Staying Connected

Software as a (Valuable) Service

Raise your hand if you know what Software as a Service means.  Okay, for those of you who don’t…here’s the short of it.  Software as a Service simply means that instead of purchasing a license for the software and owning the software, you pay a subscription price to use the software for as long as you continue to pay for it.

This can be cost beneficial for some software, but not for others.  There is no golden key to determine which works best, but here is something to at least get you pointed in the right direction.  If the software is going to be changing constantly, has annual renewal fees, or has maintenance and support fees, then it is often times a good deal to engage it as a SaaS (Software as a Service) type solution.

 If the software is relatively static, aside from patches and updates, then traditional licensing will probably be the best answer.  Pay attention to the fact that I am leaving room for exceptions.  There is no blanket statement that covers every single situation.  But take a look at these examples.  Software such as Microsoft Office does not have an annual renewal, and it is very static.  It does get updates, but major versions only change once every few years.  This is a perfect candidate for traditional licensing.  Pay for it once, then own it.  This will probably be cheaper in the long run rather than paying a little bit each month. 

Anti-virus however is different.  You have to pay an initial purchase price, annual renewal fees, plus a new version can come out a couple different times within the span of three years.  Since this is a software that you would make add-on payments to in order to keep it updated, SaaS becomes a great option.  After adding up all the payments between initial purchase, annual renewals, and version upgrades, a small monthly subscription usually ends up being cheaper after everything is all totaled up.

ConnectWise offers some products that are Software as a Service, including anti-virus and anti-spam.  Check with your Account Manager to learn more details about available programs.

Check Your Work Email From…Anywhere

Did you know that OWA (Outlook Web Access) is available to you if your company uses Exchange or Hosted Exchange?  OWA allows users to check their work email from anywhere that has an Internet connection. 

When you login, it will look just like your Outlook that you are used to seeing.  You will have all of your emails in your inbox, sent items, public folders, custom folders that you have created, etc.  Also, all of your calendar items, contacts, and tasks will be there.  If you make any changes, then when you get to the office, you will see those changes.  Likewise, if you make any changes at the office, when you check your email via OWA later that day, you will see those changes as well.  This is a great way to keep in touch, no matter where you are.  Here’s how to use it.

For those who use the Hosted Exchange service:
Open up your Internet browser and type in webmail.connectwise.com.  That will take you to a login page.  Enter your email address and password, and you are in.  Easy!

For those who are using your own Exchange server:
By default, Exchange automatically sets up OWA and it configures OWA to be reachable by the following web address – https://mail.yourdomainname/exchange. There a couple of points to notice here.  First of all, the beginning of the web address is different than usual.  You are used to seeing http. This starts out with https.  If you type "http://" instead of "https://", it will not work. 

Secondly, the “yourdomainname” part of the web address is the last part of your email address.  If your email address is JDoe@acmewidgets.com, then your OWA web address would be https://mail.acmewidgets.com/exchange.   Enter that in your Internet browser address bar and the login page should pop up.

Keep in mind, this is the default setting for Microsoft Exchange.  The setting can be changed, and some companies choose to change the web address for reasons that work for them.  If you follow the above instructions, and the login page for OWA does not show up, then your Exchange settings may have been changed.  In that event, talk to your network engineer and find out what your OWA web address is.

Gazopa Helps Find Similar Images

Gazopa is a newcomer in the field of search engines, but what makes it unique is that it looks specifically for images that are similar to a defined picture.  So if you have or if you found a picture of someone riding a horse, but it isn’t exactly what you are looking for, you can use Gazopa to find other pictures on the web of people riding a horse.

When you first go to Gazopa.com you will see that there are different options for selecting the original key image.  You can either upload an image that you already have, you can paste in the URL of a picture, you can actually draw an image using a basic art-draw utility, or you can search by keyword.

Gazopa is only in Beta right now, but it is accessible to the public and anyone can use it for free.  I took it for a test drive, and it was fun, but still needed some work.  What the engine thinks is similar and what I think is similar can be two different things.  The engine takes into consideration things like color, size, shape, tone, etc.  The subject of the image is not always the top priority.  For example, I uploaded a picture of a tall, oval standing penguin that had tones of black, white, gray, and blue.  The results I got back were pictures of other penguins, some buildings that were tall and oval shaped, a kid wearing a blueish-grayish snow jacket, and other such images. 

Nonetheless, I will probably use it from time to time just for fun, and to help me think outside the box, but I will be happy as time goes on and the core search engine gets better at making more accurate matches.

The Big Easy Offer is Back!

 

This is a great transition from my last post about not waiting until the beginning of the new year to make that purchase you’ve been thinking about.  From November 1 to January 2, Microsoft is running their Big Easy offer again.  For those who are not familiar with this program, it works like this.  You purchase qualifying products from Microsoft such as Server 2008, Pro versions of Vista or Windows 7, Office Small Business or Enterprise edition, or a choice of many, many others.  We send in the purchase information to Microsoft.  Microsoft sends you a credit voucher that you can spend with ConnectWise for services.  The services can be anything labor-based such as installing your new software, regular service calls, help desk support, etc.

At this point, the two most popular questions are, “which products are qualifiers?” and “how much is the credit voucher?”.  There are a lot of products that are qualifiers, but here is a list of some of the most popular ones:

• Windows XP Pro
• Windows Vista Pro
• Windows 7 Pro
• Any edition of Exchange Server
• Office Pro Plus
• Office Small Business
• Office Enterprise
• SharePoint
• Various versions and editions of SQL
• The following editions of Windows Server: Web, Small Business Server, Essentials, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter (Standard and Premium where applicable)

This is not a comprehensive list.  If you have questions about a particular product, call us and we can look it up.

Regarding the amount of the voucher, it depends on how many products you purchase.  But here is an example.  Let’s say you need a new server and 5 new PC’s.  The server will have Windows 2008 Small Business Server, and the PC’s will have Windows 7 Pro.  In addition to that, each PC will get Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business Edition.  Your credit voucher will be great because you are buying multiple products from multiple categories (Server OS, Desktop OS, and Office System).  In this scenario your credit voucher would be $735.  And you would be able to spend that $735 for any labor-based services that ConnectWise offers.

But again, this offer is only good from Nov. 1 to Jan.2.  So if you are going to purchase equipment and software, now is the time to do it.  Well, wait a couple days…November 1 is the day to do it   :-)

Holiday Shopping…For Your Company

Suppliers of servers, PC’s, laptops, and other technology equipment are just like other companies.  They want to sell as much as they can by the end of the year.  As a result, prices often times start dropping in the last few months of the year.  This is the time that businesses can really take advantage of great pricing on many essentials. 

However, many business owners and managers do not realize this.  A common phrase that is heard around this time is, “Well, let’s wait ‘till the beginning of the new year, then we’ll get started on the project, the upgrade, the expansion, the etc.”  But waiting until the new year can cost you discounts that you will not receive in January.  So if you are thinking about doing an upgrade, a replacement, or making any kind of new purchase, go ahead and do it between now and the end of December.

Admittedly, sometimes December can be a hard month to start big projects because of your people’s vacation schedules.   So try to get the project going before the second week of December.  If you truly must wait until the new year to begin the project, then the savvy thing to do is go ahead and make the hardware and software purchase now so you can take advantage of great pricing, Then begin the implementation when everyone comes back in the new year.  But if you wait until first quarter to make your purchase, you miss out on a lot of savings.

ConnectWise Hosts A Workshop On How To Reduce IT Costs

As part of our ongoing Learning Series, ConnectWise is hosting a FREE workshop that will illustrate various methods on how to reduce IT costs.  This is a great opportunity for business owners and managers.  The information presented will be incredibly valuable and relevant to any business of any size in any industry.  Click here to learn more or register.