Work Side by Side, Continents Apart

Collaboration is one of the hot topics in business today, and Microsoft is getting in on that Groove. Three years ago, Microsoft acquired Groove Networks, a software company based in Massachusetts specializing in productivity software that allows multiple users to work collaboratively on computer files simultaneously. Now Microsoft is bringing the brilliance of Groove into Messenger and other MS offerings.

Imagine MSN Messenger on steroids and you have Office Groove. With this tool, you can chat online with a colleague or several team members about a project you are all working on. In the same workspace you can share files, exchange information, and collaborate dynamically no matter where in the world any of you are.

This is a compelling model for a small business as it is relatively inexpensive to set up. There is no need for elaborate networks as all Groove workspaces, tools, and information are stored right on your computer. This means that you and your team can work productively anywhere you’ve got your laptop. And since collaboration is only useful if everyone is on the same page, automatic synchronisation keeps you and your team members up to date.

Office Groove has five core elements: (from MS Groove FAQs http://tinyurl.com/2rjwpm)

• Workspaces. Containers created by information workers to share information and work together on team projects.
• Tools. Applications added to workspaces by team members for the purposes of sharing and working together on information, both structured (for example, forms) and unstructured (for example, files).
• Presence and Communications. Built-in presence awareness, chat and messaging.
• Alerts. Text and audible notifications that inform workers of key events and work activity.
• Launchbar. A single starting point for users to monitor all Office Groove 2007 elements including workspaces, contacts, presence, and alerts, and to execute basic functions such as creating new workspaces and communicating with or inviting users.

Kick it up a notch by combining Groove with other technologies such as Sharepoint, and you have an environment where:
A team of people (either intra- or extra-corporation) can easily share file and other pertinent subject information.

• Participants can easily see if other team members are available online
• People can work side by side (virtually) on document/spreadsheet/presentation creation.
• You can coordinate teamwork with shared calendars, alerts and notifications.
• Teams create, capture, and share community knowledge
• You can broadcast information with blogs and Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
• And more!

Collaboration without boundaries is here, today. How much can your business improve with Groove?

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Use the Other CRM to Create Future Success

What is the single biggest cost for most businesses? Correct – people. Salaries, taxes, and benefits are a major expense, so managing the hiring and retention of good employees is critical to an organisation's success. In the information age, when knowledge has become the product of value, managing your company's talent resources is as critical as managing cash flow or making investment decisions.

The other CRM – Candidate Relationship Management – is an outgrowth of traditional Human Resource (HR) activities. In the past HR departments have concentrated on making policy, hiring and troubleshooting staffing issues, and managing the risks of being an employer. That's no longer enough. The best managed organisations are reaching out ahead of need to create a system that identifies candidates and builds an optimal workforce for the business. And it's working. Companies that invest in talent management are showing higher performance than their competitors, because it is the people who are the creators of value.

CRM systems are designed to help improve recruiting, development, and retention of employees who have the skills and aptitudes to meet a company's needs, both now and in the future. If your company always seems to be scrambling to find good people to hire, consider adding a CRM system to help expand the pool of qualified, pre-screened candidates before you need them.

There's a good article that includes techniques for building your talent management process here: http://tinyurl.com/2kl72n. CRM tools don't have to be elaborate and expensive to be effective, and there are options for small firms with salaried as well as hourly employees. The key is not size or complexity, but how well you are able to build a knowledge base of good candidates. If you have employees, you owe it to your organization to build a business-enhancing CRM system.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Why Won't My Listing Show Up on the Google?

That's the question many businesses ask. You spend money to design a great, effective website, and you sprinkle the content with what you think are sure-fire keywords. You know enough about search engines to realise that they "look" for not only keywords but also frequent updates to content and activity when calculating your search engine ranking. Each of the major engines – Google, Yahoo, Ask, and others – has a closely guarded system for ranking web sites.

So you have a great site. You want to see your listing there on the search results page. You start trying your keywords in a search and scan down the page of results – your listing isn't there! You go to the next page, then the next…and somewhere down the line you finally find your company.

If you have a product or service that is not unique in the world, this has probably happened to you. Try searching on "computer repair" – in Google I got 17,200,000 possible results! Narrow it a bit more to "computer repair service" and now we have 2,200,000 results. Try again with "computer repair service Sydney" and it's down to 166,000. But that's still a massive number, and if you're not on the first couple of pages of results, chances are people won't scroll long enough to find you.

Why do some companies always seem to be at or near the top of the list? The answer is simple: They pay to be there. That's right, you can buy your way to the top of the page. Look again at your search results, and notice that the very first few results have a slightly different background colour and, in small print, "sponsored results."

But unlike traditional advertising, where you put an ad in a magazine and hope your potential customer sees it, advertising on search result pages is very much targeted. All of the search engines have such programs; you choose your engine and then plan your advertising campaign around it. Google's AdWords is one that has been around for several years and has features that not only help you get business but also help you tweak your ads for best effect.

Here's how it works. You create an ad that Google displays above or beside regular search results, based on the keywords you choose to be associated with. For instance, if you have that computer repair service, you might want your ad to appear when people search for "PC repair" or "computer parts" or even "memory chips."

What's different from traditional advertising is that you don't pay Google to run your ad. You pay them when someone actually clicks on your link, at so much per click. How much? That's also up to you. You "bid" on keywords. If you bid more than other people then your ad will appear nearer the top. In addition to your bid, Google considers how effective your ad is, based on how many people click through, when choosing how high on the list to display your ad.

The major advantage of using AdWords is that, if someone uses your keywords in a Google search, you know they are looking for what you are advertising. You've hit your target. Google also has great tools that help you refine your ads to be better targeted. Using their reporting capabilities, you can even tell you which buttons are being clicked.

AdWords can be a cost-effective part of you marketing. To get started, visit our web site and let us help you.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

What's All the Fuss over VoIP?

Sometimes that thing that sounds too good to be true turns out to really be true. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) has turned into one of those techno-promises that has proven its potential, especially as a cost saver for business.

The concept is simple – plug your phone into the Internet, and talk to the world as if it were all next door. And the reality is almost as easy: VoIP service converts your voice to a digital signal, and that can be sent over the Internet. On the other end, it comes out as your voice in a signal that the receiver can process – cell phone, wired phone, whatever. VoIP does require a broadband (high-speed Internet) connection for your computer, but these days you need that just to conduct business effectively anyway.

Since the service starts with your computer, your desktop computer can actually make calls directly from your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. Now, while you talk to a customer you can also be reviewing their information on your computer, entering orders, checking schedules, or even writing a confirmation of your phone conversation. Sure, you could do that before, but what was that phone call costing you?

As simple as the VoIP concept is, the main attraction has always been the potential cost savings. Installing a traditional wired phone system for your office with multiple stations could be an enormous investment. But a VoIP PBX system with up to 16 extensions costs under $2,000. And if that got your attention, how about calling from Sydney to Perth for just 10c? Period. Now your mobile phone can become an extension of your PBX, and a call to a mobile can cost only 20c/minute, regardless of the carrier.

During the early days of VoIP there were stories of dropped calls, just as there were with the early cell phones. But the technology has advanced rapidly, and these days VoIP is highly reliable. You do need to understand how the system works and what services are available, because there will be differences from your old style wired phone system. But that brings us to another advantage of a computer-based VoIP phone system - one service provider can install and support everything for you. That provider will be able to advise you about the best service choice for your business.

So give VoIP a look and a listen. With the cost savings and increased efficiency, I think you will soon be saying, “Now we’re talking!”

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Dashboards are Not Just for Cars

Remember the first time you slid behind the steering wheel of a car, gripped the wheel, and saw the instruments on the dashboard? It was exciting to feel that you could be in control of that powerful machine. All the dials and gauges spread out before you told you how fast you were going and how well the car was functioning. You had all the information you needed to go wherever you liked, whenever you wanted.

I can’t promise that thrill each time you look at your business dashboard, but you will find it gives you the same sort of up-to-the-minute readout on how well you are doing on your business journey.

A business dashboard presents visual displays of data pulled from different business systems, and tells you at a glance how things are going. A dashboard can provide real-time intelligence that includes your key performance indicators (KPIs), and can generate ad hoc reports to support decision-making. The display might include red-yellow-green lights, graphics such as bar charts and gauges, summaries, and drill-downs, all to provide consolidated information.

A well-designed dashboard is customizable and usually role-driven, so that the dashboard displayed on the company president’s screen will be different from that of the CFO or the middle manager. The good news is that the source data for a dashboard is probably already sitting in your system right now. With a bit of planning and design work, the information living down in your digital records can be given visible form and made to work for you in new ways.

Employees benefit from having the information they need to do their job right at their fingertips, and dashboards generally allow for customization to the individual’s likes and interests. For the CFO, accounts receivable aging status can be displayed in a bar chart, but the same data could appear as a pie chart for the CEO. The Sales Manager can see the comparison of monthly goals to actual performance, and then drill down to each salesperson’s individual performance. And for the Project Manager who has customized his desktop with widgets for weather and surf conditions, it’s a simple matter to add KPI information to tell him which tasks are on, ahead, or behind schedule and which are running over budget.

In your car you have spread before you all the vital information to get from where you are to where you are going. Fuel remaining, speed, distance traveled, engine function, warning lights, perhaps even compass direction as well as time and distance to destination. On your computer screen, the digital dashboard does the same for your business.

Gentlemen, start your engines!

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Choosing an ISP, with Emphasis on SERVICE!

Have you noticed that the more choices you have, the harder it is to decide between things that look and sound similar? If you aren’t already an expert, how can you choose? When buying a digital camera, how do you choose the right combination of mega pixels, optical zoom, digital zoom, wide angle, memory cards, batteries, and so on? You want a checklist that would say “Here’s what to look for.”

I can’t help you with the camera, but I can make the task of choosing your Internet Service Provider (ISP) a little less daunting. First of all, let’s be sure we’re talking about he same thing. An ISP is a company that provides access to the Internet for a fee. An ISP might provide dial-up service, cable, DSL, or other types of Internet access. For a business, having cable, DSL, or another high-speed connection is essential, but it is just the start. To make the best use of technology today, you will want to be able to provide appropriate access to your network to employees and customers.

How do you know whether an ISP has what your business needs? These are some of the key questions to ask:

• Does the ISP offer permanently managed VPN (Virtual Private Network) links between offices or outworkers to the main office? A VPN allows for multiple locations to have a secure permanent connection over the internet. It also allows key employees to gain full access to all network services – in effect, enabling to them to work as if they were sitting in the office, no matter where they actually are.
• Does the ISP offer link services in every location you want to be in? If you do not have access to your ISP wherever you are, then it is not going to provide value to your business.
• Will the ISP deliver and install your communications service to your locations? If you have several offices, or remote locations, they all need to be connected to your ISP to take full advantage of high-speed connectivity.
• Does the ISP offer QoS (Quality of Service) so that services such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) can perform well? VoIP is a new sort of phone service. It allows you to call and communicate with friends, colleagues and others, whether those people are also using VoIP, or whether they are using a conventional telephone service. VoIP lets you place voice calls using your broadband service as the medium that carries your voice, instead of using the 'Plain Old Telephone Service (or POTS) to do it. In order for VoIP to work well, though, the network has to have the capacity to guarantee that data will flow without delay. QoS is the ability to provide different priority to different applications, users, or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance. QoS guarantees are important if the network capacity is limited, for example in cellular data communication, especially for real-time applications, such as voice over IP (VoIP), since these are delay sensitive.
• Are anti-spam filters available? The fastest network can grind to a crawl when overloaded with spam (junk email.) You want an ISP that includes anti-spam filtering in its services. You should be able to “blacklist” senders that you never want to receive messages from, and likewise “whitelist” senders that you always want to allow through.

With an ISP as with most other things, you get what you pay for. So whilst yes's to all these points may cost a little more, the advantages of getting FULL service from an ISP is well worth the investment. Put another way, what is the cost of a dropped call with an important customer? How much might it cost to have an employee idle because he cannot log on to his VPN account and get information to complete an important proposal? Choose an ISP with the emphasis on Service to give your business the best competitive advantage.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Network Security - Seal IT with a KISS

You know by now that I believe in keeping things as simple as possible when it comes to information technology. It is very easy to dive into a subject and feel that you are drowning in the details of do's and don'ts. Network security is a good example of a topic that has many levels of detail, threats on all sides, and a bewildering array of options for protecting your company's network. Even the descriptive words are frightening: hack, worm, phish, spoof, denial of service attack, malicious code, spam, Trojan horse. And when you learn that 90% of businesses and government reported a security breach in 2002, and 80% reported a resulting financial loss, the whole issue can seem overwhelming.

Where to begin? The first thing to do is not to rush in and throw money at the problem and hope you get it right. Putting in a $199 firewall router by itself won't solve anything; if it is not configured, you may as well put in a lock and leave the key in the door. You need a plan.

Take the time to create a coherent and comprehensive approach to network security. This will help you identify where you are in terms of security, what threats hold the greatest risks for your business, and what you should do in response. Your integrator should be able to help you with this task. It will also help you avoid focusing on something that may sound terrifying while overlooking something else that is a more realistic threat to your specific situation. Think KISS – Keep It Simple Security.

So how do you create that important approach? There are plenty of resources available in articles and sites to help you understand the potential threats, the areas you need to consider, and how to select the best protective measures for you. You might start with Microsoft's small business Security Guidance Centre; scroll down and click on the "Quiz" to see a good overview of security concerns and issues for small companies. Another resource is this chapter from the book, Executive Guide to Information Security: The Threats, Challenges, and Solutions. And this article reviews 10 major threats to network security and how to prevent damage to your system.

Network security does not have to be complex. It does need to be the simplest appropriate system for your situation. Start with covering the basics and build on that solid ground. Then as your company's security needs grow, your KISS system will grow with it.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.