Tag: Business

What coming in the next SharePoint Guide release?

Here is some of the new content that will be included in January release of my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide:

 

– Migration to Companyweb on SBS 2008. I have retested my initial beta information of this process on the released version of SBS 2008 and added some additional information about security. So like SBS 2008, this process is no longer in beta.

 

– Upgrading SQL Versions. There are cases where you may wish to upgrade the version of SQL server you are using with SharePoint. Typically this involves an upgrade from the default SQL Server 2005 Embedded Edition (SSEE) to the full version of SQL server. I have documented the full process to make it simple and straight forward.

 

– Additional troubleshooting techniques. I’ve added a few more troubleshooting techniques to help overcome some common frustrations.

 

These are just a few of the items I’ll be adding for the January release. As always, subscribers will receive their new versions automatically free as part of their subscription to the Guide. If you aren’t a subscriber then don’t forget that from January 1, 2009 the price for the Guide rises to $299. So if you get in now you’ll save $50!

 

As always, information about the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide can be found at http://www.wssops.com. I thank all my subscribers for their support over the last year and look forward to providing you even more content in 2009.

Blogging for business

A few posts ago I was talking about Blogging being a living resume. I wanted to expand a little on this in the context of business. The best way is probably to give you an example of what I mean.

I have a contact who is small software developer. They are really smart and write really good software but they always complain to me that they need to do more marketing. I asked what they did now and the response was simply to maintain their main web site. I suggested that perhaps they consider blogging.

Initially the response was why bother? But I urged them, like I urge you, to hear me out on this. Now these guys write good software and solve a lot of tricky problems but who every knows? Their existing customers certainly don’t because they simply get the latest update from the software generally unaware of any improvements. The smartest way I can see to publicise this is to blog about it. Spend some time telling everyone what the problems was and how you solved in as much detail as possible.

What good will that do? Eventually, search engines will index that content and then if someone is running a search about software development they may find the blog. Reading the entries in the blog they get a better appreciation of what these guys do. They then contact the company about doing some work. People may also subscribe to the blog on a regular basis and others may even quote the blog as a reference to other topics. A blogs ability to grow in reach is a very powerful marketing tool.

I know there are plenty of if’s and but’s here however what benefit do you get by retaining all the the good work you’ve just performed inside your business? Blog it dude! Let the world know what you solved and how you went about it. In reality it only takes a few minutes to write a post and update it. As you add more and more content it starts to have real value and each item may generate a hit from search engines that could bring in business.

Now, it is no good just casually doing a blog, you need to look at in light of the marketing of your business. You therefore need to work at ensuring it is updated regularly, is professionally focused and provides value to readers. I don’t think this is particularly hard to do because all you simply need to do is get into a routine. However always examine the content in light of marketing for your business.

Blogging is cheap, easy to do, allows you to develop and enhance your written communications, demonstrates you understand the latest social networking benefits and more. In this economic climate you want to give your business every chance of obtaining revenue and to me blogging done right is an easy win for a business as well as an individual.

Your blog is your living resume

I’ve just been reading 10 Essential Steps to Take BEFORE You’re Laid Off from the Get Rich Slowly blog and even though all the points are very valid the one that struck me was:

 

Start a blog that contains at least 50% professional material. If you don’t already have a blog, stop reading this one and go start one right this minute. It’s essential. Your blog is your living resume. It shows how you think. It shows how you write. It shows what’s important to you. While it is fine to blog about personal topics, devote half of your posts to professional content. What is that you do by trade? Mentor us through your blog. We employers love hiring mentors — they raise everybody’s performance.

I been talking to a few people lately who are changing positions both by choice and not by choice and one of the things I tell them is that they should start a blog. Recently, someone else asked me how to ‘break into’ the IT field, my answer again was to blog.

 

If I’m an employer and you show me your blog and it is at least 50% professional it goes a long way in boosting your stocks with me. Why? Firstly, you’ve taken the time to create and maintain a blog (that’s why regular entries are critical). Next, it shows me you are keeping up with the times and utilizing social networking. Next, it helps you stand above your peers who couldn’t be bothered blogging. It also shows that you have the confidence to promote your thoughts, musings, discoveries, etc for free. Only the paranoid try and hold every piece of information they come across. It also indicates to me that you are a good communicator and you have the ability to work with the written word. And that’s just for a start.

 

There’s no way that you could ever get that across in a resume. A blog is a far better indicator to me of your skills, personality and dedication. If you do a blog then you need to ensure it remains professional and thus if you want to also do a personal blog I’d recommend you simply create a separate one for those socially embarrassing photos. Because, done incorrectly a blog can sink your prospects as quickly as a good blog can boost them.

 

My recommendations if you don’t blog? Create a professional blog. Ensure that you update it regularly. Remember that anything that goes in here you want a potential employer to see. Include your own ideas, comments and feedback rather than just regurgitating information. Remember a blog is about your take on the information not simply you reporting it. It may seem awkward at first but if you keep at it you’ll improve. Practice makes perfect.

 

So there is really no excuse not to blog. Blogging sites are free, tools to promote your blog are free as are tool to monitor your blog so money is never going to be an issue when it comes to blogging. It simply comes down to your time on a regular basis because nothing looks worse than a blog that never gets updated (even worse than a web site that also never does). It doesn’t take much, just a few minutes here and there. Who knows, after a while you may even come to enjoy it. You may even find other people enjoy reading it as well. Utilize the power of social networking to your benefit.

 

If you want to add value to yourself professionally, use a blog to demonstrate to the world why you know your stuff. A blog is so much more than a CV because it it living.

Does anyone out there understand this stuff?

I received the following email forwarded from a contact recently.

 Now, what I find interesting is the simple fact that they must have in turn received this from one of their contacts but they chose to believe it to be true immediately. It certainly doesn’t appear that the question was asked to whether this was legitimate before it was forwarded to me. If someone did that to them in the street they certainly think twice before accepting anything. Why doesn’t the same apply with technology? To those that know there is plenty to give away the fact that it is indeed a hoax.

The problem this highlights is simply how easy it is to bypass most security technology by convincing a user to take steps to circumvent security. This is how most security issues spread, by people believing carte blanch that what they have received is legitimate. I’m afraid that no technology is going to ever be able to mitigate the threat users pose to their own systems. The only method is training and the attitude to trust nothing from the Internet with verifying it.

When most employees go to work in a business they are not taught how to use emails are they? They are likewise not taught how to use the Internet and clearly they are also not taught how to search as the following from Google illustrates.

Now, apparently these are the top ten terms used in Google searches according to Google (yet to see this posted on the web by Google – maybe soon):

  • Games
  • Sydney
  • YouTube
  • MySpace
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • eBay
  • My
  • Weather
  • Hotmail
    Ahhh, hang on. Why are people typing Google into Google search? It sorta indicates to me that people don’t know what they are doing, just like in the following video clip.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oCHxB8d20s
    Don’t forget typing Google into Google is the sixth most popular search term. Now it is my understanding that these words are the top ten single words searched for on Google. Hello. Doesn’t that sort of tell you that people don’t really know how to use search engines? Look at the other words as well, many are domains (i.e. Hotmail, YouTube, Facebook, etc). What’s going on here. How can we have had the web for all these years and yet so many people don’t seem to even understand the basics!

    We spend so much of our time encapsulating our lives with technology when in reality most people have very little idea about it all. In our jobs we are simply expected to know how to use emails, the web, office applications etc but are never taught. So how are we going to use them? Via the lowest common denominator. We are afraid and too time poor to try and learn any features or configurations that would really help. Our employers take for granted that employees know how to use all the technology and yet employees, without guidance and training, are the best threats to circumvented security that any organization faces. Also think about the time people waste struggling to use technology tools they have only learned by trial and error. Maybe this in another reason people haven’t adopted Vista – to much change.

    The answer is not more technology it is understanding how to use the technology better.

    • Wireless networking course starts on Thursday

    My Wireless Networking course will run this Thursday at Macquarie Community College at Carlingford. If you are interested in learning about wireless technology and how to make it work then you should get plenty of value from what’s on offer.

     

    If you are interested in enrolling call the college on 02-8845 8888 or check the following web page for more details:

     

    http://www.macquarie.nsw.edu.au/index.php?action=course&course_action=detail&code=408M299

     

    This will be my last technology course for 2008 and I’d like to thank anyone who has attended my courses throughout the year, I hope they provided value. I have proposed a range of new courses for 2009 as well as my existing ones on Networking Basics, Networking with Small Business Server and Computer Security. If the new courses get a start then I’ll post information about their content here.

     

    Once again, to all who attended Merry Christmas and I hope to see you again in the New Year.

    You are the average of your surroundings

    So you want to get ahead in life and improve your lot as well, here’s an interesting concept I came a cross a while back. Where ever you go you are probably going to be the average of those around you.

     

    Here’s an example to explain. Let’s say that you want to improve your golf (and who doesn’t), you are not going to do that by playing with people who you are better than. To improve, you need to play with people who are better than you so your game will tend to move upwards towards the average of the group.

     

    Now let’s apply that to business. If you want to be more successful in business then you should be hanging around with people who are more successful than you. Same law will apply, as your average success will tend to increase to that of the group you associate with.

     

    Stop and think about the business people that you associate with on a regular basis. Are they lifting your average or dragging it down? If you want your average to increase then perhaps you need to look at associating with a different set of business people.

     

    It is a rather simply concept but I recommend you take a few moments to consider what groups you are the average of. If their average is not what you want your average to be then maybe it’s time to make some decisions.

    Who programmed this?

    I am a subscriber to a video library which delivers me DVD’s via mail on a regular basis. I really like the service since I can create a list of what I want to see on a web site. I can also decide in what priority I want to view DVD’s and so on. Every time I watch a DVD I simply pop it back in the post and a new one arrives from my list a few days later. Fantastic.

    Now, I’ve been using this service for a few years now and have watched hundreds of DVD’s via this method. When I log into my DVD portal I get something like what you see below with suggestions of what I might like to watch from the library.
     
    The issue here is that every DVD you see in the above list I have watched and returned from this DVD library site. Why doesn’t the web site know that? Doesn’t it look stupid by suggesting things I’ve already seen? I would think that it is pretty easy to at least check my viewed DVD list to see if what is being recommended has actually been viewed!

    When you see things like this you gotta question the value of technology. In my books it is simply not adding value to the site and should not be there. Also, it is very lazy programming simply to throw up any list of DVD’s for me to watch without the most simply qualifiers. Do I feel I’m a customer that matters? Nope. This tells me that the site doesn’t know who I am from a bar of soap. How is that adding value in my mind to what I pay for? Does it provide a unique selling point? Nope. It just shows me how poorly put together the site is.

    Companies who develop web sites and technology need to understand the value from the customer’s perspective. Don’t do something because it is technically easy or look pretty – give us something that is practice, otherwise as a customer you are simply wasting my time. Even if doing something simply is technically difficult (which it normally is) don’t do something technically easy that doesn’t work (like the above) because it shows me you haven’t thought about me as a customer. The next time I need to make a decision about whether I continue to use such a service this sort of stupidity is going to count against you.

    For heaven’s sake, give us practical technology not technology for technology’s sake!