There are many options in the landscape today for Intant Messaging clients.  Ranging from traditional options such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)  http://www.aim.com/, Windows Live Messenger http://explore.live.com/windows-live-messenger?os=win7, Yahoo Messenger http://messenger.yahoo.com/, to more contemporary applications such as Skype http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home and Microsoft Office Communicator http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/communicator/default.aspx, there are many choices for instant internet-based communication.

Here at NSI Partners we have decided to use one of several popular IM aggregation programs called Trillian — http://www.trillian.im/. This class of application is designed to link to multiple accounts or profiles with one or more popular services, including all those listed above (AOL, Yahoo, Live/MSN).  New versions of the Trillian application can even link to Facebook, MySpace, and a host of other social network/chat services.  There are, of course, some disadvantages to activating multiple IM/social network clients with an active application such as Trillian.  For one, simply wading through the potentially giant list of contacts and updates, as well as managing “presence” or “status” for each of the various services can become tedious quickly.  If I am using one of these network profiles, such as AOL, to communicate with all my co-workers, I run the risk of getting distracted by friends, family, or other contacts from one or more of the other services depending on my presence/status/availability.  Programs such as Trillian do a decent job of making the management of my status with various services somewhat streamlined with its user interface.  But at some point, I only want to stay logged in with one service – the one I use to talk to co-workers.

There are advantages to using a single, dedicated platform that is singular in its profile/account focus but provides other features not available with programs such as Trillian.  For example, Microsoft’s Office Communicator, though not as pretty or “new web” friendly as many other clients, is great at doing what it is designed to do — connecting staff in a company who are in one or more physical locations with a chat client.  This particular chat client can do other things as well that integrate with other Microsoft technologies, which offers businesses some features not available with other IM clients.  For example, “presence indicators” in the IM client can also pull information from the organizations’ Exchange server (assuming they have one), and provide Calendar information about staff.  So rather than just being listed as “Away”, I might show up as “In Meeting — Next Free in 1 hour”, based on what information I choose to share.  From inside Communicator I can also right-click on another user and initiate a voice or video chat, or a Live Meeting session, if my organization uses that software for collaboration.

The client or application that will work best is the one that meets all our instant-communication needs, both internally among the staff, as well as outward-facing to clients, partners, vendors, etc.  This is one area of application development that has dozens of options which are always changing, so it can pay to review the options from time to time.  In the end, though, as long as I can send an instant text message to a co-worker who is located several miles or states or countries away from me, and we can engage in quick conversation, I am a happy worker

NSI Partners has used many of these options, sometimes implementing multiple solutions all at once.  When the staff of the organization is so geographically dispersed as ours is, web-based, or cloud-based, services seem to be the best fit for our needs.  Confining file shares to one computer/hard drive or FTP site in one location that is dependent on the local power and connectivity options, is a solution with too many variables and limitations.  In our research and testing efforts, we have identified a handful of web- or cloud- based services that seem fair enough in design and feature set to get the job done.  However, several things really stand out about Microsoft SharePoint Online.

First off, Microsoft guarantees a full backup/redundant copy of our content, which means if disaster strikes on the primary location, there is a backup available.  Storing our large files and folders at an offsite location reduces the storage requirements at any individual office location, which also reduces backup requirements at those offices.  These features add great value to the need to share and collaborate on files with the team, and to house the files in a safe location where data integrity exists.

Secondly, SharePoint offers many features beyond basic storage of files.  The ability to create custom sites, lists, calendars, workgroups, and complex permission-management means that we can do a lot more as a team with SharePoint than simply saving files in one location.

Thirdly, Microsoft SharePoint Online has “presence awareness” of users who have signed in to one of the other products in the Microsoft Online suite, such as Office Communicator, Outlook, or Live Meeting.  This means I can initiate IM chat with a user, see their online/offline/busy status, and do much more instant collaboration than I could with separate solutions, or without any of these other products.

Microsoft SharePoint Online also has detailed Versioning features, so that multiple previous versions of a document can be viewed and accessed, and staff can save documents as drafts or final versions, with comments.  In addition, SharePoint Online provides the ability to label files as Checked In or Checked Out, so that files must be checked out in order for changes to be made, and then while a file is Checked Out, others only have access to the read-only copy of the file on the server.  These features all help in managing document versions, editing, and minimize the possibilities of staff overwriting eachothers’ efforts.

Finally, when the files in question are Microsoft Office-related, such as Word documents, Power Point presentations, Excel spreadsheets, or even inside Outlook, there are additional features available from inside each of those programs to help manage files on the SharePoint server more effectively and efficiently.

All in all, if your organization uses Microsoft Office, does a lot of document creation and file editing, and has robust storage and collaboration needs, it would be well worth your time to take a closer look at what Microsoft SharePoint Online has to offer. Contact us at tech@nsipartners.com for a free trial or quote!

Taking advantage of the benefits offered by products like Microsoft Exchange and Sharepoint have either been cost- or infrastructure- prohibitive for many SMBs, but Microsoft has come into the age of cloud computing with some great offerings.  One set of services, titled Microsoft Online Services, has introduced the benefits of products like Exchange and Sharepoint  to the “cloud”.  What does this mean for organizations like those described so far in this post?

For starters, these services provide a cost-effective, infrastructure-friendly method of bringing Exchange to the geographically-dispersed, telecommuting-heavy organization.  No longer forced to choose between POP and IMAP email accounts, we are now able to tap into the many benefits offered by email hosted on an Exchange server.  What are some of those benefits?  Complete integration with Microsoft Outlook 2007/2010 and other Microsoft Office products, for one.  Shared directories, data storage and integrity provided offsite, enhanced calendar and scheduling features such as the Scheduling Assistant, Out of Office functions, the ability to see in real-time the status of all one’s co-workers, Outlook Web Access with almost full functionality from any web browser, synchronization of mobile phones such as the iPhone directly to the Exchange server, among many other enhancements.

In addition to the benefits realized with the Exchange-based email platform, Microsoft Online Services also provide access to a Sharepoint site for our organization, again hosted offsite by Microsoft with guaranteed data integrity and no additional burden to our own power, hardware, or property.  For those unfamiliar with Sharepoint, think of taking all your files used by your company and organizing them in a familiar folder structure on a server reachable by all through the web or through Windows Explorer.  Including advanced document-management features such as file versioning, checking in and checking out, and integration in real-time into Mocrosoft Word, Excel, and Power Point, Sharepoint sites enable greatly evolved and more efficient sharing of digital resources.  But Sharepoint is not just about file management.  It also includes task management and assignment functions, document workspaces for teams, shared calendars, and many other teamwork-enhancing features.

Beyond the benefits realized by utilizing Exchange and Sharepoint, subscriptions to Microsoft Online Services can include their Instant Messenger client for business, Office Communicator, as well as their screen- and voice-sharing teleconferencing solution, Microsoft Live Meeting.

All these services can be paid for on a monthly subscription basis per user and can range from one standalone product  to all four of the services being bundled.  As cloud computing evolves to offer SaaS and other offsite solutions, it is arguable that technology traditionally too expensive for the SMB market, or unmanageable for organizations with heavy telecommuting and geographic dispersal, is the silver lining in said clouds.  The advantages outweigh the limitations so heavily that I cannot recommend these services enough for organizations historically forced to settle for other more limited technology solutions.

In fact, we are convinced enough of the great value of these services that we are now Microsoft partners in advising and providing these solutions to existing and new clients.  If you are in an organization that fits any of the characteristics described here, or are wondering if  ”life in the cloud” might have anything to offer you, I encourage you to look more into Microsoft Online Services at  http://www.microsoft.com/online/default.mspx or others like it.  Contact our tech team at tech@nsipartners.com if you would like to learn more or get a free trial or quote!

But all of that involves money and training, and we’re still coming down the various learning curves. Want a really simple solution to improve things when you get too many emails and voicemails? Jessica has helped me out with my overloaded inboxes for a couple years now, mostly by sorting things into various folders and drafting responses for my review. But lately, she’s started to file all the emails and voicemails and send me a single digest that contains a Punch List of everything I need to do. She includes where the original communication is filed if I need to see it, but most of the time I don’t.

It’s simple, but brilliant. It’s really cut down on the time wasted going through overburdened folders and trying to reorganize, search and re-sort. Wish I had thought of it years ago. The big technology improvements are important and necessary, but it’s great to find a low-cost time-saver every once in a while!

Iron Key sells its secured USB drive that encrypts the data you write to it, and most importantly, contains portable Firefox which runs on a secured session through Iron Key’s servers every time you use it; so it is like having an instant secured VPN to browse the web on, check your G mail, etc.

Iron Key is reviewed here.

These are not very expensive, and come in 1 GB ($79), 2 GB ($109), and 4GB ($149). Iron Key includes secured backup software too. However if you want a do-it-yourself solution, you can try one of these options:

One effective way to keep your browsing and email secure is to set up a secure connection at home and create a VPN on your laptop that you use for traveling; allowing yourself to securely VPN into your home network. Vendors that provide this service include gotomypc and webex pcnow; or you can set up a VPN on your own using instructions such as these.

A very important initial step in this process is to disable SSID broadcast in your broadband router settings (usually through an online dashboard that lets you change these settings for your account). Uncheck the box for this option as it is unnecessary for the router to broadcast its name information every few seconds. The Wifi signal will still work in your home with this option unchecked, and disabling it will make it that much harder for hackers to gain access to your data.

Additionally routing your Internet activity through secured servers such as offered by OpenDNS can help keep your network secure by allowing you to filter sites you select, and by blocking phishing sites. OpenDNS also offers reliability on their zero downtime network.

The layout of Word 2007 offers an intuitive interface that brings many hidden features to the surface. Instead of the familiar file, edit, view, insert, etc. drop down menus, Word 2007 provides a new tool called the Ribbon which puts document creation tools at your fingertips. In older versions of Word many features such as headings and styles were harder to access. In this Word 2007 screenshot you can see the improved tab-based interface. In the screenshot you can see the “write” tab offers font, paragraph, headings and styles options within easy reach. The Galleries section of the Ribbon (which looks like small squares or windows containing relevant document formatting tools) allows the user to select tools that they want so they can create documents faster.

When you have created your document you can press the Office button at the top left and choose to save, print, or publish the document (in addition to other options); with the publish selection offering an option to create a blog post from the current document.

I have tried almost every word processing program out there, and often use Google Docs and Open Office. However with all the new features in Word 2007, I may have to try this newest iteration from Microsoft.

I’d love to hear from experienced Word 2007 users out there who can give me more reasons on why I should upgrade to Word 2007. Is it really as intuitive as it appears? Do you like using it? Which word processing program do you prefer? Talk about your experiences in the comments section below.

Jott and reQall are services that allow you to make a call from your cell phone and record a message. This message is then transcribed to text and emailed to you along with the attached recording. You get home, open up your email, and there’s the idea you wanted to remember waiting for you. You can also manage your messages on the services’ websites, and you can setup reminders that will text message you at the time you set.

Each service is a little bit different. Jott has lots of options for sending messages to other people by transcribed text message or email. reQall seems more aimed as a task manager/mini calendar, with the ability to choose between categories such as Tasks, Meetings, or Notes, and to assign a date and time using natural language (Jott just added organizational folders too). Jott, however, has the power to be connected to web services via their APIs, giving it a leg up on reQall. Some of the services already connected include Twitter, Blogger, Remember the Milk, and Google Calendar, letting you blog by cell phone or let your social network know what you are doing. The Cranking Widgets Blog has a nice post about how handy Jott is.

If you use web services to manage your life then give Jott a try. If not, reQall might be better, especially if you have lots of appointments during the day.

To use Jott you must be in the United States or Canada, but reQall also has you covered in the U.K..