Just gotta love VoIP

A while back I converted to naked ADSL. This meant that I could do away with the standard phone line and the normal line rental. Problem was now no normal phone line to make voice calls. Solution was to get an ATA and enable VoIP over the new naked ADSL broadband connection. Apart from not having to pay line rental I’m only billed on the calls that I make, which are at a cheaper rate than Telstra anyway. So I’m miles in front.

 

Now the other day I was umming and erring as to whether I should join in a conference call to the US in which I was interested. I finally decided that it would be worth it so I dialled in using my VoIP phone line. I was expecting to pay $10-15 for the call which lasted about 45 minutes. Boy was I surprised when I received the bill.

 

image_6_0B479E77

 

As you can see, that 45 minute phone call to the US cost a total of 91 cents! Yes 91 cents, even at 8.30am in the morning. Now I’m sure there are even better plans than that available but I gotta say I’m impressed and if I was a traditional phone company I’d be shaking my boots when VoIP becomes mainstream. In these economic times VoIP can really save you some bucks.

Intro to Search Server Express 2008 video

I have just completed a new video about what I believe if one of the most “unknown” technologies from Microsoft – Search Server Express 2008. It provides such a great capability and is a FREE download from Microsoft but no-one seems to know about it. I really can’t fathom this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dkycMN4RsE

The video will take you through the basic installation and setup procedure that should allow you to get Search Server Express 2008 running in your business. This is also another example of a technology that you can virtualize quickly and easily.

 

Search Server Express 2008 will allow to to search any SharePoint site, network file share, Exchange Public folder and web site in your organization. It is based on the same technology used for SharePoint so it looks like a SharePoint site. So if you have network shares that are chock full of all sorts of files in which no one can find what they are looking for, rather than going through the whole share file by file simply drop in Search Server Express 2008 and index the suckers. Once indexed you’ll be able to search the contents of most of them (Office, HTML, Text, Acrobat, etc) so to find all the business information you need now all you need to do is like what you do on the Internet – run a search.

 

Search Server Express 2008 is featured in my Windows Sharepoint Operations Guide (http://www.wssops.com) which has a whole section dedicated to installing and configuring the product.

 

Sure Search Server Express 2008 isn’t prefect. I’d like to be able to integrate directly into SharePoint search, I’d like to be able to have external results displayed from Google rather than Live.com but these are small gripes compared to the functionality your receive. I have configured Search Server Express 2008 to run previously and it was invaluable assistance when attempting to location information inside a document I ‘knew I had created’.

 

If your or your customers business is struggling to find digital information in a maze of network shares and public folders why not drop in Search Server Express 2008? For the price there isn’t much out there that can beat it.

Google claims the cloud is more reliable

Now this recent post by Google claims that their cloud computing email solution, Gmail, is more reliable that companies that have on premises email solutions like Exchange server. They then use that to tout the superiority of cloud computing (especially their own).

You have to take a report from Google touting the superiority of their products with a grain of salt, as you would with something from Microsoft, however I believe it does indicate the way things are moving.

I would seriously ask any customer these days why they want to have an onsite mail server. There are so many hosted solutions that do it better, cheaper and more reliably. E-mails are a constant source of issues within a business for the simple reason they let something in from outside the network. You can neither really control the flow in or out of e-mails. Many more SBS customers I speak with no longer run Exchange on SBS, they out source it for the simple reason it is too complex to maintain internally without dedicated staff. Also when it comes to things like Blackberrys and Windows Mobile Devices most businesses don’t have the expertise to make it happen.

So if the trend is for email to move to the cloud I’m sure it won’t be long before all the other components follow.

As an aside you know what I’d really be interested to see? How Microsoft’s hosted Exchange stacks up to Gmail. Personally, I reckon it would be just as reliable and probably have a much richer environment than Gmail because Exchange already incorporates, tasks, calendars and so on. However, the  bottom line is that its all moving to the cloud. Are you? 

Don’t check emails, process emails

Has your email taken on a life of its own? Is it the nexus of everything you do? Is it your to-do list, calendar, task scheduler and more? If it is then you are not doubt in a world of pain. My advice? You need to make a mental shift and realize that email is simply a medium for things to do, nothing else.

 

Everyone I know says that they “check” their email. No wonder their inboxes are overflowing and they feel constantly overwhelmed. Why? Because emails are required to be processed. That means after you have checked an email DO SOMETHING WITH IT! Don’t just leave it sitting there in your inbox. Process the damm thing and move onto the next thing you need to get done. Convert emails to actions. When you read an email ask what actions you need to take as a result of this email? Whether you delete the email, archive, respond or even defer it make sure that you have a system that allows you to process emails.

 

In reality you should aim to process your inbox to empty by the end of the day. Sure not always possible but none the less a good target to aim for. Your inbox is simply a container for emails as they arrive, it is not a container for saving them for all eternity while your procrastinate with how to best handle each one. Deal with it and move on. It is far more satisfying to finish the day with an empty inbox. You know you have achieved something!

 

You may have a laugh but have a look at your inbox right now, now look at anyone else’s inbox and I’ll bet there are many, many emails that have sat there for month even years. If you want to recover your productivity you need a system to process emails effectively and efficiently. I’ll write something about a system that works for me soon but for the time being, if you REALLY want to master your emails, start thinking PROCESS not CHECKING.

Utilizing SharePoint to improve your business

Well, as promised, I have uploaded the final draft of the presentation I gave recently at SMBNation on SharePoint. You will find the document at:

 

http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/Shared%20Documents/SMBNation2008-GS1.pdf

 

if that link doesn’t work try

 

http://snipurl.com/4ruus

 

The document is in PDF format, 22 pages in all and approximately 1.5MB. I hope that it has been able to cover my presentation faithfully and I welcome any feedback (or corrections) anyone has on what I have written.

Novembers update is almost ready

I am just completing the final touches to the November update of the Windows SharePoint Guide (http://www.wssops.com). As always, subscribers will be able to download the updates from the web. This month will include how to install a web part that allows you to to check the security of your SharePoint users as well as site inheritance. For most SharePoint administrators this should prove pretty handy since it does so in a nice graphical manner, something which SharePoint currently doesn’t do natively.

 

I believe that this is the major benefit of subscribing to my SharePoint Guide. Although you may not have expertise in SharePoint you can come up to speed very quickly using the Guide. Also, because I utilize SharePoint heavily, you are gaining the benefits of my research efforts. When you look at the cost (less than an hour or so’s work) combined with the fact that it is continually updated to incorporate best practices and available tools, it is a good investment. If you don’t believe me then read the testimonials at http://www.wssops.com.

 

I’ll also let you know that I have also almost finished a document covering everything from my presentation at SMBNation in Seattle recently. I certainly hope that it does justice to what I presented. So if you attended my session on “Utilizing SharePoint to improve your business” I’d commend you to download the document and let me know if does in fact cover everything I spoke about. If you weren’t at SMBNation then I’d still commend you to read it and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear you take. I’ll post back here when the document is ready but it isn’t far away now.

Learn by looking

Want an easy way to highlight why someone needs a tool like SharePoint? Do a quick survey of your target’s office or cubicle and note how many bits of paper are stuck up on the walls, partitions, monitor, etc. Now go and do the same to anyone else in the business. If there are lots and lots of bits of paper (and there will be) like phone lists, accounting charge codes, things to do, etc ask the question – If you have an IT system why do you have all these bits of paper stuck all over the place?

 

See my point? Why the hell should someone have all that information stuck up around them (and their employees) if they are supposed to have an IT system that is designed to save just such information? Hello? Do you see the problem? Maybe Mr/Ms Customer you SHOULD learn how to use your IT systems to get rid of all this information wall paper. Maybe Mr/Ms Customer we need to take a LOOK at WHY you are doing things rather than HOW you are doing things.

 

If you want to be a ‘trusted advisor’ for you customers and prospects you better be focused on solving business issues and removing pain points rather than moving product. In tough times customers want to know better ways that they can utilize what they’ve already got. Guess what? If you throw Windows Sharepoint into the mix you have just given them an even more powerful tool for no additional cost (amazing but true). Now is that a ‘trusted advisor’ or what?

 

You learn so much by looking. You learn even more by listening. Combine these two with thinking and you just can’t lose! Why? Not many IT providers I know actually do any of the three.

Crowd mentality

We wake up every day to bleaker and bleaker headlines. We watch as governments flail in vain attempts to provide a ‘quick-fix’ solution. Everyone we talk to is worried about what the ‘credit-crunch’ will mean to them. My advice? Take a step back, stop and think whether ‘following the herd’ is such a great strategy.

 

My favourite book is ‘The Art of War’ by Sun Tzu and the quote that really rings true at the moment for me is

 

In peace prepare for war, in war prepare for peace.

In essence, this means that ‘blind freddy’ could have seen the economic turmoil in which we are embroiled coming sooner or later. A smart operator would have taken the necessary steps to prepare for this, even though that would probably have gone against what the ‘crowd’ was saying.

 

So now we are facing some tough times no doubt. Every individual and every business is going to be affected. Is there much that you can do to prevent it? Probably not. The best tactic will be to develop a strategy to ride it out. However, once again the smart operators are looking beyond the current issues and preparing themselves to benefit from the next phase.

 

The best evidence of this is what Warren Buffet said recently (another commentary). Most people would agree that Warren is a pretty smart dude and knows what his talking about, his record as one of the richest men in the world (US$52 billion) certainly stands as testimony to that. Here’s what he said –

 

A simple rule dictates my buying: be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful.

In simple terms he believes prices are low and now is a good time to start accumulating quality assets that will rise in value over the long term. Sounds pretty simple but how many people will do it? It is much easier to run with the crowd isn’t it?

 

I believe that now more than ever you need to be evaluating your business and determining whether it is prepared for the upcoming financial storm AND what lies beyond. To be successful in my books you are going to have to look above and beyond what everyone else is doing or saying. It takes courage to stand up and be different but remember it is your life and your business. You need to determine what works for you! You need to cast an unemotional eye across all aspects of your business and whether the investment you are making (in time, effort and money) is actually giving you a good rate of return. If it isn’t, will it? Should you jettison it? Should you look at taking something else on to add to your ‘portfolio’ that will pay dividends in the future? Doing something that has a poor rate of return day after day after day is plain dumb.

 

Preparing for anything is not easy, it involves time and effort but if you view it as an investment you will receive far more than you ever invested. You can never hope to achieve this unless you invest in the first place. I wish you could but as they say – you can’t get something for nothing.

 

So become a ‘smart operator’ and look beyond the emotional crowd mentality that currently rules almost everything we hear these days. Learn from the masters of their game (Sun Tzu and Warren Buffet to name but two) and prepare for what lies ahead rather than simply reacting to what is happening now. Yet above all remember this last piece of advice from Sun Tzu –

 

You have to believe in yourself