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Microsoft Surface: iPad Competitor or Waste of Time?

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:16:33 +0100

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, last week announced Microsoft's first real foray into the tablet market. The "Surface" will be coming soon (although exactly when, we don't know!) and will be taking on the iPad in a big way.

But what does it do exactly and how will it compete? Well ... Microsoft have been rather sketchy with the details which is usually a bad thing. So far here is what we do know:
- 2 versions: Mobile version of Windows 8 (16gb or 32gb hard drive) and Full version of Windows 8 with Intel Core processor (32gb or 64gb hard drive)
- Very cool snappy lid with integrated magnetic keyboard.
- Built in stand at back of device

And that's about it really! No news yet on price or release date although Microsoft have said it will be "priced competitively" and the buzz in the street is around an October release.

Our opinion is that this is likely to compete well as a business device, with Office integration expected. iPads are still finding their way as a legitimate business tablet (rather than a cool device on which to take notes and show pdfs), so there is definitely space for a device which will synchronise and integrate seamlessly with your Windows desktop or laptop.

However, on the consumer side it's hard to see how it can beat the iPad with it's thousands of apps and incredibly cool vibe. We don't expect it to make too big a dent in this arena so the big boys at Apple won't be too concerned about Microsoft's new device.

How do ensure company email is never lost or deleted?

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:36:35 +0100

This is a question we regularlay get asked. With the advent of regulations, companies in the financial services industry are required to maintain copies of all emails sent to and received from clients. Emails now form the basis of many legal actions and so being able to maintain a record of all emails sent and received by your organisation has fast become a necessity.

But how do you know if your email is safe and what are the different options available?

There are 3 main way in which mail is delivered these days:

POP email: this is email which is downloaded from your mail provider. Once downloaded, the only copy exists in your mail client (e.g. Outlook) and your mail provider will not keep copies of these emails.
In-house Exchange: This is used when your company has an internal server running Exchange. The email is downloaded to your server and lives there. When you open Outlook and connect to the server, you retrieve your entire mailbox. When you delete a mail in Outlook, it automatically removes it permanently from the server
Hosted Email Solution (such as Exchange Online, Google Apps): This works the same as above, except that the server is hosted in a data centre. This is generally a more robust solution as the data centre will take care of backups on your behalf.

The only way to keep a copy of all incoming and outgoing emails is to setup an email archive which takes a copy of all emails and stores them in a separate database. This always remains intact and is not affected by employees deleting emails en masse.

However, with any of the above solutions, an email archive does not form part of the standard service. One can easily be added on to either the in-house or hosted mail server, but this needs to be specified and configured. Costs for in-house solutions are generally expensive, and you are still responsible for backing this up.

First prize, however, goes to the Hosted Solution which is inexpensive to implement and provides a no-hassle solution to this problem. For about £10/month per user, you can have your email both hosted and archived by a Hosted Email provider. The data is automatically backed up and the host takes care of redundancy and any issues which may arise.

Please do comment in get in touch if you'd like some advice on how to approach this important aspect of your business.

Google+ to take on Facebook - who will win?

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:24:04 +0100

Big in the news this week was the announcement that Google are taking on Facebook with their own social network called "Google+". One of Google's major advantages (or +'s ... hence the name perhaps?) over Facebook is the promise of video chat.

With the news still resonating in our ears Facebook made their own big announcement that they are introducing Video Chat in partnership with now Microsoft-owned Skype. Google's initial excitement balloon had a great deal of air let out by this announcement.

So what does this actually mean to the consumer? Yet another social service we're encouraged to sign-up to or a real challenger to Facebook's dominance that could lead to increased competition and ultimately greater product enhancements?

With the resources now at Facebook's disposal, they are able to take on any challengers to their dominance by quickly integrating with other best-of-breed utilities. Take Foursquare, for example, the location-based check-in service quickly rose to prominence before partnering with Facebook to power their "Facebook Check-in". Foursquare as a separate service is effectively dead in the water but the service lives on with their Facebook integration.

What this all boils down to is the simple economic principle of competition. Competition pushes companies to constantly improve in fear of being left behind. It converts optional stances into essential ones.

So I say, bring on the competition! It can only improve the services already on offer and strive both Facebook and Google to continue to push the boundaries and redefine how we communicate with each other online. And this can only be good news for the consumer. I can't wait ...

Is my data secure in the "cloud"?

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 08:47:56 +0100

This is a question I am getting asked more and more frequently. With cloud services now well established, businesses are now planning which services to embrace and when to jump on board. One such service is online backup, but how secure is your data with an online backup provider?

Let's start by looking at a few basic truths. Data centres are purpose-built facilities designed to host company and consumer data safely and securely. An average server in a commercial office sits behind a mid-range firewall which does the basics of protecting your data online well, but not much more than that.

Playing devil's advocate, why not ask yourself this question: Is my data safer and more secure in a data-centre who's job it is to store and protect data all-day every day, or in my little server in my office behind my £200 firewall?

While it is true that data centres could potentially sell-on data or misuse it in some way, this is highly unlikely as they would be performing commercial suicide.

The time to trust the cloud is now, so jump on board!

Please get in touch if you have any questions about online backup, or other hosted platforms such as Exchange Online or Google apps.

5 Habits of Highly Effective LinkedIn Networkers

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:57:54 +0100

Good afternoon all. This morning I had the pleasure of presenting at the BNI London North East International Networking Week event on how to effectively use LinkedIn to expand your online networking activities. As part of my presentation I shared my 5 Habits of Highly Effective LinkedIn Networkers which I'd like to share with you:

Have a Great Profile. It's really important to spend time on getting the basics right. This includes adding your picture and links to your website and twitter accounts
Expand your Network. The more people in your network the more people you are able to be introduced to. Import contacts from webmail and outlook accounts and use the LinkedIn "People You May Know" feature to help with this
Recommendations. The power of a testimonial cannot be underestimated. But people won't just recommend you unless you ask them to ... so ask!
Join Groups. Look at your profession, industry and membership clubs and then go find and join these groups so you can get more involved in topical discussions. If the group you're looking for isn't there ... start it yourself!
Get Involved. Participating in Group Discussions increases your exposure and helps build your credibility as an expert in your field. It also gives you the chance to meet new people and expand your network.

New Year ... New Challenges

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:32:58 +0100

Happy New Year and here's wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011!
As the start of your year gets going it's time to take stock, evaluate and ultimately plan for the year ahead.

In today's world, IT forms the backbone of any business strategy. It's no use planning for company growth without taking into account how this growth is going to be supported. Your hardware, software, systems and processes are the cogs which keep your well-oiled business machine going.

And, of course, if you need any advice on what IT systems to implement and how it can help your business we're always here to help.

Wishing you all a great year ahead.

You don't need a new server

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:23:40 +0100

No you don't. Not anymore. With cloud-based services becoming more and more mainstream, and what with up to 20Mb broadband you really don't need an inhouse server for your small business. Let's look at a few quick reasons why:

1) Zero advantage to having an inhouse Exchange Server
In fact I'd go as far as to say you're at a disadvtange if you have an in-house Exchange server. In-house servers are more expensive to buy and maintain than hosted services, they aren't any faster and you still have to back the whole thing up (add extra expense, tape drives etc. here). Online services such as Exchange Online or Google Apps will give you what you want: Your email with a backup in place. Online services come pre-packed with redundancy and offsite backup so why spend thousands more to have a box in your office? It just doesn't make economic or logical sense anymore.

2) An expensive File Server
Many of my clients have Small Business Server installed in their offices and other than running Exchange it's acting as a glorified file server. Rather than spend thousands on hardware and software for your Small Business Server, rather install a Network Attached Storage Drive (NAS). This is just a fancy word for an external hard drive. Most of the decent ones on the market these days come in at well under £1000, and have file/folder security and remote access built in as standard.

3) Throw your tapes away
A large percentage of backup tapes will fail to read when you actually need them. This is due to the fact that most people don't regularly replace their tapes (as recommended by the manufacturers). This means no matter how diligent you may be in taking your beloved data offsite, you may as well throw the tape in the bin if it won't read! More money to be saved here by replacing your expensive tape drive and tapes with online backup. I use Mozy which costs just 50p/Gb - you can't go wrong with that!

So before you start spending thousands on getting your own in-house kit to host everything, speak to me and I'll explain why if you're a small business, you simply don't need to do this anymore.

Free is good ... two web services worth checking out

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:53:04 +0100

Yes, we all like free - but with so much free stuff out there how does one separate what is actually worth your time investigating from what is the misguided, unnecessary drivel developed by wanna we web developers?

I've sifted through my fair share of nonsense in the last few weeks but have picked up two excellent resources worth checking out:

1) Dimdim Webinar software. If you don't want to pay for WebEx, GoToMeeting or the like and simply want to hold the odd webinar here or there for a few people, paying a monthly fee doesn't make sense. Enter DimDim which has a free account which allows you to host as many webinars as you like for up to 10 people. With DimDim say ByeBye to expensive software.

2) Animoto video creation software. When it comes to creating a video for your website Animoto have got it spot on. All you do is upload your pictures, video or photos and Animoto does the rest. You choose one of their themes (and a free selection of music if you want) and it will create an impressive professional looking video for you in about 5 minutes, that would take an experience professional a couple of hours to do manually. You can create as many free 30 second videos as you like. If you want something a bit longer you can either subscribe for $5 a month or ay $3 for each individual video. Have a look at the one I made to give you an idea of the experience you can expect.

Free is here to stay ... and free is good, very good!

5 tips on using LinkedIn to grow your business network

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 09:02:21 +0100

LinkedIn, the professional networking site often called "Facebook for business" offers a wealth of options to increase your awareness, grow your network and get introduced to that all important contact you've chasing down.

Below are 5 quick tips to get you started with LinkedIn and grow your network.

1) Build your profile and make it about you

LinkedIn is all about you, not necessarily your business. Focus on building your profile as opposed to your company's profile. Aim for 100% completion, add your website and twitter links, a picture and build your history for at least the last 10 year/5 jobs. This way when people read your profile they know you are a serious professional. It also gives you the opportunity to subtly show off your key skills and experience

2) Invite all your friends, family and colleagues (past and present) to connect

When you are viewing profiles who makes a bigger impact: The person with 35 contacts of which 10 have the same surname, or the one with 200+ contacts all over the world and in a different industries? Of course the latter makes a bigger impact so in order for you to have the same effect on someone viewing your profile for the first time, and to maximise your use of LinkedIn, add everyone you know. You can import contacts from Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook etc. so don’t be put off by thinking it all has to be done manually.

3) Ask for recommendations

Recommendations are one of the most important aspects to making yourself stand out and give people confidence in your abilities. Ask current previous clients, employers, colleagues to recommend you, but focus primarily on clients as their opinion counts the most. If someone does recommend you, return the favour as a thank you!

4) Join as many groups as are appropriate to you and your industry

Groups offer a great way of meeting up with like-minded people and discussing topics of interest within your industry. Focus initially on local-based groups, as this gives you the option to physically meet people you come into contact with via groups, plus they are more likely to know the person you’re trying to get in touch with.

5) Engage in active discussions

Ok so you’ve joined 5 groups, now what? Each group has its own “Discussions” page where people post topics and everyone in the group is invited to comment and share their opinion. Those who actively engage in discussions are much more likely to build meaningful relationships with those they meet on LinkedIn, and you’ll be surprised at how often people who read your comments will send you an email offering to network further with you.

When you fail to plan ...

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:12:55 +0100

... you plan to fail.

Yes, we all know these famous words but what does this mean in today's business world? From an IT perspective, ensuring you have a Disaster Recover Plan and are taking regular backups of your data are essentials.

Costs for backing up data online are continually dropping and the benefits when compared with tradtional tape drives are numerous:

No more expensive drive to install (and configure) in your server.
No more daily tape backups and remembering to take them home every day
No more worrying about securing your data and tapes offsite
No need to routinely replace tapes
Online backups take care of themselves and the data is available from anywhere in the world
No maintenance required and the often prohibitive costs of buying tapes and drives are avoided

Email archiving is another increasingly important tool in your DR toolbelt. Rouge employees can delete emails from their inbox which could incriminate them. However, with a separate archive which is untouched by employees, you have the safeguard of protecting yourself from such behaviour as well as maintaining an ever-present copy of all your corporate email correspondence.

Another way to protect your business is to have electronic copies of your documents. Going paperless is a great way to go but most businesses need to keep at least some paper files around. From a legal perspective, courts these days are much more willing to accept electronic versions of documents, contracts and agreements.

The Solution?

Implement online backups to store all your corporate data (company data folders and exchange email store and points 2 and 3 below)
Install an email archive if you share sensitive or confidential data via email, or if you have a large number of employees
Configure a document management solution to scan and archive all your business files. Retrieving documents from your archive is much quicker and more efficient than trawling through filing cabinets.

If you would assistance with any of the above, or professional, impartial advice, please do let me know. I have worked with a number of these solutions over the years and have extensive experience in assisting companies to bring these in.