Cloud-based mail makes sense for SMEs – Office 365

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 05:35:17 +0000

By Staff Writer, ITWeb Johannesburg, 25 Feb 2013
Click Here to see original article

Cloud-based mail and collaboration solutions are the way to go for SMEs and companies looking to save money and communicate effectively. This is according to Darryl Lampert, ICT manager at Cape Town-based asset management firm, Pragma. Lampert says simple operations like e-mail, which businesses tend to take for granted, are critical to the successful running of an SME.

“It sounds obvious, but a business like ours needs reliable, secure and up-to-date communication and collaboration tools to make our employees as productive as possible and to deliver exceptional customer service,” he says.

According to Lampert, at the beginning of 2012, Pragma was still running and managing its own Exchange Server 2003 standard edition. The main problem was that, with a maximum database size of 75GB, each user’s mailbox was a risible 250MB – which meant users were having to clear their mailboxes monthly, if not more often, just to keep getting mail, he explains.

“Our on-premises messaging and collaboration solutions gobbled IT resources, and inadequate mailbox size inconvenienced our employees, who wanted modern, integrated collaboration and communication tools they could use on all their PCs and mobile devices. We wanted to help them be more productive. It was time to find a more integrated, cost-effective solution that didn’t involve spending money on servers,” said Lampert.

Towards the end of 2010, Pragma began evaluating online solutions, including Google Apps for Business, and Google Mail in particular. But that option didn’t meet the company’s needs.

“There were several problems with Google Mail,” says Lampert. “There were major incompatibilities when using Outlook as the e-mail client. Attachments were stripped from meeting requests and ‘send on behalf of’ did not display correctly. We reassessed Google Apps in 2011, but they still hadn’t addressed these issues and could give us no indication if they would do so.”

Pragma’s next stop was Microsoft’s Office 365. It worked with an integrator, which had been testing Office 365 internally, to set up a pilot project – and when that was successful, to deploy Office 365 throughout the company.

Lampert says the company migrated from the on-premise Exchange 2003 to a single sign-on Office 365 solution without the integrator setting foot on the premises.

“This highlights a significant advantage for companies that move to the cloud: relatively easy access to top specialists in the technologies they choose to use, irrespective of where they, or their service providers, are located,” says the integrators representative.

The upshot is that every user now has a 25GB mailbox, as well as the additional benefits of the latest versions of Exchange, Lync and SharePoint. Pragma can also selectively and easily enable e-mail archiving for users who need more than 25GB of e-mail, he notes.

This has seen a major capex saving, says Microsoft SA’s Office lead, Uriel Rootshtain. A traditional Exchange 2010 installation with similar mailbox sizes to that of Office 365 would have been prohibitively expensive, not to mention the costs of software licences, archiving, backups, disaster recovery and associated hardware requirements.

“We often talk about scalability, and this has been the case: the cloud model allows for simple and rapid expansion to cater for company growth. With Pragma having multiple geographic locations, this elasticity is particularly important,” says Rootshtain.

Having had a taste of the cloud, and having liked it, Pragma is now looking at extending its collaboration footprint. Lampert says the company is looking at corporate instant messaging and presence through Lync, and a new SharePoint-powered extranet portal for collaborating with customers and suppliers.

Microsoft releases updated Office 365 for business

admin — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:21:00 +0000

Click Here for the original story by Staff Writer, ITWeb Johannesburg, 27 Feb 2013

Microsoft has announced a major update to its Office 365 for business services. The update brings enhanced social enterprise capabilities through the integration of SharePoint and Yammer.

Office 365 was first launched in mid-2011, and Microsoft says it has become one of its fastest growing businesses in the company’s history. Microsoft says Office 365 has grown by 150% in the last year.

Speaking of the latest update, Microsoft says: “The release has new collaboration features and offerings specifically tailored to the needs and budgets of small, medium and large organisations. In addition to updated e-mail, video conferencing, instant messaging (IM) and calendaring services, business users can now get the Office applications they are familiar with on up to five devices, delivered as an always up-to-date cloud service.”

Microsoft says it will also include Lync-Skype connectivity for presence, IM and voice, by mid-year.

The company acquired business social network Yammer (which had over five million corporate users at the time) in June 2012 for $1.2 billion in cash. At the time, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the acquisition would add enterprise social networking to the company’s portfolio of cloud services. Microsoft also said it intended integrating Yammer and its other services, including Office 365, SharePoint and Skype.

“Yammer’s expertise in empowering employees, driving voluntary adoption, and delivering rapid innovation in the cloud will not only continue to power our standalone service, but also help shape the communication and collaboration experiences in Office 365,” said Microsoft.

Office lead at Microsoft SA, Uriel Rootshtain, says the new Office 365 release allows both large enterprises and small businesses to benefit from the connectivity of the cloud. “This release unlocks new scenarios and delivers capabilities that far surpass anything available in browser-only solutions.”

According to Rootshtain, the Office 365 Small Business Premium offering (aimed at businesses with one to 10 employees) has great potential for local businesses.

“In addition to the complete set of Office applications, this service includes business-grade e-mail, shared calendars, Web site tools and HD video conferencing in an easy-to-manage service that doesn’t require IT expertise,” says Rootshtain.

The estimated retail price is R1 600 per user for an annual subscription, which is R133.33 per user per month.

Also released today is Office 365 Midsize Business, which offers Active Directory integration, a Web-based administration console and business hours phone support. Pricing is R1 750 per user for an annual subscription (R145.83 per user per month).

Microsoft says: “The new Office 365 Small Business Premium and Office 365 Midsize Business will be available alongside the already available Office 365 Enterprise and Office 365 for Education offerings, with the new functionality added in this service update.”

The Evolution of Cloud Computing for Small Business

admin — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 23:51:29 +0000

Small Business, BIG difference

Just like Cloud Computing, Small Business is really making a difference in the South African economy. It comes down to an old concept called the multiplier effect. There are many more Small Businesses in South Africa than there are Large Corporates, at last estimate just over 1 million. Perhaps think of it this way, if every Small Business had to employ only 1 additional person, they would create 1 million jobs overnight! Now that’s incentive to support Small Business in South Africa.

So, if Small Business can make such an impact in our economy, why should they not be able to access the same IT productivity infrastructure that Large Corporates do? The answer is relatively straight forward; Up until now, the upfront capital investment required to implement these productivity tools has been prohibitive. Additionally, in most cases, Small Businesses also do not employ full time IT staff to support the require infrastructure, so shy away from these tools. The good news is that the Cloud Computing evolution has changed all that.

Cloud Computing Evolution

The cloud has been around for many years, but the availability of “Software as a Service” or SaaS is a relatively new concept. SaaS and Cloud Computing means that Small Businesses no longer need to invest massive capital upfront to utilise these productivity tools. No on-premise hardware is required to run these tools. Business can now select the Productivity tools that they want to use and consume these on a month-to-month basis. There is no capital investment in hardware or software. As the business grows, so the business can add services to cater for the growth overnight. For some, this sounds too good to be true, but all the evidence is there. Leading companies are moving services to the Cloud rapidly as they see the benefit of Cloud computing. These businesses are spending less money on keeping their IT infrastructure running, and more on IT initiatives to increase top and bottom line. If BIG business is moving to the Cloud, should Small Business not be leading the way?

Microsoft Office365 for Small Business

Microsoft has recently launched the Office365 Cloud services. They have recognised the importance of catering specifically for the Small Businesses and have created a solution offering specific to this market segment. Pricing and billing has been simplified and business can add/remove e-mail accounts on a month-to-month basis. Setup is extremely easy and e-mail can be running within 24 hours. The e-mail platform is on the World Class Excahnge platform, which is simply light years ahead of any other e-mail productivoty platform. Additional benefits include the ability to synchronise all your productivity devices (laptop, tablet and phone) to a single device. When you manage your e-mail, contacts or diary on one device, the others are automatically updated – no need to add a contact 3 times! The service also includes the use of SharePoint to store your documents and information in the Cloud. Now you can access your information anywhere in the world, on any device. have you been worried thatif your laptop is stolen, how will you recover all that business information? SharePoint removes that worry!

Umpetha IT Solutions are a Microsoft Cloud Partner, and can provide you with any assistance needed to get up and running. Click this link to learn more about the Office365 offering: http://wp.me/P2zhIl-42.

You can even trial the solution with no obligation. Click this link to learn setup a 30day free trial:
https://portal.microsoftonline.com/partner/partnersignup.aspx?type=Trial&id=a8eed831-e382-4ab4-80d8-522baba6a850&msppid=3631098

At just R46.50 per month per user, can you afford to not consider this solution?

10 reasons to use PowerPivot for self service Business Intelligence

admin — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 08:19:22 +0000

Business Intelligence has matured extensivley since the term was first thron around a decade or so ago! Many companies developed solutions to capture this market and to ensure that busness executives where getting dashboard data in ways that would grow their business. Microsoft embraced self service Business Intelligence and delivered MS SharePoint and MS PowerPivot. Two products that can really help your business expand and grow, using “out-the-box” functionality and designs.

The following extract from the Microsoft website details the top reasons for trying PowerPivot.

PowerPivot for Excel is a data analysis tool that delivers unmatched computational power directly within the application users already know and love—Microsoft Excel. It’s the user-friendly way to perform data analysis, using familiar Excel features you already know, such as the Office Fluent user interface, PivotTable and PivotChart views, and Slicers. It’s the fast way to generate rich and interactive analysis tools that look like you’ve spent weeks building. It’s the right way to achieve deeper business insight and shorter decision cycles.

1. Enjoy fast calculations and analysis on large data volumes.
Use the PowerPivot for Excel 2010 add-in to get quicker analysis of large data sets on the desktop. PowerPivot, using its in-memory engine and efficient compression algorithms, can process even huge data sets with extremely quick performance. You can process millions of rows with about the same performance as a few hundred rows.

2. Take advantage of Data Analysis Expressions.
Enjoy the familiarity of Excel expressions when using Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) to build advanced analysis applications. Perform powerful manipulations beyond standard Excel capabilities, follow relationships between tables as in a database, and define sophisticated calculations using familiar and intuitive expressions. Use powerful relational capabilities to create advanced analytics applications using expressions like SamePeriodLastYear(), ClosingBalances (), Previous Day(), etc.

3. Capitalize on existing skills and familiar Excel features.
Leverage familiar Excel features that you already know, such as PivotTables, PivotCharts, and Slicers. Even the new DAX functions follow familiar Excel syntax. If you know how to work with Excel, you already know how to work with PowerPivot.

4. Integrate data from virtually any source.
Discover intricate information by combining data from a multitude of sources, including relational databases, spreadsheets, reports, text files, and Internet data feeds. PowerPivot can determine data relationships automatically and create a customizable model of fact and dimension tables for fast in-memory analysis.

5. Drill down to the key relevant data quickly.
Take advantage of intuitive Excel slice-and-dice functionality to quickly focus on relevant data. Use the Slicer to view your data from different perspectives, filter the data to display just what you need, and enjoy new search capabilities to spend less time sifting through massive quantities of data and more time analyzing.

6. Work seamlessly via a Web browser.
Publish your analysis in SharePoint and access your shared applications directly in the browser without having to download the workbooks with all their data to every workstation. Enjoy an attractive user interface in SharePoint, browsing at its best, and the same performance and features as in the Excel client.

7. Share and collaborate on analysis with others.
Turn your workbooks into shared applications accessible virtually anytime and from almost any location to increase the productivity of your team with PowerPivot for Excel 2010. Benefit from all the available SharePoint features, such as role-based security, workflows, and versioning.

8. Automatically refresh shared applications.
Ensure that your team makes decisions based on most recent data by conveniently configuring the refresh cycle for your workbook applications in the SharePoint user interface. SharePoint can automatically update the data from any source.

9. Discover and build upon existing solutions.
Reuse shared applications as data sources in new analysis to dig deeper, faster and compress decision cycles. Rely on SharePoint as a secure collaboration platform for centralized access to shared applications, browse the sites you have permissions to access, and integrate any available shared application into your current investigations and analyses.

10. Track and monitor analysis applications from a central dashboard.
Let your IT administrators monitor your shared applications to ensure that your solutions are continuously available. In a SharePoint environment, IT administrators can track usage patterns over time, drill down to obtain more details, discover solutions that become mission-critical through organic growth, and make sure appropriate server resources are available.

Cloud security… is it really a problem?

admin — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 08:28:24 +0000

We have been following the Cloud security debate closely as it affects us directly. Our viewpoint has been rather simplistic. Surely the cloud service providers we are using, like Microsoft, can handle security better than we can on-premise? Are their security budgets not infinitely more than ours?

Well, the answer to this is not absolutely clear, but is clearing more as an increasing number of massive corporate companies are seeing the value in moving services to the cloud and are using these service providers as they have audited their security and believe that the measures put in place are equal to if not better than what they could deploy internally!

The IDC (Analyst firm) has predicted that cloud spending will reach $73 billion by 2015, more than three times as much as in 2010. This amount of investment is massive, and we for one are really happy that the trend we are seeing and getting a feeling for through the market is a general feeling of ease with the Cloud.

Where has the fear emanated from? It has come largely from the security and privacy of one’s data. Sure, the fear has to some point been warranted and the Cloud has matured rapidly in the past two years. Cloud service providers are committed to ensuring the security and privacy of their clients data, and when choosing a cloud service provider, you should investigate thoroughly their service description on these matters. By doing so, you will understand the measures they put in place to safeguard your information.

You’ll never have a 100 percent foolproof solution, no matter what anyone tells you. And this holds true for on-premise solutions as well. If you are holding valuable information that people are interested in, you should be constantly evolving your security measures to ensure the safety of this data. What is the cost of doing this? Our assessment is “far more than outsourcing to the cloud”!

Take a look at our Cloud based services and offering, in partnership with South Africa’s leading Cloud service providers.

E-Mail archiving requirement is not a myth!!

admin — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 06:34:05 +0000

It concerns us that we are still hearing from business owners that there is no legislative act forcing e-mail archiving. Even more concerning is that they have heard this from their current IT vendors, who should know better.

Since the enactment of both the Electronic Communications Transactions (ECT) Act and the Promotion of Access to Information (PAI) Act there has been a definite requirement for business to archive and retain e-mails in a certain format and systematically. Unfortunately, printing out the relevant e-mail is not good enough. We furthered our research and came across some good advice presented by the Deloitte Technology Law team. The following is an extract from their paper:

Mythbusters – No Law Prescribes the Retention of Email Messages

Based on the fact that no law currently prescribes the retention and archiving of email messages, many local businesses delete email after sixty or ninety days.

Although the practice of archiving all outgoing email messages for at least three years is well established in the United States and the European Union, many South African businesses continue to rely on the fact that email retention is not prescribed by law to justify deletion after a certain period.

Although it is correct that no law expressly and directly prescribes the retention or archiving of email for a three year period, both the common law and statutory law do so indirectly:

No less than 26 laws of general application require businesses to retain certain records for certain periods ranging from 3 to 30 years. If a specific record is in the form of an email, that email needs to be retained for the prescribed period.Failure to retain records subject to prescribed retention periods may expose businesses to considerable risk and criminal fines. In 2002, Goldman Sacks and Citibank were fined US$8 million and US$ 1.6 million respectively for deleting email.
Probably the most important reason to archive outgoing email for at least three years is to access such emails for possible future use as evidence. Currently, almost 90% of business correspondence is conducted via email, and deleting email amounts to nothing less than shredding evidence.Email abuse is common in South Africa and since 2000 there has been a marked increase in the number of CCMA cases involving email abuse. Businesses who delete email will not be in a position to take action against staff abuses because they will not have any evidence to rely upon.Since most disciplinary hearings, CCMA cases and other litigation based on email result from personal emails (for example defamation and racist jokes), businesses are well advised to not only retain business emails but also all outgoing personal emails.The 3 year retention period is based on prescription. After three years a third party or an employee cannot lodge a complaint or initiate litigation based on an email. Therefore, retention for longer periods is not necessary.
Risk management considerations favour the retention of email. Without a proper and secure email archiving system in place, businesses face the risk of unauthorised deletion, disclosure and tempering of email messages.
The Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 gives effect to the Constitutional right to access to information. Businesses that fail or refuse to retain outgoing email for at least three years, will not be able to comply with public disclosure requests in terms of this Act and may face litigation and criminal fines.
Corporate governance considerations furthermore favour the retention of outgoing email messages. Both the King II and King III reports require company Boards to consider systems and policies aimed at reducing risk and ensuring compliance.
As the use of email as principle business communication tool increases, so does the legal disclosure requirements either through e-discovery or as subpoenas. Businesses that fail or refuse to retain outgoing email for at least three years are exposed to litigation risks and fines for failure to comply with subpoenas.

The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 does not prescribe the retention of email but governs the electronic retention of all records (including email) and the use of email as evidence.

Section 16(1) of the Act deals with retention and states as follows:
Where a law requires information to be retained, that requirement is met by retaining such information in the form of a data message [such as email], if a) the information contained in the data message is accessible so as to be usable for subsequent reference; b) the data message is in the format in which it was generated, sent or received, or in a format which can be demonstrated to represent accurately the information generated, sent or received; and c) the origin and destination of that data message and the date and time it was sent or received can he determined.

The conditions detailed in section 16(1) are important to consider when businesses acquire email archiving solutions. It goes without saying that such solutions should comply with the prescribed conditions.

The use of email as evidence is governed by section 15(3) of the Act:
In assessing the evidential weight of a data message, regard must be had to a) the reliability of the manner in which the data message was generated, stored or communicated; b) the reliability of the manner in which the integrity of the data message was maintained; c) the manner in which its originator was identified; and d) any other relevant factor.

Email archiving solutions that change the format of archived email to PDF or other non-email formats will fall foul of section 15(3). The same applies to paper printouts of email. In order to retain maximum evidential weights, email needs to be retained in the same format as the original.

According to Gartner (*1) email archiving is a well established method to ensure legal compliance:

Multimillion dollar fines for inadequate attention to e-mail retention has meant that automated archiving solutions have essentially become mandatory for financial services firms that conduct business in the United States. Similar expectations are rippling across the globe for the banking industry, and virtually all major financial services firms are archiving e-mail. Other Securities and Exchange Commission-regulated firms operating in the United States have a more ambiguous need for archiving e-mail outside of the normal mail servers and backups. However, it has become clearly established that e-mail constitutes a business record, and e-mail is virtually always requested as part of a discovery order in a case or government investigation. The judicial system, especially in the United States, has a growing expectation that e-mail-based business communications will be reliably stored and easily recovered, driving an ever-greater number of firms to install a stand-alone e-mail archiving product.

*1 Gartner, Hype Cycle for Compliance Technologies, 12 July 2006

The convenient searchability and access to historical e-mail significantly reduce the costs associated with discovery, which more than pays for the purchase and use of this technology. Furthermore, organizations that have carefully implemented their e-mail archiving processes are deemed more responsive by judges, reducing both their time in court and the potential for fines.

In order to ensure full email compliance, businesses should implement and maintain a proper Email Archiving Solution and adopt technology that complies with the requirements of the ECT Act quoted above. Ideally, such a solution should copy and archive each outgoing email (business and personal) in a secure archive resistant to user manipulation and tempering.

Businesses who fail to implement a proper email archiving solution face significant risk and liability exposure including criminal fines, worthless electronic evidence, inability to conduct disciplinary hearings, low records governance and low risk management.

It follows that the myth that South African businesses do not have to retain email is… BUSTED!

For more information – take a look at our compliant e-mail archiving solutions!