How much should Microsoft Office cost and what is the most effective way to purchase it?   Perhaps there are ‘unconventional’ solutions to clients that in the end often save a lot of money.

For example, a recent customer needed 23 Office 2010 licenses.  After checking with the client and finding that their version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM wasn’t compatible with Office 2013 we discussed the remaining options.  Do they use volume licensing, retail, Office 365 or the key card version? 

Comparing the options we found that for this client it was hard to see why they should choose Volume Licensing.  The cost per license for Office Standard 2010 was $490.  Retail was $349.  Office 365 with the option to install software locally was $23.20/mo.  The key card version was $249. We estimated that the extra labour to install and manage the individual 23 licenses would take pcit, the solution provider, an extra 4 hours.   In the end pcit quoted the extra 4 hours labour and the cost for the key card version was $7,277  while the Volume license version was $11,610.  This was over $4,000 in savings by foregoing the Volume license.  Over 3 years it would save the organization $11,932 over Office 365.

The key card version was introduced with the Office 2010 license series.  It allows a user to install Office on 1 pc.  What was new about this license agreement versus the old OEM license is that Microsoft now allowed the 1 pc to be transferrable.  So if a pc gets upgraded we could still use the key card version of Office which is even better for the client.

In speaking with Microsoft about using this route as well as discussing the ramifications to this method with other solution providers we believe our methodology is sound.  Our tools help manage the licenses for the client and keep them compliant.  One possible disadvantage to this method is when staff have both a laptop and a PC.  The key card license would require each device to have a license.  Volume licensing would allow the client to install 1 copy of Office on both devices.

Simple clean with a little more work on our part but all in all the project went through fine and the client was able to keep a little bit extra for the bottom line.

Online Meetings with Skype orFacetime aren’t the only options for businesses wanting to connect with people versus having to travel.  The benefits of video conferencing plus recording meetings, joining multiple people over video at once and sharing a desktop are available to any organization that has a device with a camera, mic, and an internet connection.

pcit internally is starting to record update meetings when staff can not attend.  We use a Webex account and making a video is as simple as pressing the record button on the screen.  The only challenge we have with this is not having a good speakerphone with a good mic can make hearing some in the meeting difficult.  It is possible to even stop and start the record button and create one continuous file.  In the future we will also be recording staff onboarding training and orientation meetings to eliminate the need to complete all of these steps in person.  Any documentation will be recorded by setting the Webex meeting to do desktop sharing.  Now both the video of the trainer and the desktop are recorded in just a few easy steps.  We are also starting to record training for key technologies that we work with on a regular basis.  With this recorded information if a staff member can’t attend the training meeting or documentation isn’t the most practical solution all that is required is viewing the saved video.

For now everyone in our small company shares a single Webex account.  When we want someone to view a video we simply email them a link to that content.  This simple $50 a month service is quickly becoming one of our favorite tools. 

Having used Live Meeting, Webex, GoToMeeting, Skype, Facetime, and Adobe Connect I can say Webex is by far the favourite tool.  Video quality and voice quality always seems to be the best when compared to the other options that we have tested.

Hearing Stephen Sinofsky departed Nov 11,  just days after the release of Windows 8, brings up a whole range of thoughts about technology and what to prepare for in the future.  One executive leaving appears to be a big deal as the stock dropped 2.8% the next day.  That is a $5 Billion dollar drop if I did my math right.  Did one man have that much influence?  Probably.

Recently I ran across an old quote from Bill Gates who estimated much of Microsoft’s success can be attributed to a handful of very talented personnel.  In the last 2-3 years Bob Muglia left, then Ray Ozzie, Jim Allchin left a while before that, and now Sinofsky.  I sure hope Ballmer has a very deep bench of talent coming up quickly because reading how these men shaped product lines makes it seem like this highly respected handful has been depleted in a big way.

What does this mean for a business owner or pcit as a technology provider?  My estimate is disappointment, lack of vision and a poor Microsoft stock price!  Each of these estimates has a different time frame.  The disappointment will come when Microsoft misses a key technology or product that is needed in the real world and another company steps in to take over a chunk of their business.  This is probable 1-2 years away.  The lack of vision will translate to disappointment but it will also mean missed opportunities.  The stock price reflects a lot of this future expectation and this has happened already.  I know of a respected short seller who closed out of his Microsoft long position a couple months ago.  Very wise.  Some of these future predictions may seem like it has already happened but there are areas where Microsoft dominates to the point where another option makes no sense at all.  For example if you currently need a Server Operating System for a business application?  Microsoft is typically the best and only practical answer.  Unified Communications?  Microsoft.  PC Operating System?  Microsoft.  Office Software or Collaboration? Microsoft.  Business Email platform?  Microsoft.  They are a great company with great products in so many ways. 

What we will keep our eyes open for in 12 -24 months is competing solutions to these products that are even stronger and possible more competitive.  Decision makers should likely do the same by not being comfortable when only Microsoft products are offered in 2014 or 2015.

Up until Tuesday August 8 someone with an Apple_ID and an Amazon account faced a security hole that was so big it allowed anybody with a telephone and a little common sense to get access to both accounts in under 15 minutes.  It wasn’t until a journalist from Wired magazine had EVERYTHING on his iMac, iPhone, iCloud and Amazon account erased that this security flaw became publically exposed.

With surprising ease a complete stranger got control of Mat Honan’s Amazon account over the phone in under 15 minutes last Friday Aug 3.  Who cares if someone can get your Amazon account information? With this information they could get the last 4 digits of any credit cards you keep on file.  4 Digits don’t seem like much but this is the exact same information Apple Phone support needs to reset someone’s password!  What happened in the next 30 minutes was that Mat Honan had lost all information on his Apple devices, his Gmail account taken over and his Twitter account taken over. 

Most importantly, he lost every photo of his daughter from his iMac.  The hacker’s turned out to be juvenile in nature – Mat actually talks about his online chats with the hackers.  Immature kids who wanted nothing more than to take over his ‘cool’ Twitter account.  If they had some highly malicious intent it is hard to tell how much further they could have hacked his friends and families accounts as well as contacts saved to the iCloud.  But in 30 minutes he had lost everything, mostly due to a security flaw so big it’s hard to imagine that millions of users are exposed to the same thing.

By Thursday afternoon August 9 both Amazon and Apple had stopped resetting passwords over the phone as a stop gap measure to protect others from experiencing the same thing.  However, this is only a little bit better than a temporary band-aid.  Who knows how many other clever ways someone can conjure up to accomplish the same thing?  Single accounts that control many services are convenient.  But as Mat Honan experienced this convenience comes with a potential risk not easily calculated.

Breakfast at renowned Chickies & Pete’s. Watch out for those peppers inside!

Last week Darren (me) had an amazing trip to Philadelphia. Meeting with other IT Network Support businesses and learning from experts in the industry was very helpful. In comparing some of our service metrics with other business owners I was once again encouraged by the results pcit has achieved over the last quarter.
One of the industry leaders at the meeting has an IT support company just a few hours down the road in Pittsburgh. PC Network Services looks like any other support company from their website but they run one of the best SMB support companies around. Getting to meet Peter Briden and hear how he approaches customer service and good network management was one of the highlights of the trip. Cisco also kind enough to offer a draw for a free OnPlus service. I was very intrigued by the offering in speaking with them and will be delighted to test out the gift they gave!
One other thing aspect that I always find interesting is the differences in food between the eastern US and Grande Prairie. Of course they have more seafood available and things like bass, lobster, shellfish are fresher and more available. There are also lots of Italian restaurants in Philadelphia.
Of course there are the really big differences too. For example my 6am breakfast in the airport started off with a breakfast at Chickies & Pete’s. Apparently a very popular restaurant but French fries 1st thing in the morning was highly unusual. Not to mention the omelette was filled with cherry peppers. Oh man that was hot!

Also very memorable are the pretzel buns seemingly served everywhere. The Hyatt always has these very large buns which my photo doesn’t do justice of. Very tasty – but hold the mustard.

Lunch or Dessert? – Pretzels bread is commonly available in Philly

Then there are the very memorable steakhouses. Below is a sample from the Union Trust Steak House. Who would have thought Philadelphia has such amazing steak houses coming from Alberta? This was the least expensive options – $46 for a filet mignon. Like I say these steakhouses are very memorable…. And it is more than just the food. The prices still stand out several days later. If you do go and are hungry don’t forget to order side dishes. For the uninitiated these are served in separate dishes. If no one chooses the macaroni and cheese make sure you do. Somehow these steakhouses make this simple dish the highlight of the other options. It is unforgettable. Also unforgettable was the game the group played. The lucky winner of who guesses closest to the tab would get a free meal. The winning submission was $1730 (including tip). Let’s just say everyone else had to put in $115 that night. Yes!

$46 for 1 steak and a sprig of Rosemary

Data and network equipment need a regular security patrol by humans to help keep the bad guys out.
When the chance of theft is high nothing beats a regular security patrol. We see security companies at special events, public buildings, construction sites and on regular nightly patrols. Not being a security expert this is presumably on the basis that a human can do far more than a security camera. Even the presence of security personnel can act as a deterrent. How much easier is a target when no one with authority is watching? I once worked at a place where the owner strung wire on the edge of their property and hung up wooden boxes that sort of looked like security camera’s from a distance. Presumably this was to scare off the drunken thief on a dark night otherwise this security layer was more of an amusement than real protection.
Effective security for computers and networks works on similar principles. It may not matter how good the security device is that is installed. Neither does it help long term to have a few ‘scarecrows’ so to speak that aren’t alive hung up. (These scarecrows could be physical or electronic). To keep a network secure and free from being compromised requires both an investment in infrastructure and discipline. A recent meeting of the 23 year old Information Security Forum came to the same conclusion. Their findings state that good cyber-threat management is a process versus an expensive electronic gadget. In other words, in the same fashion that regular security patrols identify that the gates are locked, the doors are locked, the windows are secured, the alarm system is turned on etc, a good IT security practice has a similar checklist. To protect electronic assets some of the items to check are:
• Is the antivirus software current on all clients?
• Are the passwords to computers and folders managed in a secure way?
• Has someone recently reviewed who has access to the folders and files on the network?
• Is the Firewall logging Intrusion attempts?
• Is internet traffic to known malicious sites being blocked?
• If malware is installed is the Intrusion Prevention system blocking it from calling ‘home’?
• Are the important hard drives and servers kept under lock and key?
• Are security certificates used to manage remote access?
Keeping a good network management security checklist can serve a number of purposes. It acts as a security patrol to help keep honest people from being tempted. It also locks down the electronic assets from the real bad guys more effectively.
We believe a simple checklist is a great way to ensure there is a process behind whatever security technology is deployed. This tupe of security ‘patrol’ should be conducted at least once per quarter.
Compiling the data from the checklists to produce a scorecard can demonstrate how security has been managed over time.

In a recent meeting with 9 other Network IT services companies from all over North America including Los Angeles, Orange County, Boston, Washington DC and Toronto the CEO of an 18 person Service company made this statement about pcit.  ‘You have the best service delivery of anyone in this group….. You are so process orientated. “  It was a bit of a shock  but coming from a peer I respect and getting a general acceptance from other companies in the room this was a great confidence boost (Thanks Myles).

How far things have come from leaving a great full time job four years ago with nothing more than a vision that IT management could be delivered in a better way for customers in Grande Prairie region.  In fact, sometime I joke we started this business with no experience, no capital, no customers, no connections, and no proven product.  Most of this is unfortunately true….

The basis for this statement were the performance metrics that each service company tracks and brings for comparison to the meeting.  As a group of IT support companies we measure things like:

• How many requests are responded to the same day?
• How long does it take for each service request to be resolved?
• What kind of an impact is our service having in reducing the overall count of service requests?

Measuring these kind of performance numbers helps give a clearer insight how our customers feel about pcit’s support and where we need to improve.   It fits nicely with our first core value at pcit which is “We are the best at technology solutions, ROI for clients and customer service. “  Do we get this perfect every day?  Not yet -  but we are constantly working on getting better.  And doing our best to enjoy the journey…

Wow – Imagine trusting someone you know with a copy of all of your emails, a history of your online browsing, all of the videos you watch online, and the times and amounts that you watch them. Then imagine telling them everything you are searching for on the internet. Now picture the conversation one day when your friend mentions that he is sharing all of this information with just a few of his closest most trusted associates. You are assured that no more than 20-30,000 people will ever get access to this information and just like your good friend you are assured that all of those people are really really nice. You are also assured there are security measures in place so none of these associates could do something you wouldn’t like. Thinking about this scenario it is hard to picture a lot of people trusting our good friend with all of this information. It is even harder to picture anyone trusting these tens of thousands of associates to be perfectly honest and upstanding. It isn’t really the friend that is a security risk . It is all of your friends associates that would be a concern right?

This is precisely what millions of people did this spring when we consentingly went along with Google’s new privacy policy. Now our gmail information is linked to our web searching, which is linked to all of the YouTube videos watched, AND all of the time spent on the internet. That series of information is a lot of data. It isn’t necessarily bad that Google gathers this information to make anyone’s online experience better and offer more helpful suggestions. What could be really really bad though is what one of Google’s employees could do with this information if they are disgruntled. Or what if they make a human error and all of our private data is hacked by someone who specializes in online stealing of money or identities. They could have a database profile of what you like, where you live, who you communicate with, what your passwords are and a whole lot more. In very short order they could use this data to be …. You. You on the company network, you on social media sites, and even you while online banking. Piecing together this information with the Google+ service this information could even reproduce what you look like and all of your personal contact information. Wow. In effect, someone could look like you, know much of what you know about yourself, and do whatever they please with this information.

What changed this spring is that Google said we are going to store all of this information in ONE place. No more would all of this information be separated but if we sign into anything at Google this information will be compiled into one big profile of well, you.

In one bold move I would suggest Google became the possessor of one of the most coveted databases of information on the public in the world. John Millar, President of the Digital Boundary Group, who make their living penetrating and testing networks for clients told me last month. “Our success rate at penetrating a network is still 99% WHEN we can go after the users.” Now tell me hackers aren’t thinking the same thing? If I was a hacker my real target wouldn’t be the database. It would be some of the disgruntled employees at Google who have been passed over for several promotions. …. The storyline about mean hacker meets down on his luck Google Security Engineer may make good fiction. Except this isn’t a story. Writing this I became more aware that my Gmail account stays signed in at several computers I use from home and the office. So right now my online information is being collected, measured, and ads are being targeted according to my likes. No wonder my Gmail showed a beautiful full color add for a property available in Costa Rica for only $29,000 last week! (I always wanted to go to Costa Rica and did a few Google searches about the area a few months ago.)

To protect ourselves the experts say we should LOG OFF from Gmail services. We may also want to create multiple gmail accounts or Google ID’s to ‘confuse’ the database. I for one won’t be signing up for Google+ anytime soon as Google+ is another method used to gather personal data into this database. Of course, if you have confidence in Google being able to police their tens of thousands of staff and prevent any security issues these suggestions aren’t necessary. One of Google’s core belief’s is ‘Don’t Be Evil.” I trust they will stay with their core values. However, for the public perhaps we should keep in mind other time tested core values like ‘Don’t be stupid.” Or “Don’t be naïve.” Or “You have no street smarts”.

With hosted Exchange 2010 available from pcit we feel we have partnered with the best company in the business to deliver email services in the cloud. IT managers and business owners frequently ask for input on whether it’s time to upgrade from older Exchange versions or POP email and how they should use the cloud for the network IT management. We use the following information to help guide us in our decisions. Excerpts in quotes below are straight from analyst firm Osterman Research and are the unbiased facts on hosted Exchange 2010 whether you choose our service or not.

The Older Your Email System, The Greater the Benefits of Exchange 2010
Says Osterman Research, “One of the more important reasons to upgrade to a newer version of Exchange – and Exchange 2010 in particular – is that it can lower the cost of managing the Exchange infrastructure and improve the value that an organization can derive from their Exchange investment.” Users migrating from POP email platforms also benefit with hosted Exchange features such as shared online calendars for easy scheduling and full synchronization between smartphones and email.

Unlimited Size Mailboxes
“Exchange 2010 can support larger mailboxes than previous versions of Exchange, a particularly important capability given the increasing use of email, greater use of attachments, use of larger attachments (e.g., multimedia, video, etc.) and the like.” In fact some of our customers now have unlimited size mailboxes.

Remote Access to Email From Any Device Any Time
“Because about two in five users employ a web browser other than Internet Explorer, support for a variety of browsers in Exchange 2010 will significantly improve the user experience, offering significant improvements in usability and overall satisfaction.” Features like instant messaging are also built right into the browser.

A track Record Matters More than an SLA
It is possible to get Hosted email with a 99.999% Service Level Agreement while most advertise 99.99% uptime. Our approach however, is that SLA’s are in many ways a waste or paper. Would our customer’s really feel happier when we tell them the 2 hour outage was well within the SLA agreement so we are delivering a good service? Not likely. Instead of an organization who hides behind SLA advertising we focus on someone with a track record. A really good track record. Everyone has outages, Microsoft Office 365, Google’s Gmail. We go with companies that have less outages.
Put another way multimillion dollar infrastructures are helpful as long as the people managing the infrastructure can demonstrate a process and a track record that delivers a stable client experience.

Improved Archiving and Retention Capabilities
“The email archiving capabilities included in Exchange 2010 have been significantly improved compared to previous versions of Exchange.” This means users now have the ability to store and search all corporate emails without 3rd party applications in many cases.

Support From A Human – Not a Website
Ever try to get really good, really fast support from a website? The combination of these two qualities delivered over the internet aren’t common. One of pcit’s most careful considerations is how our partners deliver support. If we can’t pick up the phone and contact someone who is qualified to handle the problem when a serious issue arises the partner is probably not a good fit. As professionals in the business we understand the importance of process to any IT support arrangement. However, process can turn into lousy customer service if it isn’t managed well. North American based support with an instant escalation path can mean all the difference for a mission critical service like email.

Other Benefits…
For a copy of the complete Osterman Research white paper call pcit to talk to one of our representatives.