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

Tonight I received a 10pm response to a product review I had posted a few hours earlier on Amazon. Now this is going to be frustrating to explain, because it involves a health product and I keep both my politics and my health interests under the lock-and-key of a different identity on the internet. (Though I must admit a little breach here … by using my “nom de net” on Amazon, the vendor now has my real name associated to my internet identity; I shall swear them to secrecy!!)

Anyway, I gave a 5-star review to a great health-care home testing product on a Sunday afternoon, and around 10pm the same evening received this email asking me try what they think will be a solution for the problem revealed by the testing, and taking it a step further, suggesting I buy another test strip to test to see if my problem is getting solved. The kicker: offering to refund my money for both the potential solution and a new test kit if my problem isn’t solved.

The truth is, I had already bookmarked that potential solution they are offerering – along with a couple of competing products. Guess which one I’m ordering?

Thanks and good work, N@#^& Team ! Your response makes me so tempted to blow my alter-ego identity and hawk your product here and now! But you can believe I’ll be pushing it on http://twitter.com/w…oops!!

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!

GoToMeeting, a product/service run by Citrix, is one of the most-used online meeting tools today.  A simple download gets you started, and once you have created an account, you can start a meeting, schedule meetings, or join open meetings from the website or from a plugin on your computer.  Once inside a session, you and the other meeting attendees can share and view programs running on computers, or view entire desktops.  You can chat via a built-in text chat feature, or speak live using a headset/microphone attached or built into your computer, or dial in with a phone.  The active presenter can be rotated, meetings can be recorded, and there are also drawing tools for members to “markup” displayed documents or windows.  Any member of a meeting may also give another member control of his/her mouse and keyboard, which is really handy for troubleshooting or providing remote support to someone.

Microsoft LiveMeeting is another great option for collaborative online ventures. LiveMeeting offers all of the same features that GoToMeeting does, from text and voice discussions to screen and program sharing, to presenter rotation, to giving other members control of your keyboard and mouse.  In addition, LiveMeeting adds some useful tools, such as a shared notes section for all meeting members.  Members in LiveMeeting gatherings can also provide signals or feedback to the active presenter via color-coded icons.  LiveMeeting also gives presenters a Question and Answer tool, including the ability to create polls or series of questions ahead of time.  LiveMeeting also enables video sharing for webcams, should this be a benefit to meetings.  Lastly, LiveMeeting provides some specific ways to share certain types of content, like documents, websites, and a WhiteBoard for collaborative brainstorming.  Microsoft also offers an Outlook plugin for LiveMeeting so you can schedule and adjust meetings from inside Outlook easily. One limitation of LiveMeeting is that it does not have its own telephone dial-in system, and so adminstrators must subscribe to and configure third-party teleconferencing solutions for their meetings if that feature is desired.

These are only two of the many programs and services available in today’s marketplace for online collaboration.  Other well-established products include Cisco’s WebEx, Fuze Meeting, Glance and a new beta app from LogMeIn titled LogMeIn Express.  If you have a dispersed workforce in your organization and you haven’t yet tied into the power and efficiency online collaboration tools provide, you are missing out!  Hopefully this review of some current options and features points you in the right direction.

One of the challenges is to choose which features are needed and what methods we will use to connect to and manage PCs remotely.

For those clients who have a Microsoft Windows domain, connecting remotely to a server running Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, or a version of the Small Business Server — http://www.microsoft.com/sbs/en/us/default.aspx –is easy to accomplish.  This allows a wide range of services to be monitored and managed remotely, from managing computers and users on the domain, to setting up and configuring email accounts, to configuring and running data backups, to managing security for the network.  In addition, many individual workstations can be remotely accessed and managed via the functions provided by the Microsoft Server OS.  Technicians can access user profiles, setup printers and file sharing, or install, remove, or configure software, or even troubleshoot and resolve problems a user may be experiencing.  Lastly, the Windows Server/domain environment allows for the possibility of all sorts of reports, logs, and system tools that make managing many computers and resources on a single network much simpler.  And all this can be done via a web browser or a Remote Desktop connection from our offices or remote locations!

For clients not using Microsoft servers or not housing a domain environment for their machines, there are still plenty of options.  A wide range of products now exists on the market for other kinds of remote PC management and access.  From LogMeIn — https://secure.logmein.com/ – to Citrix’s GoToAssist/GoToMeeting — http://www.gotomeeting.com/fec/ –, to Ciscos’ WebEx — http://webex.com/ –, to Microsoft’s LiveMeeting — http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/live-meeting/?CTT=1 –, to other less known but equally useable tools such as those based on the VNC protocol (RealVNC — http://realvnc.com/ – and UltraVNC — http://www.uvnc.com/ –are only two examples), there is a huge array of tools and options to choose from.  Varying in usability, price, ease of use and feature set, all these programs offer some methods of getting access to computers remotely over the internet.  Some, such as the VNC variants, require much more configuration and are very limited in their features beyond connecting to desktops remotely.  Others, such as several of LogMeIn’s products, allow for asset management, inventories, custom reports, and alerts when certain conditions on client machines are reached.

Depending on the needs of the client, their budget, and the amount and variety of uses they put their computers to in the workplace, one or more of these tools can be used by technicians at NSI Partners in providing our TechConnect services to clients.  Assessing the needs and capabilities of each client, we are able to select a set of tools that work best for each scenario.

All of these solutions share several key factors in common. First, they allow clients to save costs by not having to necessarily have an IT employee or department on the payroll full time.  Second, they allow the clients to acquire and pay for only the services that meet their technology requirements.  Third, remote support further reduces the costs of contracted IT support by reducing travel expenses and infrastructure.

For today’s small or medium business that has come to rely on computers but doesn’t have the budget for a part- or full- time IT employee or department, outsourcing IT services and using all the technologies available in today’s world, such as those provided by NSI Partners’ TechConnect, can save loads of money, energy, and keep their technology working for them, rather than feeling ensnared by it!

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!

On the money side, we had a computer down, and technical services standing by, awaiting the shipment. The website and two calls to UPS yielded only inaccurate information, making contingency planning even more difficult.

But storms happen, and the money wasn’t the real problem–even our tight budget can weather some wind and rain. The real problem was that UPS’s tracking system was not designed to provide its Customer Service Representatives enough useful details. All they could tell me was that a “critical emergency had occured beyond UPS’ control, but the package will arrive later today.”

“What is the emergency?” I asked.

“It is a critical emergency. It’s beyond UPS’ control. But your package will arrive later today,” repeated “Johanna.”

“You said that yesterday, and you can’t even tell me what the emergency is. Can you ask someone who knows to give me a call to let me know?”

“You would have to call the shipper and ask them to ask us to give you that  information, sir.”

What?!?  UPS wanted me to believe that this was not their fault. Ok–plausible. UPS wanted me to believe that I should bear the costs of this continued delay and misinformation. Difficult, but I could be convinced. Now, though, UPS wanted me simply to accept that any evidence to support this leap of faith would only be provided to me at the pleasure of New Egg, which probably knew nothing about the apparent emergency in the first place? No way!

And that’s when Johanna and I plunged head first into the CSR Information Gap. Now, lacking the solid ground of trust previously established, my faith in UPS had given way. The more my confidence in UPS’ information was in freefall, the more I started to wonder about alternative cost-sharing plans in which UPS gets a little more skin in this game.

Fortunately, I was eventually able to persuade Johanna that asking someone more familiar with the emergency to fill me in was a better plan. Within an hour or so, someone else from UPS called back.

He sounded tired but polite. He also sounded informed and confident. “Sorry, but there was a bad storm. The guys are having to get two days’ worth of packages out in one, but they’re doing their best and getting it done. Your package will be there later today.”

Without even realizing it, he pulled me back up out of the information gap and restored UPS’ standing. Money at this point wasn’t even an issue: these guys were working hard — the storm wasn’t their fault. Sure enough, the hard drive arrived about an hour later. Occasional storms,” mostly of a technological sort, have affected NSI’s client service as well at times, but promptly providing a basic explanation of the problem usually goes a long way to resolving it.

If UPS’ tracking system could have provided Johanna this small set of facts, it would have eliminated any doubt before thoughts of refunds, recompense or reparations even entered my head. It would have prevented a gap from breaching the long time trust I’ve had in UPS.

(Image Credit: WorldTimZone)

However, in addition to learning about data security, this serves as marketing research for an upcoming newsletter article as well as other applications. Further, as these take off, we will be able to attend many more shows much more cost-effectively.

The key is to require attendees to complete profiles to enter. If real trade shows did that, they would be much more powerful networking opportunities. But online, people are used to completing a form before signing in, so it’s much more seamless.

One thing, though, as wired technology spreads, people pay less attention to being present where they are. More and more, it seems customary to be doing email on a laptop in a meeting. I can’t blame folks–I too find it a struggle to keep up with my inbox. But now, as I attend this show, a client meeting, keep up on email, IM and social media, it will be a challenge to pay full attention to anyone for the next hour or so.

You wonder how much business can really get done if we virtually devolve into a room full of teenagers texting away to others not present–while on ipods! Still, the community-building potential of UBM’s interface is tremendous. I even liked picking the avatar!

(Photo credit: Telegraph Media Group)

Google’s Buzz seems to be catching on. We are thinking about including it as part of some social-media marketing initiatives, but how should organizations use Google Buzz in ways that they’re not already using Facebook and Twitter? It appears to be yet another platform that a business will have to 1) establish and 2) maintain (via a Google account), while 3) having to work at gaining contacts. Most or all of the potential contacts, it seems to us, are likely already using Facebook and Twitter.

We’re especially curious about it, since the trend for social interaction appears to be away from email, yet Buzz is so tied to email, it doesn’t work unless Gmail is a primary email client. (I knew I was supposed to love gmail more truly–bad marketer!)

And, looking at it from the search angle: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are now seriously threatening Google as alternative search platforms. Most businesses are still not using all three of these — so why introduce a fourth when they haven’t yet put these others to work?

But, there are some advantages. Since it can easily be connected to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and others, it adds a new dimension to maximize client visibility. Although Facebook is working on its own webmail client, GoogleBuzz rallies the gmail community with its opt-out-or-you’re-in approach. It has other advantages, too, as captured particularly well by SEO Optimize. Don;t forget the SEO impact as well.

Of course, Buzz is trying to ride the increasingly important trends toward mobile marketing, which Discover Magazine explains– that’s where the huge eyeball growth is taking place, and where businesses can reach those eyeballs (via ads and custom apps). I’ve been watching mobile marketing for several years, and think this year is the tipping point — the iPhone is becoming part of the culture, has been joined by the non-phone iTouch and, soon, the iPad; Google and the other phone competitors now have their own smart phones with apps, etc.

Makes us want to delve more into FourSquare, actually….

(Photo credit: Xobni)

Thanks to Jeff Price at BOC International, who sent me a LinkedIn connection invitation via a new Outlook plugin called Xobni, I have hope of “taking back my inbox.” This is according to both Xobni’s literature and reviews like CNet’s.

I had never heard of Xobni. I can tell from the spelling that our high-technology age is quickly running out of pithy utterances available from the Roman alphabet, and Norton warns me that apparently “fewer than 10 people” have downloaded this plugin. Norton can’t mean that for all of Xobni, though. What about Jeff Price and all his LinkedIn friends? We’ve only spoken a few times, but I’m guessing he has more than nine. (Come to think of it, Norton is the one that sometimes can’t count many friends, although their latest version has indeed really solved most of the problems that plagued previous ones.) I’m guessing then that that’s what its warning is about: this particular build of Xobni or something — otherwise, if I were really among the first ten users, I would have won a prize by now, right?

Nevertheless, Xobni captured my attention immediately with its seductive promise of being able to cross-reference email and social media contacts and, even better, leverage the social networking of email itself. As social-media grows there’s an increasing dichotomy between people that effective leverage twitter and all and those of us who “still use email.” If Xobni can help bridge that gap, as both social networks and email platforms are incredibly useful, then I immediately wanted to watch the video. And I hardly ever make time for that. I still need to explore it, but between an easy presentation and a clear website, to say nothing of the inherent recommendation via LinkedIn, I downloaded and installed immediately.

Then, while I was waiting for Xobni to index my PST files, I went to send an email. Outlook once again could neither auto-fill nor suggest an address that’s somewhere in my database. At that moment Xobni Plus closed the sale. A clever bit of script was able to hint the precise email address I needed: a grayed-out drop-down that I couldn’t quite select without upgrading for $30. Worth it, I thought, and now it’s telling me in a shiny new, colorful panel that has appeared in Outlook that “we’re ready to rock.” We’ll see, but so far, so great.