Outlooks on Business and Technology

Information Shared - ITA Fall Collaborative

 
It is that time of year when one of my favorite associations is finalizing their annual meeting for members and non-members. Mark your calendar for Nov 7-9th.

This association focuses on a set of three  audiences. Each comprised of an elite group. 

1. Large ERP Value added Resellers and Vendors with the ITA Consultants and Reseller track.
2. CIOs/CTOs in industry particularly those people managing the technology decisions at the largest consulting firms in the world with their Internal Technology Leaders - ITL Track.
3. Managed Service Providers and Information Services, Information Technology specialists with the ITA Infrastructure and Managed Services Providers track

This year the conference is in Salt Lake City and I would love to be there, but alas I am now in a different audience. Still my time with ITA over the last 10 years has been invaluable so I am sharing the secret. The small group automosphere and the shared information from some of the best, most profitable minds in the business is priceless.

To get more information, the below is a little bit more on the bundled content.

 You know you can count on getting a great deal of valuable insight (and help) from your peers during all the network time you’ll have at the meeting, but we also have sessions that should provide immediate take home value as well:

For Consultants and Resellers – 2 full CR tracks.

•  The Cloud and How To Make It Work For You. This multi-session “deep dive” will give you a strategic overview of the dynamics of SaaS and Cloud based Computing, insight from a panel of SaaS vendor members, and the benefit of the real world experiences of a panel of members with SaaS based practices.  
• Reenergizing Yourself, Your Business, and Your Top People
• Business Changes around Taxes, Health Care, and SBA Incentives
• Emerging Opportunities – with emphasis on adding more services to your existing client base and changing clients perceptions of your value and role in their world. 
• Social Media - Member Survey Results 
• And more

 For Infrastructure and Managed Services Providers – 1 complete ITC track

•  Legal and Licenses Complexities with MSP and Hosting Services
• 2010 SharePoint and Internal Use Portals
• Security Issues Surrounding Apple and Droid based Devices 
• New Technologies and Ways to Improve The Practice – a panel discussion of ideas and tools that are making a difference.
• And more

 For Internal Technology Leaders – 2 ITL tracks.

•  The Firm of the Future – two sessions, one reflecting Gartner’s view on how Professional Services firms will work in the future, and a second on the ways that the roles within IT will change as a result.
• A 6 Sigma look at the CPA Practice – a case study look at the work being done at McGladrey 
• Integrating Apple and Droid Devices – a panel on the different policies and practices members are adopting.
• CCH and Thomson Roadmap updates
• HTML5 vs SilverLight vs Flash
• Windows 7 – Lessons Learned To date
•  Portals and Client Stickiness Initiatives
•  Email and Document Retention – a panel look at different policies and practices.
•  Enterprise Data Management – what the mergers might mean to you.
•   And more

 Plus, two great Keynote Sessions – one that will humor and energize you, and the other that will teach you essential success readiness skills. And of course, the famous Monday night dinner party, which we think will be especially fun and entertaining this year!

The Fall Collaborative meeting is ITA’s signature event - Don’t miss it!

In addition to the details in the attached “brochure”, we will be sending emails over the next 2-3 weeks introducing you to our newest ITA members, and the speakers who will provide great added value to the ITA community.  We encourage you to learn more about them before the meeting, and then to meet with them at the Vendor Reception Party on Sunday night the 7^th.

See you there –  Ron and Jo Ann

   

 

 

 

Industry Cultures facing Change

There are three industry cultures that are facing huge change due to the maturity of technologies. These industries have "old guard" companies who are loyal to the old techniques and styles (perhaps to the end) and new players who can turn on a dime and take advantage of all that today offers.

What this means for businesses is you need more knowledge to get both excellent quality control and dollars and cents! Unfortunately this knowledge needs to come from objectivity and you don't always get objectivity when working with a specific company offering  a specific offering.

So I post today as a thought seed that both Business owners and Technology Consultants need to be very aware of these changes. The variables can significant and the vendors tend to fall on one side of the fence or the other.

The Industries:

STORAGE

PRINTING/PUBLISHING

WEB DESIGN

Storage: Given that you can easily purchase 1TB of direct attach storage or network attached storage for just a few hundred dollars it makes you wonder how the multi-million dollar storage vendors are changing their model. The balance might not shift on the enterprise level, but certainly when it comes to SMB there are some interesting choices. EMC is no longer the only option once you start needing TBs of data.

Publishing: A wonderful gift to the environment, small businesses no longer have to buy 5000 copies of marketing material to get reasonable prices. This saves the landfills and the recycling centers as no longer would 3000 of those get tossed. Companies such as VistaPrint are offering low volume, high quality printing at reasonable prices! You can now create a uniquely messaged brochure for a specific trade show and still stay within budget. Business cards are also flexible and can be matured and changed with time to truly reflect the image you want to reflect! Let's also not forget that 4 color printing is available within this same budget. The two color cards might quickly scream "old culture" as we deal with younger and more cutting edge companies who get it.

Web Design: Web design use to take complex tools and advanced knowledge to create even the most basic of decent looking web pages. This need translated to thousands of dollars. The companies that have mastered these complex tools are still selling their craft (at the same prices) and yet those that refuse to bend with the market and master the new technologies are facing more and more competition. As a business in need of a great web page you have so many choices, but you need to know the factors that impact cost. A very good looking, professional web page can be crafted in less than an hour. Items such as back-end databases and integration to applications are a cost factor, high end graphics do not have to be. There are new ways to slice this cake and you want to make sure you work with someone who is objective and with a broad prospective.   

And yet with the avalanche of resources, knowledge, data and noise what are business owners suppose to do? Just keeping up can be challenging and certainly in the SMB space hiring objective consultants is not always an option. I find that the business owners I meet are so thrilled to be able to get quick answers! 

What is the solution to this dilemma that I am just not seeing? If you have insights or an answer please share!

PS Do you know what the picture above represents? It is a picture of a 3D Printer. As in a printer that creates models from electronic diagrams. Yes, movable, holdable, working models. Sure it is expensive and it takes forever to print BUT talk about change! Just think what this technology will do to the architecture and industrial modeling industry.

Cortex I.T.'s BackupAssist

I generally consider that if I have to experience it then there is usually some benefit in the future.

IT is now my future when it comes to NTBackup! 

I have recently met the CEO, Linus Chang and one of his Senior Product Specialist, Andrew Colliver from Cortex I.T. Cortex IT are the developers of BackupAssist. Why does this new vendor to my database peak my interests? Well it all goes back to my last battles with NTBackup which the SBS backup routines depend heavily upon. In my battles with getting NTBackup to work happily with an external tape drive I learned many things.

I talked to everyone! I opened a Microsoft case and went through the layers circling the globe back to Dallas. I happen to be at MVP Summit around the same time so I talked with Microsoft developers. I pinged up my technology peers and SBS MVP gurus and I learned a lot..

As it turns out NT Backup is one of those applications with a REALLY, REALLY long history. A product who if you picked apart might even have some fossilized code worth framing.

BUT WHAT I really learned above and beyond  is that having a third party vendor who has mastered all there is to master about NTBackup really is an ACE in the hole!!!

SOOOO if you want to use NTBackup and the native windows tools AND you want to really, really do even more (like have nice GUIs for backup and creative restore options for Server, SQL, AD, Exchange and more) then you might want to drop Linus Chang or one of his team a note!

You see Cortex I.T. is a reachable company. They are masters of backup and yet they are small enough to treat their customers like family and to be available in the community and to community members.

Distinguishing Software

One of the key distinguishing characteristics of software today is the vendor who produces the software and the local partner and/or VAR who supports it.

What resources do you use to research the VARs and VENDORs of the world? How do you know those resources are objective? Are referrals involved? Do we even have time for a ton of research?

Southwest Does it again

I have to give kudos to Southwest Airlines. 

My logistics this trip have been extreme! and yet through it all Southwest continues to prove why I choose them over any other airline. They work with me to find a win/win! They work with me to get me to where I need to be and when and they even go above and beyond when it comes to doing things such as digging through luggage to retag mine. Wow.. is all I can say.

Despite all the snow this weekend and the risk that I might get stuck, I am confident that you are there to work with me to meet my goals. 

My only complaint! I just wish you could fly to every airport in the US so I never had to deal with the crazy customer service at some of the competitive airlines.

TNG Press

It took a number of years and a whole handful of patience to get here.. but cool! I head to the members only meeting in Chicago, In April.

The Norwich Group joins Information Technology Alliance

ITA Announces New Member The Norwich Group

Friday, January 05, 2007

ITA Announces New Member – The Norwich Group Scottsdale, AZ - January 1, 2007– Being recognized for its commitment to providing superior technology solutions to small and medium-size businesses, The Norwich Group has joined Information Technology Alliance (ITA), a highly regarded group of top VARs, CPA Firms and technology product/service providers. This invitation has been extended due to the high level of support and service The Norwich Group has provided businesses in their market and for their commitment to being a leader in the industry. The focus of ITA is to provide an independent forum for leading businesses to share information, assess the nature and direction of the profession and to accomplish their own business goals,” said Ron Eagle, president of ITA. “By participating in ITA, The Norwich Group has shown that they are committed to the long-term success of their organization and their clients.” Being an ITA member is a great way to meet and network with other leading industry firms,” said Anne Stanton, President of The Norwich Group. “We are always looking to better our firm’s infrastructure and operations. Having a forum to do so allows both The Norwich Group and our clients to be more successful.” About ITA The ITA is an independent, not for profit, professional association of leading firms and companies whose purpose is to share information and build relationships that improve the way its member firms, and their clients, do business.  Because the ITA membership roster consists of some of the most highly regarded mid-market technology professionals, consultants, and product/service providers, we often employ our collective influence to act as an authoritative voice for the IT profession. About The Norwich Group The Norwich Group is a consulting firm focused on providing technology and business consulting services surrounding the highest utilization of Customer Relationship Management software and CRM business best practices. The Norwich Group currently specializes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. More information can be found at www.thenorwichgroup.com and http://thenorwichgroup.blogs.com ###

Microsoft and the CPA Firm industry

Can Microsoft change the long held beliefs and culture of the CPA Firm Niche when it comes to updates, staying current and technology?

Microsoft came out with a sweet deal for the Accounting firms called the MPAN program (The Microsoft Professional Accountant's Network). Not original (Intuit has a similar program as does SAGE), but new for Microsoft. It includes Office Accounting 2007/Small Business Accounting 2006 AND the option to purchase the "Action Pack" A Bundle of over 10,000 dollars worth of Microsoft software and licenses for up to 10 people, for a subscription of $299 a year. (Yes, a sweet deal, and yes it includes Windows XP Pro upgrades and office and server licenses!)

BUT There has been a lot of buzz within the last few days with regards to licensing compliance.

You see the concept of the Action Pack, that the small Microsoft registered Technology Professional firms have long benefitted from, is to stay current on the latest official release of the Microsoft software. The win for Microsoft is that their partners are not only supported in using the latest and greatest products, but are also supported in running high level best practice technology environments that offer the "advisors" great insight into the current products that they love, extra training, AND options to add into their own mix products that they might not purchase otherwise. (Like OneNote, MapPoint, InfoPath forms, Visio Diagramming etc.)

What else does this do? Well the small Technology Pros love  and use the Microsoft products, AND then as masters of the products, use them as recommendations to solve the problems they see every day at client sites. Hey there is only so much time in the day, and it is a lot easier to master products you personally depend on, then products "for review" on your to do list.

The Technology Pros win, Microsoft Wins, the clients win..

But what about your typical small CPA Firm. Realize that many of the CPA firms in the USA are less than 10 people. In fact at one point I heard a statistic that said tht 90% of the AICPA members (American Institute of CPAs) were in firms that had less than 10 people.

These firms are primarily focused on Accounting Services. Tax Preparation and Advice, Audits and Business consulting and yes, sometimes technology consulting.

These firms are also deeply dependent on their Accounting FIRM software vendors: Intuit, CCH, Thompson/RIA,  and more.

The trouble is that for Microsoft to be successful with the Action Pack arm of the MPAN offering (or at least from a licensing compliance stand point as it stands now), they have to synch/partner/deep dive work with and understand  these third party vendors with regards to where they are with relations to technology.... AND alas these third party vendors are driven in part by their CPA Firm clients who... for as long as I have been working with them (20 plus years) are generally the loudest voice when it comes to reinforcing the concept of the not getting involved with the "bleeding edge", "not upgrading", not paying the vendors extra to invest in new best practice technology development...

The vendors in this niche have to walk a very tight line with regards to what they charge versus what they need to continue.. AND as such you find that most of their products currently do not run on VISTA, do not support or integrate to Office 2007 and do not have any mention of how they are changing their product to integrate with the products of the future. Such as SharePoint Collaboration Services v3.0 and beyond.

IF we then mix in the issue that CPAs want other CPAs to be the management within these trusted software vendors... the true 100%+ technology experts by training all the way back into the early college days (like who had time to do accounting, tech is as bad as the research/science niche when it comes to staying current and mentally purging old information), who can help change this belief... well their input into this niche becomes, well second fiddle..

The really hard core technology folks need pretty thick skin to play in the small CPA Firm niche space as a career..  and many think... oh there are better ways to invest my skills.

Anyway to me it is like this unending circle that needs to be broken.

Why? Well the cold hard fact is that CPA Firms work with almost every small, medium and large business and really are trusted advisors when it comes to business best practices AND yet so many small firms are missing out on technologies enablement, because they are not supported by all their advisors in using the proper selection and implementation of technology best practices.

Sure you can spend money on technology toys... but you can also waste a lot of time using products selected from a very limited list.

A great example? The number of people who use EXCEL to do everything and as such instead of using the right tool (already designed to solve the business problem), end users customize/hack/creatively create solutions, spending hours using Excel to do something that perhaps a Business Intelligence tool can do in seconds, or an accounting software product can do effortlessly.

But I digress ...

Is there a way to get CPA firms to embrace win/win/wins in partnering? As opposed to trying to be all things to all their clients? Is the CITP credential really the way to go? 

The small 1-5 person IT Professional firms pain points include business skills and financing skills with huge strengths in technology. The small 1-10 person CPA firms struggle with technology, standardization, network administrator best practices with strengths in business consulting and financing.

The above "partnering opportunity" seems so well obvious... and yet .... I suspect our aged old enemy and brick wall for small IT and CPA firms wins the battle...

Who is this enemy? "The Ego"

HP and the SMB Niche - They just aren't there yet!

The small IT Professional firm (ranging from 1-10 people) has long fought the hard battle to support their clients, but the world has been changing. Vendor relationships are not as hard as they once were. Vendors are starting to get SMB and want to work with the IT Professionals who service and understand the SMB marketplace..

One of the biggest Vendors in this space, Microsoft, actually significantly shifted focus two years ago and started to truly understand the potential of the SMB niche.  In fact their Small Business Web Conference proved to have many an insightful comment and their First Server, Right Server campaign proves again that they are starting to see what is needed.

Now just to be clear let's define SMB for this posting. SMB is Small and Medium sized businesses and sometimes it is MICROSized and SMALL businesses (1-20 people). These small businesses need well integrated infrastructure even more than their big brothers, and many of the small IT professionals are their technology departments. They don't have the people, they need the technology to do the job..

So Microsoft acknowledges the success of their 8 year old bundle Small Business Server, but what about the hardware vendors?

Given that GlobalBrain LLC is a fairly new reseller we have been talking to our peers all over the world, and also learning for ourselves where the best relationships exist for distribution and for reselling. We have tapped into our long existing contacts at companies such as HP, DELL, IBM and others and have also been creating new relationships with the distributors.

Today I am blogging about HP

HP Just isn't there yet. The buzz in the forums is that it is too hard to sell HP Servers, that the quotas are way too high, and that they care little for the small IT Professionals. I personally didn't want to believe this, and so I went on a quest to see if I could prove them wrong. I am sorry to say that my efforts to date have not been successful.  Despite having some GREAT conversations with some key people at HP.

In terms of GlobalBrain LLC.

We managed to get our HP "Outlet Number", but we have been having one crazy time getting authorized to sell HP Servers. You see you do not have to be certified, technical, an expert or anything else to sell HP Servers. You simply have to promise to sell a certain dollar amount per year.  Now that would be all well and good, and fit into the old model of reselling, BUT the base quota is ridiculous for a new company in a small area.

And as such the client suffers. They can buy from Staples, Bestbuy, the College,.. (Hello, Can you see a customer spec'ing out a server with Raid 5, enough RAM, a hardware controller, the right set of NICS etc. at Staples?) or even direct, but not from their trusted IT Partner.

Talk about a Lo0se, l0ose, l0ose.. The reseller looses because they can't sell choice of server, the customer looses because their IT Department can't offer them choice and the vendor looses, because they loose more and more sales to the competition.

Hello HP - DELL makes it easy to purchase any combination of server!  Why do you make it so hard on the IT Consultants? 

Lastly the screen shot above.. Oh that was one of the many errors I received while trying to work with the HP Partner Portal web page. Seems that it totally HATES Internet Explorer 7. So for today I give up.

Microsoft and Customer Relations

As much as I get teased by the passionate Linux and Open Source technical community for being a fan of the Microsoft products, I have to occassionally voice some frustration. Microsoft has more money, more technical resources and more political power than any other vendor in the market and yet they continually have trouble figuring out what other vendors can't take for granite. That is they need a good CRM system and call center with accurate client information.

I changed my company name in 2003! and despite this change and numerous postings and updatings of numerous databases within the world of Microsoft. As in The Norwich Group is all over my name and account.. I still had to wait days for a simply question around my action pack because they had my old company name which they had to research and when I finally did get the info I needed the ship to address still had the old company name. Argh.. Now don't get me wrong I do understand and I am sensitive to the complexities of the huge beast Microsoft, but sometimes it is the little things that keep you down! and as a Microsoft supporter I hate to see something so basic not get fixed.

The Yahoo Interview Process?

I noticed today via Scoble's Blog that Yahoo is hiring. I wonder if they require that their interview candidates read blogs prior to coming in? I posted a couple of days ago about how understanding blogs in today's technical world is not just fun, it is a requirement.

Perhaps a good question for the Microsoft Recruiting team as well, whose blog you can read here!

Data

I just have to ask! Why can't everyone (as in all software developers/software vendors and responsible parties) put all the data in one folder! Backing up, restoring, organizing is a major battle when every application has not only data in it's own sub-directories, but data buried deep within hidden folders. Take for instance Outlook Express and Outlook. If you just happen to be running without Microsoft Exchange (prior to 2005;) and you setup the default folders, the actual data is no less than seven sub-folders deep AND if you are not familiar with hidden files and folders you might never find it. Yes, we need to be aware of multiple people working on one machine, but there must be an easier way!!

Technologist should be ashamed of themselves. We want people to easily be able to backup their most prized data (like e-mail) and yet we make it impossible to simply copy an Archive.PST and Outlook.PST file to a thumb drive. Not only that we don't even build in automatic backups on exit.

I vote for one standard DATA folder for all applications. Tag the data file with an imbedded key that makes it unique to the application and be done with it. We can then all go back to simplier backups. Just backup one folder and/or restore one folder if needed.

What about the applications? Well those are getting simplier again given that it is my understanding that Microsoft has realized that sharing DLL files was not such a great idea and we can always do a FULL backup, but let's face it, applications can be backed up weekly and before/after any update. 

It is the data that is so impossible to recreate.

Are you LinkedIN?

As many of you might or might not know I spend a certain amount of time working with new applications. In fact I love new applications so I squeeze in learning a new one or two when I get the chance. Which is usually every week.

A couple of years ago I decided to dive into the world of technical "social networking" and try this tool called RYZE. Ryze has a very interesting web service which lets you drill around and tie to all the various degrees of people within a network. The software is actually pretty neat and I found it extremely easy to use and rather interesting. Additionally given that I wanted to give the concept a good exercise I spent about 10 months Ryze'ing and I have to tell you I was totally unimpressed. It is not that the system didn't have its benefits, but in the long run despite investing a good piece of time, I decided that it was totally not worth it. My style of connecting and talking and building relationships totally did not meet the style of the tool. So Ryze died a graceful death and disappeared from my tool chest.

Needless to say last January when someone sent me a "LinkedIN" request I thought (another potentially time wasting tool), but I went ahead and "LinkedIN". I do need to stay up with the trends you know and you can never judge one software application by another. A couple of months went by and another person within my network sent me a "LinkedIN" and I "LinkedIN" again and now that it is December I have received almost 10 "LinkedIN" requests in 2004.

I decided it might be time to reconsider and try another "social networking" tool (did I mention I hate the word). So I sent out a very small subset of "LinkedIN" invitations to some local contacts yesterday and some interesting things happened.

1) New Business (two people contacted me about meeting in January)

2) In looking at associates of people who "LinkedIN" me I found a couple of details on contact people who I knew, but whose contact information I never managed to get into my contact database. (oops)

3) I learned a lot more about the people in my contact list who "LinkedIN" and what they are looking for. This makes it much easier for me to help them.

Will more happen as I include the tool in my tool chest over the next few months? I suspect it will, but you never know so if you are currently using "LinkedIN" let me know a little bit about how it works for you.

NewsGator

As some of you know I read RSS feeds and despite all the ranting and raving about blogging, reading blogs doesn't really work well unless you have a Feeder! As in a program that sends you an e-mail with the latest post on the blogs that you track. This means I don't have to remember to go look at a web page. All I have to do is open my newsgator folder in Outlook and then open the subfolder of the company I want to read about.

Reading RSS feeds is easier than e-newsletters and really is about staying in touch with what is going on in other business niches. At least for me! For others, well they read blogs for other reasons.

The best feeds are my clients! Why? well because it makes it incredibly easy to keep track of what is going on in my clients business niche and what better way to continue to help clients than to continue to understand their businesses. 

Why am I talking about Newsgator today? The newsgator web site with all their new offerings has managed to get a bit complicated and as such I was IM'ed today about the premium service and is that what I used.

Newsgator has three options and each has it's place.

The first is their free option which is similar to Kinja and is NEW. You can subscribe to hundreds of blogs and have the aggragete on a webpage hosted by newsgator. This requires that you still remember to go to that web page and in all honest given that it is new and I hate remembering I haven't looked into this in heavy detail.

The second is their newsgator software application for Outlook which cost about 29.00 dollars. I use this out of thousands of options because I learned about it first (there are others that are just as nice) and because it really works. Needless to say researching the thousands of other options has not be a big priority for me.

The last is their Newsgator Premium Service which is a monthly fee. What does this monthly fee get you? All of the above and Instant notification when anyone is writing about you or your company. In fact given that I am writing about Newsgator I will probably get an e-mail from John Carmichael, director of business development for Newsgator soon. You see I don't have to tell John I am writing about his company, he knows! and can instantly respond. He knows EVEN though he might not be subscribed to my blog and within seconds of when I post, he will know.

I do use the GOOGLE web alert feature which is similar to this, but not as extensive. Google doesn't always catch when something with my name or company name on it is published in the webosphere, but it does catch some and I really can't complain - it's free.

When this company grows up I might find that I need Newsgator Premium, but for now I am not using it.

TechNet

Just received a nice e-mail from Kelly in response to my eNewsletter. Kelly is Ms. TechNet or that at least is a nickname I tend to give her and I have to give Microsoft some credit. The TechNet events are totally focused on the IT Professionals and they are packed with not only great information, but also some helpful items to bring home as extra motivation. What some people DON'T realize is that TechNet is not a sales session (yes, Microsoft is guilty of doing a bit too many dog and pony sales seminars with our valuable time). TechNet is literally all about the business of being an IT Consultant and supporting small and medium size customers. The events I have attended to date have had extremely good speakers, a ton of content that I tend to find myself using when I am not looking and have even offered some great question and answer interaction from the members of the audience.

If you have not attended one of the free Microsoft events lately I would suggest you give them a try. TechNet, MS Connections, MSDN and a few others cost you some time, but I think you will find the half day well worth the effort.

You can Register Here! 

Don't Forget Software Changes

About four years ago the company where I was working was using an Accounting Information System software package that EVERYONE continually complained about. There were bugs, there were problems and basically the package just didn't cut the mustard. Needless to say when I started to update my thinking on what the status was of the players in the Accounting Software market this company was not on the top of my list.

As they say "Once Burned" ....

Now the interesting thing about the software development niche is the above doesn't really apply. You see software changes EVERY day. Just consider the job of a software developer: they fix bugs, add in features, update tools, and make changes everyday.

If we consider the above example which relates to about four years ago -> After four years, almost 1460 days of development and multiplied by multiple developers you have a significant amount of work! Now mix into that all the feedback from the field. If the product was really causing frustration then there was a lot of feedback and that feedback means a lot of energy going to those areas of the product that were not "cutting the mustard". Needless to say four years after the fact most all of those earlier problems are gone and the product is almost totally different.

Two additional key items worth a comment.

1) If the product is built on a database that is not stable or that has huge weaknesses then all the redevelopment effort won't make a difference unless the database is changed and changing a database is a HUGE project.

2) If you are already using the software and thinking of upgrading and your data has problems, an update or upgrade is not going to change the problems within the data itself. Usually fixing the data requires other tools or utilities.

As Patch Management becomes more and more critical (did I mention we have a new book coming out on Patch Management?) it is paramont that you work hard at establishing a strong relationship with all the software vendors and resellers who supply you with software. They are the inside track to early warning signs that something is amiss and needs immediate attention and if we can get them all blogging we could easily find out what was on their hot plates. Talk about early security warnings right from the source!

Veritas Case Studies

If you LOVE Vertias and have a good case study to share in the small business space give me a ping. One of the best benefits of attending trade shows is all the great people you get to meet! and the request last night was know anyone interested in doing a few case studies?

Case Studies are a great way to both support the vendor products you love and get extra PR for your own firm and environment.

Microsoft Partner Complaints

Susan Bradley in her ultimate wisdom posted the e-mail address for partner's to send complaints to regarding the Microsoft Action Pack. This is a tidbit I don't want to forget as feedback is SO very important for great future product and we all want GREAT future products.

If you are an Action Pack Subscriber and you have a complaint, send mail to [email protected]

Postini

After mixing and mingling with a number of great people at Intuit we (the AICPA Top Technology Committee) headed over to Postini to meet with the director of Product Marketing, Andrew Lochart. This is a picture of the building that houses one of the Postini offices!

Postini is a service which offers IT perimeter defense to businesses. They are basically a large set of intelligent filters or screens.

Consider this - If you think of your mail system and your spam filters as being similar to a water hose with a small filter then you could compare the Postini's systems to a filter for a large culvert. The concept works because Postini is looking at and sorting so much more mail. In fact millions of mail messages every second.

The outside service offering layers itself between the world of the ISPs and the world of company’s internal mail servers. The service sifts mail through three layers of analysis and strips out spam (placing it in a quarantined folder that the user can check), checks for IP attacks from known extremely bad IP addresses and reduces denial of service occurrences by slowing down the number of items received at anyone time when appropriate.

An interesting, but of course not new idea. Spam continues to be a pain point for companies and unfortunately what it means is that more and more companies are turning away from a great tool and going back in time. E-mail solved a number of business problems and it is a great tool!

Susan Bradley gets heard

Susan Bradley patiently waited until all the questions were asked and until most of the crowd had headed over to lunch. She listened to each inquiry and didn't comment. She didn't give the security product manager a twist or put his feet on the hot plate. She waited and waited and then went direct to the jugular! Thankfully for all the Lacerte, QuickBooks and other Intuit product users I can say she was heard. Will the Intuit Suite be more secure, we won't know for probably quite awhile, but I have to give Scott Cook (CEO of Intuit) credit for listening and taking notes. I also have to give Intuit credit for their usability labs. A great investment in getting user feedback. Very impressive.