So many times we hear of directors of businesses going out and signing themselves up to a two-year contract for a new Blackberry to pick up their emails, and then getting back to the office and asking their IT department (or us) to set it up for them. Just imagine the look on their face when we ask them if they realise what they’ve actually just done, and tell them they’ve just spent far too much money on the wrong product for their particular IT setup. Now imagine the look on the director’s face when they realise the other 9 phones for their colleagues are arriving in the morning and they’re stuck with this for the next two years!

To explain…

Blackberry has two solutions: Blackberry Internet Service and Blackberry Enterprise Service. One costs £4.25-8.50 per phone per month depending on the voice plan. The other costs about £28.00 per phone per month.

For a just a few users who don’t have their own email server in the business Blackberry Internet Service is usually fine, however…

Most businesses that have their own server in house will be running Microsoft Exchange to control the flow of emails in, out and around the business. They will then need the Blackberry Enterprise Service not to mention either Blackberry Professional Software or Blackberry Enterprise Software. This would cost anywhere between £549 + VAT to £2,800 + VAT for the software and licenses… oh yes and do they have the server capacity to run it on? There could be easily another £1,000 – £2,000 there as well to install a small server with the software.

However Blackberry isn’t the only option, and in many cases it probably isn’t the best.

The two main alternatives would be either Windows Mobile / Windows Phone from Microsoft or the iPhone from Apple. Both of these use ActiveSync, which is 100 times simpler than Blackberry in the way that it synchronises with the server without the need for any additional software or intermediary services. Nor does it need a data plan that costs around £20-25 per month more than a basic data plan.

So, why do they sell me Blackberry?

Simple… Commission!

Here’s a sample 5,000 minute, 1,000 text plan shared for 10 users with the costs and commission differences based on an Orange 24 month contract. Prices do not include VAT or phone insurance.

 If you think about getting email on your phone PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ask us what the true costs are before you sign up. Likewise if your contract is coming up in the next few months, maybe it’s time to call us on 0116 270 9700 for a review.

I asked a customer if they had their router’s username and password, and the customer replied that she’d got the passwords stored on a file on the PC. OK, not ideal, but at least we have a list of everything to allow us to replace her old failing BT Homehub router.

Upon inspection of the file, not only did it contain every single username and password of any website she’d used… Amazon, Ebay etc, but it also contained…

• Visa Credit Card Account Number, Pin Number and their CVC numbers
• Current bank account number, sort code and pin numbers as well as internet banking passwords
• Savings account numbers,
• Flickr, Facebook, MySpace and Google passwords
• All their kids’ login details for their websites

The file itself wasn’t password protected or encrypted in any way. With household income i’d guess being well in excess of £150,000 per year, there’s likely to be a reasonable pot of cash sat in those accounts ready for plundering.

PLEASE… PLEASE… PLEASE… Think about what data you’re storing on your PCs and how. And think about what it would mean to you if it were ever to get into the wrong hands. if you need a hand, feel free to call us and we can give you a free security audit of your business IT, and point out where you could improve security.

Well as annoying as it can be, there’s a lot of Identity Fraud taking place these days and you can’t be too careful as to what information you leave lying about. I’d imagine that you might shred old bank statements before binning them, or maybe even burn them! Well do you do the same with customer data? Maybe you should.

The data protection act affects us all and it’s something we can’t really avoid within our business and just about every business that holds any information about an individual (such as customer name, address, Date of Birth, bank records, etc.) should almost certainly be registered with  The Information Commissioner’s Office. This costs a nominal £35 per year at present.

The have plenty of resources to help you understand what it all means and how to protect both your own data and any information you may hold within your organisation. A good starting point would be The Guide to Data Protection available on their website.

The Data Protection Act 1998 is based upon 8 principles, and it states that information must be processed:

• Processed fairly and lawfully;
• Processed for specific purposes;
• Adequate, relevant and not excessive;
• Accurate and up to date;
• Not kept for longer than is necessary;
• Processed in line with the rights of individuals;
• Kept secure;
• Not transferred to countries outside of the European Economic Area, unless the information is adequately protected.

If you would like some help guiding you through how the Data Protection act applies to your computer records within the business and how you can better control the flow of information, the please call Dot IT on 0116 270 9700 or email us at info@small-biz.it.

Outlook 2003 introduced integration with SharePoint, allowing you to see some SharePoint information (like calendars) in Outlook alongside your personal information. In Outlook 2007, we made this a whole lot better.

Here we’ll focus on the new Document Library syncing capability that allows you to easily access, preview, search, and edit your SharePoint document libraries in Outlook.

To begin, let’s start by syncing an existing Document Library to Outlook:

1. First, navigate to a SharePoint Document Library site in your web browser. Click on the “Actions” dropdown menu, then select “Connect to Outlook.”
   
   
2. You will be prompted with a notice about connecting to the library. Click “Yes” to add the library to Outlook.
   
   
   
3. The newly added Document Library will show up in your Navigation Pane in Outlook under “SharePoint Lists.”
   
   
   

Now we get to the fun part… accessing your SharePoint documents in Outlook!

Document Previewing

With Outlook 2007 and SharePoint 2007, you can easily browse through the files in your Document Library with a single click using the Reading Pane. You also get one glance access to some basic meta-data like title, changed by, checked out to, last changed date, and size all at the top of the Reading Pane.

Instant Search

You can also use Outlook’s Instant Search with SharePoint lists. Just type the search query as you would for e-mail messages and BAM! Results.
In the example below, we searched for the word “little”. Notice that Outlooknot only searches the document title but also the contents of document and other properties as well.

Offline access and editing

Imagine you are working on a really important Office document that is in your document library and you would like to continue work on it while on a long flight home.

That’s plenty of time you could spend on your document, but since you are five miles above sea level you are out of luck, right? Not any more – with Outlook and SharePoint Document Libraries you can take your documents with you. When you return, uploading your changes is easy.

Not only will your documents be available to you offline, you can also make changes and save them locally on your laptop. You can then upload those changes back up to the server when you return to the office.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Double-click the document in Outlook to open it. You will be prompted and asked if you trust the file. Click “Open.”   

   Once you click “Open,” you can read the document without editing it.
   

2. To begin editing, click on the “Edit Offline” button at the top of the document just below the Ribbon.   

   
   

3.  Click “OK” on the information dialog. If you are curious as to where on your computer the files are stored click on the “SharePoint Drafts” link. You can easily change where the drafts are stored by clicking on the “Offline Editing Options” link in the dialog.   

   
   

Now you can edit the document as you wish. When you are done with your changes, save and close the document. When you are back online, you will be able to either upload your changes immediately or keep them locally for the time being. While you are offline, your changes will be saved locally.

In Outlook, documents you’ve edited will display a special icon (see 1 in the image below) to let you know the changes are only available locally. If you view the document in the preview pane, you’ll see an informational message explaining the offline state of your changes (see 2 in the image below). Next time you open the document, you’ll be given a chance to upload if you are online.

Uploading your changes

When you go back online, open each of the documents you edited offline and you will be prompted to upload your changes. Clicking update will upload your changes to the SharePoint site so it will be accessible for others to view.

To find all the documents you have edited locally, expand the “Search Folders” node under “SharePoint Lists” and select “SharePoint Drafts”. You’ll see all your locally edited documents grouped under their respective lists.

Open in web browser

If you want to return to the SharePoint Document Library, just right click on the folder in the Navigation Pane and select “Open in Web Browser.”

Well I’ve been using Office 2010 beta (pre-release) for at least an hour, and so far I’m pretty impressed. Well we’ll no doubt see over the coming days, weeks and months how it pans out but I’m happy with the first impressions.

Some of the features which might well prove useful for some of our clients are Microsoft SharePoint Workplace – an application that allows you to have a synchronised copy of a SharePoint on your laptop at all times. There’s also an extension of the Ribbon Interface that first appeared in Office 2007 to all the Office applications with a fair few modifications along the way.

As I use more of the Office Suite I’ll post more here, but if you feel as though you’d like to try Office 2010 yourselves you can download the trial from the Office 2010 Website.

There are several ways of purchasing Microsoft Software legally and these can be split into four main categories:

1. OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer. This is software bought at the same time you bought the PC and pre-installed by the manufacturer or retailer, and is usually the cheapest way of using the software. However as you might imagine, being the cheapest it is also the most restrictive. The software may only be installed on one PC and ‘lives and dies’ with that PC. The software cannot be installed on or transferred to any other machine for any reason whatsoever.
2. FPP – Fully Packaged Product. This is a boxed copy of the software and usually can only be installed on one machine at a time, but unlike OEM, when your PC finally gives up the ghost you can transfer the software onto a new machine.
3. VL – Volume Licensing. This is where your business can enter into a legal agreement with Microsoft to license the software you use, usually on a two or three year cycle depending on the exact scheme. There usually needs to be a minimum of 5 licenses purchased to allow you into the scheme. Volume Licensing can also come with something called Software Assurance where you are entitled to both upgrades of the products whilst you’re in the scheme as well as extra support options from Microsoft and training for end users as well as a Home Use scheme. Volume Licensing is a complex subject and you really do need to speak to a Microsoft Partner to get some advice on all the best options.
4. SPLA – Service Provider License Agreement. This is where a Microsoft Partner such as Dot IT can provide the hardware and software for your business on a monthly basis, avoiding all the large upfront costs you might have expected. You might find the difference surprising. Dot IT is also specialists in Educational and Charity licensing, guiding many organisations towards the extra benefits they might not realise they’re entitled to.

Call us NOW on 0116 270 9700 to find out how Dot IT can guide you through the maze of Microsoft Software Licensing and make sure your business is running both legally and efficiently.