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Are You At Risk of Losing All of Your E-mail and Contacts?

In recent days, two people have relayed to me how they lost years and years worth of e-mails and contact information.  Are you at risk of this happening to you?  If you're certain that your data is not at risk, are you certain about your employees' data as well?  Some companies have not yet consolidated their employees' contact data into a shared, centralized database; and so that valuable information could be here today and gone tomorrow.

Here's a couple scenarios that could result in complete loss of your e-mail history and contact data:

1. Let's say you have some sort of webmail e-mail account, like comcast.net, verizon.net, yahoo, gmail, hotmail, AOL, etc.  When you have a webmail account, you have a couple of options to consider in how you manage your e-mail and contacts.  You can leave all of your e-mail on the web server and work exclusively online within the webmail program that your host provides, or you could download the e-mail into an e-mail client software like the full version of Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Entourage, Eudora, Mozilla Thunderbird, etc.  When you download e-mail from a webmail host to an e-mail client, the process by which this is done is referred to as POP3 e-mail.  (An important factor to consider when down-loading POP3 e-mail is whether to leave a copy of the e-mails on your host webmail server.)  Let's say you opt not to keep a copy of your e-mail on the host webmail server.  Now then, let's say you've done it this way for years and years.  If you've been working on the same laptop or desktop for any extended period of time, you've accumulated a lot of historical e-mails, that you may want to keep for reference.  Also, most e-mail clients give you a convenient place to store your contacts.  Now here's the thing, if your laptop or desktop crashes, and you're not backing up your e-mail and contact data, then you're at risk of losing a lot of valuable information at any given moment.
2. Another way you can lose all your e-mail and contact data is if you're working exclusively on the webmail client, and counting on the reliability of a comcast or verizon to safeguard your data.  Do you think comcast and verizon offers the typical consumer, or even the business consumer, any kind of data protection guarantee?  If so, I'd be interested to hear about it.  And some people may be shocked to learn that the big boys do indeed, make their fair share of mistakes when it comes to shutting down accounts or the like.  It's happend to me with Verizon Business FiOS where I had a business internet service account, and a separate residential FiOS television account.  I cancelled my FiOS TV service, and even though I had separate accounts, and was paying for business class service on the internet service, they shut that service down as well, and my business-critical network addresses were flushed away with the flick of a button.  Moral of the story is: don't rely on your internet service provider, or webmail host to permanently secure your e-mail and contact information, unless you have a 100% data protection guarantee from them.

So, how then, do you make sure you don't lose this kind of data?  Well, you need to do a couple things: first I would recommend downloading the information to your local laptop or desktop; secondly, you simply need to make sure this critical data -- like any other critical data stored locally on your laptop or desktop -- is backed up. 

Another way that small-and medium-sized businesses are using to make sure their e-mail and contacts information is protected, is to synchronize the data with an e-mail server, like Microsoft Exchange.  When you sync up your e-mail client with Exchange, you have a local copy, and you also have everything stored centrally on the server (which should, of course, be backed up as well).  An added advantage of the Exchange server is that it allows you to pull all of your e-mail, contacts, and calendar information into the full Outlook client from any of your laptops or desktop computers.  You would also be able to access all of the same information via webmail if you didn't have access to your personal computer.

The good news is that connecting to an Exchange server isn't just for corporations with large I.T. departments any more.  You can connect to a hosted Exchange server account, with a 100% data protection guarantee, and a 99.999% data reliability guarantee, for as little as $11.95 per user per month.  It's such a good deal that even companies that can afford to install, configure, and maintain their own e-mail servers are choosing to outsource this service. 

Please contact us with any questions you may have about your current e-mail situation.  We can help you assess your current backup strategy, get set up with domain name e-mail, deploy a server network with or without an on-premise Exchange server, or discuss the pros and cons of connecting to a hosted Exchange server.

Six Enterprise Class Computer Technology Solutions for Small Businesses

Not too long ago, as a panelist on the Mercer Chamber “Cloud Computing” Business Technology Forum, I was asked by an audience member what one thing could small businesses do – with respect to computer technology – that would result in the single, most dramatic improvement to their company’s bottom line.  Certainly, a thought-provoking question that immediately led me to answer, wrongly, that a typical small business could dramatically improve its communications effectiveness by simply getting their e-mail inboxes connected to a hosted Exchange server.  While, on the surface, this response could prove out to be accurate in certain situations, a more fundamental opportunity was lost, and I continue to rue the disservice my lack of insight showed to our audience members. 

Every small business owner faces a multitude of entrepreneurial challenges in the course of their daily work: sales, marketing, delivery of goods or services, insurance, payroll, taxes, etc.  And business owners are typically smart people, that like to feel in control of their destiny, and they could be anywhere on the map in terms of their knowledge and comfort-level in driving decisions related to their business computing environment.  They could be former CIO’s as likely as they could be accountants, chefs, designers, or engineers. 

Thus, any question where a business owner is grappling in what may (or may not) be unfamiliar “business computing technology” territory requires a consultative approach to uncover the multiple layers of the specific needs of the individual’s business environment.  So, it being the first week of January, I’m making a new year’s resolution to – first and foremost – understand any potential business prospect’s needs before recommending any particular course of action.

My new pat answer to any such “silver-bullet” question will be along the lines of: “let’s take a look at what you have now, and what your needs are.”  That being said, there are a few things that I can review in 5-10 minutes, here, that I hope might start your wheels turning along the lines of, “Oh, I didn’t know that kind of thing was available for small businesses, I thought that was only available for bigger-budget, corporate computing environments.”  I’ll offer now one business tool and six separate low-priced / high-impact computer technology capabilities that – given the appropriate situation – could offer small businesses dramatically improved employee productivity and greatly reduced risk of data loss.

So, I mentioned in the opening my new year’s resolution to not jumping in with both feet to offer solutions without first understanding the needs of the small business.  Honoring this commitment, I’d like to suggest to those with questions about business / computing technology to not go it alone.  Reach out SyncraTec or to other fellow chamber member businesses that would be happy to sit down with you, and review your current situation.   Your typical computer consultant, myself included, may have been born with an engineering mentality where we’re ready to start solving problems right away.  The technology assessment process puts the brakes on solving the problem until we understand exactly which problem, or problems, are having the greatest adverse effect on your business.

Our business technology assessment will address the following topics:

· Business Demographics

o   How long have you been in business?

o   Organizational structure?

o   How many locations?

o   How many employees?

o   Annual sales?

· Current Information Technology Landscape

o   Existing computer network?

o   How is the computer network used with respect to the business processes in your company?

· Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) Analysis

o   Where would you like to see your business in three to five years?

o   What obstacles have to be overcome to achieve those goals?

· Primary Pain Points

o   What are the three largest pain points in your business?

o   What frustrates you the most regarding technology?

o   What technology features or functions get you excited?

· Regulatory Compliance

o   What regulatory or compliance issues do you face regarding your industry?

Again, this is just a sample of the questions we’ll ask to get the conversation started.

The review will typically last approximately two hours, and should be just enough to get an idea of what if any technology areas are primary concerns, to the point of limiting productivity, holding back growth, or representing unnecessary risk.  Often times, we visibly see signs of relief when business owners can share their pains, hear about potential solutions, and begin to envision a technology environment that will provide peace of mind.  Such confidence will come about when you have systems that you know are efficient, organized, accessible, secure, and reliable.  You’ll hopefully find the productivity boost that will help you get over the next hurdle; experience less frustration from trying to keep your software up-to-date, secure, and synchronized; and enjoy a better quality-of-life that comes about when you’re spending much less time on your computers and more time doing what you’re passionate about.

At some point today, though, you’ll likely want to know what products and services you can get that will offer you that elusive peace of mind.  I’ll take the case of a small business with anywhere from two to ten employees; keeping in mind that these solutions could easily scale to companies with ten to fifty users.  Let’s say the business has a central location, with several employees working in the office, (and possibly subcontractors) working remotely (from home, say), roving geographically, or all of the above.  What are the possibilities, you ask, of a small business this size of getting what I like to call “enterprise class information technology?”  Actually, I think you will be very surprised, especially when you combine: “enterprise class information technology” with a “small-business budget.”  So, I’m going to tell you what kind of essential functionality is available for small businesses, and how to go about getting it. 

If you have a small business that has its sights set on growing; then, at some point, I’m almost always going to mention the possibility of installing an on-premise server at the company’s home office.  A server benefits a growing small business in many ways.  First-and-foremost, a server is a reliable data storage platform for all of the documents you need on an everyday basis.  The server can have redundant hard drives and redundant power supplies.  A server can allow for the creation of a network or computer domain wherein access to data is controlled based on the user’s access privileges.  A server allows for sharing of resources such as the hard drives on the server computer itself, printers, scanners, faxes, and internet connections.  One very powerful thing to know about servers is that they enable you to store all of your data in a shared, centralized location; which can easily be backed up.

Also, when you’re working in a networked computing environment, you can have all of your documents saved to the server whenever you’re online, so if your PC crashes, you don’t lose any data.  Programs can typically be re-installed, but you don’t want to lose data.  If your computer does crash, imagine the convenience of firing up any other computer on your network, logging in as yourself, and having the system recognize you, your “desktop,” your documents, and your “Inbox” (your e-mail, contacts, calendar, and tasks).  Servers also provide for more efficient access to the Internet with a shared connection, and integration with your hardware firewall, which separates the outside Internet world and from your internal domain, the security of your data.

Servers are available now-a-days that can accommodate up to 15 users, which can easily be setup in a small office environment in just a couple of hours.  The price of such a server may surprise you.  A machine capable of handling a small office computing environment could run just over a thousand dollars; with a powerful processor, plenty of RAM, and redundant hard drives.  This machine would enable remote access for employees that needed to get to files on the server, it can run multi-user applications software, and perform as a rock solid file and print server.  The thing to note about this entry-level server, and the reason the price is so low, is that all the software licensing is included. 

In order to configure the server for remote access, we recommend two (as opposed to one) NIC cards (Network Interface Cards) be purchased with the server, and you must obtain a static IP address from your internet service provider (e.g., Verizon, Comcast, or other), and then setup a “DNS record” that lets the Internet find your server without you having to remember the IP address.  The good news is that an information worker can then connect to the network via the established VPN connection, and work from home with access to all of their network resources, as if they’re physically in the office.

The server, itself, can have its data backed up, over the Internet to an off-site location with a trusted provider.  The way this might work is that a local copy of all the data on your server is backed up onto a storage device that is dedicated to the purpose of off-site backup, and then moved off-site.  Again, the storage unit could be located in the business owner’s home, or the location of a trusted service provider.  The data de-duplication technology on these dedicated backup devices, now-a-days, is so powerful, that actual incremental file backups can be done periodically, over-the-Internet, with minimal bandwidth.  Individual files can be restored instantly, as required; or whole systems can be restored in the case of a disaster by bringing the remote backup storage device back on-site.  Such off-site backup services can not only be cost-justified based on the risk of losing everything in a disaster, but could also be considered a time-savings because they’re much more convenient and reliable than the old tape drive systems.

With a basic server operating system providing for the necessities, and remote access and backups addressed, you can begin to get creative.  First, I want to follow up on something I already mentioned.  If you have a networked environment with an e-mail server, you can log on to any machine, and your “Inbox” will follow you around.  Basically, your email, contacts, and calendar are on the server, and wherever you log on, you’ll get access to all of your data, including indications on the latest e-mails that you’re already read, etc.  A common problem with small businesses is that they use POP3 e-mail, which is basically Web-based e-mail provided by Internet Service Providers (ISP’s); large and small.  So, you have your e-mail account that you access via the Web, and you download some of the e-mail to your work computer, and some of the e-mail to your home computer.  Now, your e-mail is basically fragmented.  The same could happen with your Contacts and your Calendar items.  And, here, I want to be clear that the $1,000-server I specified earlier does not include the kind of e-mail server that will solve this problem.  There is however another answer for small businesses, though, that will allow you to have all the convenience of enterprise-class e-mail, for a low monthly per user fee.  Such a solution will allow you to have synchronized data access to e-mail, contacts, and calendar items; no matter which device you access it from, including mobile devices.  The service will also provide you with domain-name e-mail, if you don’t already have that, and will enable you to easily transition from a Yahoo, Comcast, or Verizon e-mail account to your new e-mail account by reliably forwarding all e-mails sent to your old e-mail account to your new e-mail account.

Now, back to the creative stuff.  I’m a little ADD myself, and a news junkie too.  And I used to spend a lot of time reading articles linked from my favorite Web site, Google News.  Whenever I opened my internet browser, I’d open up Google News, and there would be dozens of fascinating article headlines tempting me to click and read more.  These days, I find myself more productive; and I believe my clients find their employees to be more productive also, because now when they open their internet browsers, their home page is your company’s corporate intranet.  Even if you’re a small company, if you have a low-cost server like the one we’ve discussed today, you can actually force all of your domain users to have their home pages be your corporate intranet.  That means that before they read about the Eagles-Cowboys rematch, or any news – real or hyped-up gossip; they’re going to see their own overdue action items, your corporate pronouncements – in short – topics that should be grabbing their attention.  I’m not advising that you block Internet access to any particular web sites, but it’s nice to know you could – with the power to control internet access, and hundreds of other behaviors of any users / computers on your computer network.

The “corporate intranet scenario” is always a good conversation starter, but – beyond that – the out-of-the-box functionality of the server software we’ve discussed today provides for new ways of bringing efficiencies to how you manage your business processes, communicate, collaborate, and share information.  Consider the case of a customer proposal that’s being worked on by several team members in sales and marketing, with input from the design, engineering, or any other operational group.  Does it make sense for that one document – the proposal – to be passed around to multiple users, at the same time, allowing different users to make edits to the same document?  (Having fun yet, keeping track of the revisions?)  Because that’s not feasible, one lucky person usually gets stuck incorporating all the edits.  But what if a late change comes in, and your “editor” is not available?  You’d want to know with confidence which is the latest version of the document, access it, and make the necessary changes. 

Or, what if you find that you’ve taken a wrong tack, or just plain accidently deleted a whole section.  You’d like to revert back to the previous version, or it might be two versions prior that represents the last decent copy.  How would you like to be able to allow everyone who has input, to incorporate the edits they need to, but only one at a time, by having to check documents out to make changes, whereby nobody else will be able to make changes to the document until the live document is checked back in?  As with any great platform (think i-Pod), developers can build a thousand (or a million) “apps” that can run on this platform, and they have.  The platform is called SharePoint, it’s dedicated to business productivity, and you might be surprised to learn that if you already have a Windows Operating System, then you probably already have all the software licensing you need to get you started.

I’ve touched on six enterprise-class computer technology solutions for small businesses that can be purchased and deployed with minimal capital investment.  But please don’t forget my new No. 1 rule for 2010: “diagnose before you prescribe.”  And also, before I summarize the list, be aware that in certain cases, you can get access to these technologies on a trial basis, so you can try it before you buy it – always a good question to bring up to your computer technology partner.  In any case, here’s your list of ingredients to get started with enterprise-class information technology on a small-business budget:

· Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation (2-10 users)

· or Windows Small Business Server 2008 R2 (5-50 users)

· Remote access via VPN requires the server (obviously), two NIC cards on the server, a fixed IP address (from your Internet Service Provider, may add a few $ to your monthly internet access bill), and an “A record” (a DNS record that your ISP can also setup for you for free)

· Remote off-site backup; available in the form of a purchased dedicated device, or monthly service.

· Automatic “backing up” or synchronization of all working documents from PC/laptop to server; requires only that the folder in question be configured with “My Documents Redirection” (a.k.a., Offline Files).

· Having e-mail inbox “follow you around” is available, standard, with Windows Small Business Server 2008 R2, or available on a per user, per month fee (30-day trial available) with Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation.

· Having all domain-connected computers connect to your “corporate intranet” when they log on is configured on the server; and the “corporate intranet” itself is collaboration / document management software that can be installed on the server out-of-the-box.

I strongly believe you’ll be able to leverage these technologies not only to give you peace-of-mind regarding critical system reliability and data protection, but also to gain the boost in productivity that can help take you and your business to the next level.

All this; and I haven’t even mentioned what Windows 7 can do for you yet!

Ian

Ian G. Smith
SyncraTec Solutions, LLC

Enterprise-class information technology
on a small-business budget

267-266-5596 (cell)
215-310-1750 (office)

www.syncratec.com
ismith@syncratec.com

Hosted Exchange - Experience a Dramatic Productivity Boost
Windows Server 2008 Foundation - A Starter Server for Growth-Minded Businesses

SyncraTec Launches Full Hosted Exchange 2010 and 2007 Support for Motorola Droid

SyncraTec announces that its hosted Exchange services (including Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007) are available on the newly launched Motorola Droid - Motorola’s newest smartphone. Utilizing Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, SyncraTec is able to configure the new Motorola Droid as well as Palm Treo, Motorola Q, T-Mobile Dash, Samsung Blackjack and the iPhone so users can take full advantage of the same Enterprise-grade Exchange services they are used to in the office - including email, calendars, tasks and instant messaging.

"It is imperative for many knowledge workers and on-the-go employees to be able to work remotely with the same Enterprise-grade Exchange services they have in the office," says Ian Smith, President, SyncraTec Solutions. "With the varying devices on the market, users can have their pick and still have complete support through our hosted Exchange solution."

SyncraTec also fully supports BlackBerry® Wireless Solution hosting for hosted Exchange. The company provides users with BlackBerry® Enterprise Solutions (BES) connectivity – for true wireless "push" email. Customers get two-way wireless synchronization of email, calendar, contacts and tasks.

Available on the company's hosted Exchange 2007 and new hosted Exchange 2010 offering, SyncraTec's SynControl Control Panel enables companies to retain Enterprise-grade security and control over their mobile devices. For instance, in the event a user loses his or her BlackBerry® smartphone, a company can remotely erase the device's data with just a few clicks.

Cloud Computing Services - A Primer

On Dec. 11, The Mercer Regional Chamber of Commerce Technology Committee will be hosting an Economic Development Series event with Stephen Deming of Microsoft as the Keynote Speaker. Steve's topic of discussion will be: The Pros and Cons of Moving Your Business into the Cloud.

I've written an article providing some background on Cloud Computing Services, and what factors you should consider when deciding if outsourcing business-critical applications software to "the Cloud" is right for your company.

I've focused on two examples of Cloud Computing that I'm familiar with because they're SyncraTec offerings: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Hosted Exchange Services. My objective is to provide food for thought in advance of our upcoming event featuring an outstanding keynote speaker: "Technology Evangelist" Stephen Deming, which is to be followed by a panel discussion, and audience questions and answers. Be sure to look for an invite to this upcoming chamber event, Friday, Dec. 11th, 8:00 a.m. at the Trenton Country Club.

As a computer consultant, I am often reminded of how quickly the technological landscape changes.  When I was getting my MBA at Rider in the late '90's, it was suggested to me that computer systems “will configure themselves”, and there would thus be no need for business applications software consultants to implement systems.  Flash-forward ten years; I'm sitting in a marketing networking group on a Thursday evening, and I'm challenged to respond to how I will adapt when Microsoft Windows finally becomes obsolete.

So, here I am right now, composing a blog post on TypePad.  That would be a cloud computing service.  I pay an annual subscription fee, and I can access software through an internet connection, that enables me to maintain a web blog.  It has formatting capabilities, editing, categorization; it allows for feedback to be posted to my blog, I can integrate it with my company's web site, my facebook account, Twitter.  You name it.  It's a just one great worldwide web application. 

Does it matter how I access TypePad?  I don't think it matters that much.  I'm using Internet Explorer 8 web browser running on a Windows 7 laptop, connected to a Windows Small Business Server 2008 network, with Verizon FiOS internet access; but I think I could just as easily compose blog posts with a Motorola Droid wireless device running the Google Android operating system, and connected with Verizon's broadband wireless.

A couple of common theme's here: by definition, to run cloud computing services, you need to be able to connect to the internet.  And, let's face it; a reliable high-speed connection is the only way to go.  But even the case of how you accomplish that reliable high-speed connection is “up in the air.”  I’m blown away by Clear and 4G wireless networks offering up to 1 gigabit-per-second bandwidth.  What’s next?  We started with dial-up (remember 56 kpbs modems?).  Move ahead to DSL and you’re blazing along even faster on you old copper telephone lines at 256 Kpbs – 1.5 Mbps.  Compare this to dedicated T1 lines with 1.544 Mbps (at $275 to $1,200 per month).  Cable modems give you 6 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload.  Verizon FiOS comes along and you’ve got 15 Mbps down / 5 Mbps up on a fiber optic line, if you can put up with their horrendous customer service.  Now, back to the wireless.  Again, you’ve got dramatically improving technology.  3G wireless broadband connections from cell towers to mobile device cellular modems (iPhones, SmartPhones, PDAs, Blackberrys) get you online with 14.0 Mbps down / 5.8 Mbps up.  This mobile wireless data service is pricey for the average user, adding $30/month to your cell phone bill on top of your calling plan.  And its $45 extra for per month if you’re classified as a business user (more on that later).  We’ll have 4G soon in Philadelphia with 100 Mbps when you’re cruising down the highway, and up to 1Gbps if you’re stationary.  I know, I don’t know what I’d do with all that bandwidth anyway.  But there’s an insatiable desire for bandwidth, accessibility, and applications. 

Consider the hypothetical scenario, you have son that plays 10 year-old intramural baseball, and there’s no limit on the number of walks (or runs that can be walked-in)…and you have to be there because, after all, you’re a supportive parent.  But you know that the Yankees and Phillies are playing a World Series game that night, and you know that you can connect on your iPhone and get a live video feed.  Well, you might just keep that thing on to check the score every couple of innings, if you know what I mean.

So, we’ve touched on applications, and got some background on connection speeds.  Applications are really the driving force behind Cloud Computing Services.  Applications are the reason why we want to connect.  Look at the Apple App Store: where you can download thousands of iPhone applications.  But our focus in this article will not be on Xbox Live, iTunes, Amazon, eBay, or even LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, or one of my personal favorites – Flickr. 

I’d like to address applications that you can use to run your business.  Let’s say accounting systems or enterprise software, customer relationship management systems, document sharing (collaboration), and good old-fashioned e-mail.

Consider Salesforce.com, a company that sells CRM systems on a per user per month basis.  In contrast to Salesforce.com, whose business has always been in the cloud, Microsoft Dynamics CRM has been available for a long time as an on-premise application, and more recently is available online.  Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online will allow you to customize your online experience to a certain extent, but as you may find with cloud services, there is a limit to customizing and integrating because your software is typically running on shared servers, and your custom code or integration and its associated complexity introduces risk and cost to the process.  So here we see one of the limitations of cloud computing.  Think of the service as an offering that is shared with many other companies’ systems, running on the same servers.

But, before getting into the limitations, and the potential workarounds, let’s take a look at what cloud computing services can do for a small business that needs a CRM system.  CRM systems enable you to build and maintain a database of leads, prospects, accounts, contacts, and opportunities that will allow you to develop strong customer relationships.  It’s a concept where each touch with a lead, prospect, or customer is recorded in a system that is accessible to your users, so that any person picking up the phone to talk to someone at this account will know the history, and be able to communicate effectively and confidently.  The system allows for pre-arranged nurture marketing campaigns that will systematically reach out to customers on a periodic basis to keep your business top-of-mind.  The system handles all things customer-centric, including customer service, but can also be customized to address line-of-business applications that require a similar framework consisting of web-based access, a shared/centralized relational database, ability to create new database entities, customizable data entry screens, user-friend querying, advanced reporting and business intelligence capabilities, integrated security, and powerful workflow for automating routine business processes.

If you think about the “framework” described above, which of these functions cannot be provided over the web these days?  You’ve got an internet connection, you’ve got a PC with a Web browser, you sign up for a service, and you’ve got CRM!  In this regard, CRM is a good example of what’s capable of being delivered via cloud services.  It’s not a simple application, but the sophistication of the software masks the complexity inherent in the multitude of relationships between the various entities from Leads and associated Activities such as Phone Calls, E-mails, Notes, Addresses; to Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities. 

So what’s the big advantage of cloud computing?  First and foremost, you can get started literally in a matter of minutes.  In many cases, you can get a trial version also.  The up-front investment is minimal.  You don’t need the network infrastructure with servers, software, and security to deploy the system.  So, as I like to say, you can get connected with enterprise-class information technology on a small-business budget.  The Microsoft Dynamics CRM system also integrates with your Outlook, which allows you to track e-mails into the CRM system, and easily promote Contacts from Outlook to CRM.  The outlook integration is accomplished with a light piece of integration software that enables your Outlook to communicate with your CRM Online account.  You will thus have two “clients” to choose from: your Internet Explorer Web Browser (“web client”), or your Microsoft Office Outlook (“Outlook client”). 

What are the disadvantages of cloud computing with CRM?  Major considerations to be considered before going with any cloud computing or cloud business application software solution are the security, privacy, and mobility of your business data.  Who owns the data?  How easy will it be to get your data back in house when you want it / need it back?  How easy would it be to move your data to another system?  How often is the data backed-up?  If you mess up the data yourself, can you restore from the latest backup?  Who has access to look at your data?  How in depth can you customize the software?  How reliable is their network infrastructure?  How reliable is your internet connection?  Understanding the answers to these questions is imperative to protecting you business operations.

Let’s take a look at a few of the “disadvantage” questions and considerations.  Customization is one that comes up quite a bit.  The online version of the system can be customized to a certain extent, beyond which you need to consider several alternatives: bring it in-house (on-premise) or allow the system to be “hosted” by a partner.  Thus, we have a truly outsourced cloud-based system in a shared computing environment (public cloud), then we have the option of a partner hosting our system on more of a dedicated server that would allow more extensive customizations (hybrid cloud); or we can deploy the software on our own servers which we can then make accessible over the internet ourselves (private cloud).

Another disadvantage cited is privacy.  With online computing systems, you’re entrusting, say, your customer or accounting data to a data center where you’re obviously not in control.  It’s a matter of trust, and reading the fine print of the contractual agreement and your host’s privacy policy with regard to how your data is protected.  I would also say to check that the hosting site is a tier 4 data center.

There’s also a lot of talk about data lock-in.  This is a real-world concern as well for on-premise systems from the point of view that it is often not easy to migrate data from Act! or Goldmine to Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Salesforce.com, and back again, whether you’re on-premise or in the cloud.  There’s no silver bullet here, but take a good long look at the data migration (import/export) tools that are provided with the system.  And again look at the contractual data policies to make sure you can get your data back in a form that’s going to be useful, without suffering constraining fees.

Data security also includes Service Level Agreements, meaning how reliable is the data center, its applications, and its data.  Look for a 99.9% or better scheduled up time.  That doesn’t mean they can’t say “we’re going to take the system down this coming Friday night from 10:00 p.m. to 2: 00 a.m. Saturday morning for maintenance.”  Keep in mind, one of the benefits of the online system is that you’re getting the latest version of the software, with all security patches and program updates maintained for you.  But a guarantee of 99.99999% uptime means your system will be down less than five minutes per year, which is obviously even better.

Data backups are something you need to be aware and careful with.  You need to not assume that the data backups are there for you when you need them.  For example, if you read in the agreement that the system is backed up nightly, that’s great.  But…I always say that backups are not the most important thing, restores are.  Let’s say you’re getting confident with the system and importing Accounts through a supported batch process.  You find that one of your uploads has a minor error.  So, you’ll perform a deletion routine, except you forget to apply the filter first, and you blow away all your Accounts data.  Arrgh.  You then say, okay, it’s a good job they have a backup that I can use from last night.  Let’s give them a call at the data center and ask them to restore my system from the latest backup.  If this is when you realize that their backups are for their system crashes / restores, and not your accidental data deletions, then your “Arrgh moment” becomes a whole lot more painful.  If you do batch updates of your data, you need to be very careful, and you really should have your own backup plan.  Usually, online business applications will have a “web service” that you can connect to, which will allow you to pull the data from your online system to an in-house data store.  If you don’t have this kind of in-house backup, and a means to put the data back to its original state, then you need to limit any kind of batch updates to the data.

Another use for the web service to pull the data down to your own data stores, is to allow for on-premise data warehousing for business intelligence, custom reporting, and some level of system integration.   

So, we’ve covered several pros and cons of an online CRM system.  The question will come down to: is it right for your company?  Do you need a sophisticated CRM system?  Do you have the resources to deploy a network (with servers, software, licensing, security and other concerns like firewalls, SSL certificates, user authentication, updates, and patches); and do you have the resources to implement and maintain a CRM system with a backend database server, exchange server integration, etc.  And I can’t emphasize enough that I’m certainly not saying that it’s out of the realm for lots and lots of small and medium-sized businesses to maintain a highly capable in-house networked computing system.  But, if you’re just getting started, and you don’t have a network yet, but you want to kick-off a company with sales, marketing, and customer service mojo; then you can jump into an online solution with minimal up-front investment, and pretty good assurance that you’re getting a fully capable system.

A second example of online business software systems challenging on-premise solutions is in the world of e-mail.  There has long been webmail, which would be one of the original cloud computing services.  But webmail has its limitations.  Webmail is typically provided by companies like Yahoo, AOL, Comcast, and Verizon.  And if you’re using an internet service provider, and decide to switch provides, you can’t take your e-mail address with you.  I see a lot of AOL users that want to stay with AOL forever because they can’t bear to give up their current e-mail address. 

But webmail with Yahoo and Google domain names doesn’t help your corporate brand either.  For small and medium sized businesses to look more professional, they’ll want to have email@theircompanydomainname.com type e-mail addresses (domain-name e-mail).  Also, there’s more you can do with a corporate class e-mail account beyond looking the part.  First off, there’s control over your employee’s e-mail accounts.  If your employees are all using their personal Verizon webmail, or Yahoo!, or gmail, you can imagine that all their business e-mail and business contacts are intermingled.  If those employees leave your company, chances are you’re going to lose some valuable contact information or e-mail history when they take their e-mail account with them. 

Consider then, the potential of an enterprise-class e-mail server solution provided by a hosted service provider.   Included with this service will typically be an e-mail client, namely Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.  A quick configuration with you domain name registrar (he who hosts your web site) will allow for creation of “domain name e-mail,” as described above, which can be directed to the hosted Exchange service provider.  You’ll also install an add-in program that provides the necessary integration to get real-time e-mail from the cloud-based servers.  In addition, all of your contacts can usually be migrated into Exchange, along with your e-mail history (if needed) and calendar items.  Authorized users can be given permission to view each others’ calendars which makes it very easy to plan meetings and schedule appointments.  What may end up being the most important factor is that you have control over your users’ mailboxes (including e-mail, contacts, and calendars). 

Moreover, the Outlook client in tandem with the Exchange server is guaranteed to make your employees more productive.  Just the inbox search feature itself will save you time every day looking for e-mails sent or received.  The system also integrates with other products so that e-mails, contacts, reminders, etc. can all integrate with your CRM system, for example, or your label printer, or your WebEx program.  The program integrates with Word for mail merge.  You can easily categorize your contacts, and look at different lists of contacts in different views.  You can have customized e-mail signatures for e-mails you send to different types of clients.  And you can even download your old AOL e-mails into your new Outlook program, so that you can slowly transition your way to your new e-mail address.

Also, with an Exchange Server, you can get mobile access to Outlook such that, no matter which device you log onto, you’re always going to get the latest, singular, version of your e-mails, contacts, calendars, task / reminders with no duplicate records, no duplication of processing (clean-up), and you won’t experience the “fragmentation-effect” of having some of your e-mail and contacts here, and some of your e-mail and contacts there.  It’s another example of enterprise class information technology on a small business budget.  Because you can get started on a hosted Exchange e-mail / calendaring solution for as little as $15 per user per month, and with a minimum of one user.  (I forgot to mention above, with some CRM systems, you’re likely to encounter a five user minimum.)

So, we’ve looked at a couple of systems that can easily be implemented in a hosted, or cloud-based environment.  Other systems are also becoming available in the cloud, systems which may have been held in-house for many years: cardex inventory systems, Quick Books, Microsoft Dynamics GP (the former Great Plains), GoogleApps, all things Salesforce and NetSuite, PeopleSoft, and SAP.  Business applications, social networking, e-mail, calendars, photos, medical information systems…you name it. 

The start-up cost is typically lower.  My back-of-the-envelope calculation for the software / licensing costs of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM system for five users for three years is almost identical (excluding the accompanying platform server hardware and software).  The CRM Online system costs about $44/user/month; for a three-year total of less than $8,000 for five users.  Meanwhile, purchasing the CRM server software licensing with Software Assurance along with five CRM client access licenses is about the same total amount over three years.  After three years, you would own the CRM software, and just be paying maintenance fees in year four and beyond.  Of course, you’ll be maintaining your own network infrastructure and data as well.

I believe hosted / online / cloud computing services give small and medium-sized businesses another viable choice to getting their business off the ground quickly, with powerful systems used by their sometimes much larger competitors.  There’s a lot to consider when entrusting your business data with an online service provider, but I think the case can be made that your data is actually more secure at robust data centers with high-reliability and high-speed data access.   You’ll want to weigh the pros and cons carefully.  You’ll want to see how the software integrates with the systems you already have in place, or systems that you want to put in place.  And again, look for free trials of some of these systems to get a first-hand look at what’s available for the price per user per month; and weigh that against building out your own infrastructure.

Also, don’t forget that deploying in-house systems doesn’t mean you won’t be able to access your data over the Web.  SyncraTec has deployed Exchange, SharePoint, CRM, and the Microsoft Dynamics SL Business Portal in a private cloud that enables us to access our systems / data from practically any Web browser where we can get a decent internet connection.

So, I can respond to the question of how I will adapt “when Microsoft Windows becomes obsolete” by saying that: it’s not what operating system the application is deployed upon that’s the most important thing.  I can still access my CRM mobile via my company’s private cloud on a Google Android mobile operating system.  Outlook is still the best e-mail client.  I do have to access CRM Online with an Internet Explorer browser on Windows machine, but that’s probably not going to always be the case.  Most Mac machines can run Windows these days anyway.  iTunes runs on Windows.  It’s only a matter of time before web-based software is browser-independent.  Look at Web sites – they have to be browser-independent; and they’re the most ubiquitous cloud-based computer service ever!  So, I believe it’s what the business application software / system can do for you, how well it integrates with your other systems, how much it costs you, how reliable it is, and how safe your data is that will drive your decision to run with a cloud-based (public, hybrid, or private) computer service or application, not what operating system it runs on.

Our job at SyncraTec is to help you find the system that makes the most sense; explaining the benefits, the costs, the risks, and the opportunities.  Our goal is always to become a long-term, trusted information technology advisor for small-and-medium sized businesses, providing guidance on selecting the most appropriate solutions, and assisting with implementation consulting services.  And maybe someday I’ll advise you how you can implement wizard-driven cloud-based computer systems that are intelligent enough to configure themselves!

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