Microsoft. Best of all, it’s all free — up to a point, anyway. For small businesses that sign up for Comcast’s broadband service, which starts at $60 a month, those customers get a suite of services called Microsoft Communication Services that are based on Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, and Microsoft SharePoint Services 3.0. Up to eight users, the service is free. Beyond that, the cost is $3.99 or $6.99 per user per month, depending on the services ordered. With the Comcast deal, Microsoft made a pre-emptive strike against Google, whose Web-based Google Apps represents a threat to Microsoft’s software hegemony. The Standard Edition of Google Apps is free, but the company charges $50 per account per year for its Premier Edition. Cable offering up apps Comcast’s goal was obviously to drum up more business from firms with fewer than 20 employees, aka small to mid-sized businesses. As Comcast president Bill Stemper puts it, small and mid-sized businesses “are the heart of the country — law firms, medical offices — these folks that not only have people in all sorts of different locations and in mobile offices, but key partners not in their location.” Stemper adds that people who work in large firms often take for granted that they have an IT department that does the work for them, but small firms often need all the help they can get. In fact, when Comcast made the announcement in November that it planned to offer such Microsoft services, the company positioned itself as the IT department for small businesses. As part of the push, the Philadelphia cable operator hired 750 salespeople and 1,200 technicians to develop business services and pledged to spend $3 billion going after small and mid-sized business customers. Stemper estimates that there are five million small and mid-sized businesses with fewer than 20 employees in the company’s coverage area, which represents a $12 billion to $15 billion market. Telcos getting in on the act Comcast isn’t the only one going after that audience. Competitors on the cable side include Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable as well as telcos like Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. Incumbent phone companies stand to lose as many as 1.5 million small-business phone lines, according to Insight Research Corp., of Boonton, N.J. Nevertheless, so far no one has tried to match Comcast’s offer. “Comcast is the only one, the only major ISP to be doing this,” says Patti Reali, principal analyst at Gartner Group, of Stamford, Conn. Even so, in a December report, Maribel Lopez, an analyst at Forrester Research, of Cambridge, Mass., says that while Comcast will have to work hard to change the perception that it’s merely a provider of pipes rather than business services, she also recommended that Comcast should go further by adding mobile services to the package and CRM and payroll software packages. Stemper says that for now the company is focusing on e-mail and collaboration tools, which have supplanted security as the “must-have” applications for small and mid-sized businesses. Says Stemper: “We’re always looking to see which new services make sense.”

Three Words that Spell Disaster in Business

“E-mail is down.” Even writing those words causes a visceral feeling of imminent doom. There’s no question that e-mail has become of strategic importance in all aspects of business. In a sense, it has turned out to be the digital equivalent of the “Girl Friday.” Digital conversations are recorded and tracked. Appointments are confirmed and received. Even deals are made and broken over e-mail. I think it’s fair to say that e-mail has become the heart of most businesses, pushing, pulling, and cajoling information from around the country or throughout the world (for those companies with global operations). In looking at the numbers in my own company, The Hoffman Agency, we send out around 57,000 e-mails per month, with incoming e-mails hitting around 45,000 within that same monthly cycle. It reminds me of that scene in the movie, “Crocodile Dundee,” when Paul Hogan pulls out a massive knife and states the obvious, “This is a knife.” Well, that’s a ton of e-mail for a company with 120 employees. Of course, it’s not only the quantity of e-mails, but also the fact that the application falls under the mission-critical umbrella that causes heartburn for IT folks. In our case, with offices in the U.S., Asia, and Europe (combined with employees burning the midnight oil), the e-mail server is running literally 24×7 throughout the year. This brings me to the crux of the issue: how to improve the uptime of an e-mail system. If you’re looking to truly bulletproof your system — that calls for redundancy. Let’s start with security At the foundation level, I recommend Microsoft Exchange Server, which gives you control over what comes in and goes out. Without getting into the technical details, the product verifies the credentials of each person logging on and off, and that keeps the bad guys out. It’s not cheap. Figure on spending at least $18,000 between labor costs, hardware, and the software licenses to get Microsoft Exchange Server up-and-running for 100 users. The software license does scale down with pricing available for as few as five users. I recognize that there are a fair number of small and mid-size businesses depending on Post Office Protocol (POP) for their e-mail operation. While you can’t beat the price (i.e., free), the POP approach puts you at the mercy of your Internet service provider for security, which can be hit or miss. Plus, POP e-mail is stored on the local PC instead of on a central e-mail server. This means anyone in your company using a PDA, smartphone, BlackBerry, or the like essentially opens a door to your IT operation that you have no way of watching. And then there’s spam Of course, I can’t overlook that wonderful mass blast that brings enlightenment to our children’s vocabulary, known as spam. There are three approaches to stopping spam: on-site spam filters (typically installed on the e-mail server), client side filters (installed on the individual machine), and managed spam filter services. We’ve used both on-site spam filters and client side filters. I’m not a fan of either. Both approaches can be administrative-intensive. I saw a quote from Osterman Research last year stating that more than 50 percent of the cost in managing an e-mail system is in labor. I believe it. That’s why we turned to deploying a managed spam filter service in which our e-mail goes through a third-party for “cleansing” before heading to our staff’s computers. In our case, we use a firm called eDoxs (costs around $2.60 per mailbox per month), but there are other reputable firms out there, such as Emerald, and LastSpam. To give you a sense of the problem, eDoxs blocked 1,062,876 e-mails last month (not that we’re counting). Another point on spam: If you allow employees to make online purchases on the company computer, ask them to use a personal e-mail address from Yahoo!, Gmail, etc. We had an employee leave over six months ago, and I’m still cleaning up e-mails that can be traced to her purchase of a pair of shoes online. Stay on top of disk space Beyond staying on top of security, I recommend a constant monitoring of disk space. Running out of disk space is one of the most common points of failure in an e-mail system. Given that the price of disk storage has dropped so low, there’s no reason to max out disk utilization before adding more space. On the topic of storage, sending large files as e-mail attachments can also grind your e-mail system to a crawl. This issue has become more pronounced over the past couple of years as people dispatch digital photos from the kid’s birthday party via company e-mail. At the very least, consider putting a file limit on attachments. A second approach is to look to a new category of services that specialize in moving large files from point A to point B without depending on your e-mail roadways. These services go by clever names such as Sendthisfile.com, Yousendit.com, Box.net, and Dropsend.com, allowing you to upload the file to their websites by filling out a form. Once the file has been uploaded, the service shoots an e-mail to the recipient with the link to the file. Most of the basic packages come free with a modest cost added depending on variables such as number of files, size of the files, and number of downloads. When the laptops go home As more companies move to laptop computers, it’s natural that these same machines pull double-duty for personal use, even extending to family members. Guide your employees that if they’re going to allow Johnny to surf the net on the company laptop to complete his report on the history of Macedonia, they need to exit out of e-mail. As elementary as it sounds, this is another cause of “undesirables” entering the company e-mail system. These suggestions give you a fighting chance to keep the e-mail running on time. Linda Wilson is the IT director of The Hoffman Agency, a global public relations firm with 120 employees.

What’s the Update: When to Get New Software

When it comes to business-related technology, there’s no bigger news than a major software release. Witness the splashy celebration marking the consumer launch of Microsoft Windows Vista, the company’s first new operating system in five years, along with the popular Microsoft Office 2007 suite of business applications, in January 2007. Among other launch events, 16 aerial acrobats formed a “human billboard” displaying the Windows logo on a building high above Manhattan, Bill Gates made a rare guest appearance on a comedy show, and retailers across the United States stayed open overnight for shoppers wanting to be the first to obtain the new versions. But while Microsoft and analysts have projected millions of sales for Vista alone this year, shoppers didn’t flood the stores that night — and, as of this writing, haven’t done so since. For some, it’s a simply a matter of caution: They’re waiting out the flurry of patches for problems that inevitably come to light shortly after any new software release. For others, it’s a textbook example of the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” principle: They feel that Vista’s predecessor, Windows XP, is working just fine right now, thank you very much, and they see no reason for immediate change. Even Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer acknowledged at the launch that many customers won’t upgrade to Vista until they need new computers, which will come equipped with the new software. It’s not that the new operating system doesn’t offer some attractive improvements. Among them: a more secure version of the Internet Explorer browser that helps prevent “phishing” attacks, the new Windows Defender anti-spyware tool and integrated searching capability. On the down side, Vista — which comes in five versions, ranging from “Home Basic” to “Ultimate” — is a disk hog, requiring at least 15 gigabytes of free hard-drive space. In addition, the new system may be incompatible with some existing third-party software applications. Ultimately, businesses and individual users must both weigh a whole host of such factors in deciding when to take the Vista plunge (as well as when to upgrade to Office 2007, with its new interface and many revamped tools and capabilities as well). That high-profile dilemma turns the spotlight on a bigger question: How do you know, in any case, when it’s time to switch software? Following are several considerations to help you decide whether and when to undertake any upgrade: Does the proposed upgrade offer genuine improvement? For instance, will it help make your business more efficient, more productive, and more secure? Will it enable new types of innovation or collaboration? Will it give you a competitive advantage? Does it offer features that you actually want? If so, are those features easy to learn and use? Or will you be paying for additional capabilities that you’ll probably never need — or at least won’t need for awhile? Does the upgraded product have a track record? New releases often come with bugs and security holes; manufacturers then follow up quickly with patches and “service packs.” If you’re not in a rush, consider waiting a few months for the dust to settle and then investing in an updated version that addresses those post-launch problems. Is right now the best time to upgrade? If you’ve got an important project in progress or a big deadline looming, you may want to wind up that effort before doing a software shuffle that could delay your progress. Do you have the necessary expertise for implementation?Can your own IT staff handle the job? Or do you need to hire a consultant or contractor? The latter choice adds significant expense — but avoiding installation-related disruptions and down time may be well worth the investment. Will the new software play well with what you’ve got now? Will it communicate and work with your existing programs? Will you be able to access all your current and past data? If not, you may need to consider upgrading other applications as well — which is, of course, another expense. Do you need new hardware to support the new software? Even if your existing computers will run the upgraded program, it may be more cost-effective in the long run to upgrade everything at once. For instance, if you’re planning to license Vista for your current computers, but you also expect to replace those machines in the next year or so, it might make more sense to invest now in new PCs that will come with Vista already installed. Is training necessary? You may need to train both your IT personnel and your users on how to use the new software — and both efforts add costs. Do you need to upgrade everybody at the same time? Running a pilot project for one group of users may let you pinpoint and resolve small-scale implementation problems before they become big ones. Rolling an upgrade out in phases can help minimize disruption. If you don’t upgrade, will your old software still be supported? Most manufacturers provide technical support for only the current and, in some cases, the most recent previous version. For instance, Microsoft discontinued technical support — including security updates — for Windows 98 in July 2006. The single overarching piece of advice for considering any upgrade: Do your homework. That will go a long way toward deciding whether, what and when to make the change. For more information: Microsoft Windows Vista requirements Microsoft Windows Vista Microsoft Office 2007 Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

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