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Microsoft Clouds Don’t Rain on Small Businesses – a Comprehensive Assessment of Microsoft Online Services

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Microsoft Goes SAASy

Flashback

Used to being the unchallenged leader during the early days of information technology, Microsoft never had it as easy since the advent of the internet. No matter the hot new internet technology, Microsoft was forever caught napping. It was never the innovator and forever a laggard in terms of success. Google trounced it at search and online advertising, Yahoo at instant messaging and consumer mail, Blogger, WordPress and Typepad were far better at blogging software, it never even appeared on the battle ground of social networking with MySpace and Facebook ruling the roost.

But there were certain markets, especially corporate markets, in which Microsoft continued at have a strangle-hold, which kept its cash registers clinking, and at a frantic pace at that. These were the PC OS market with its Windows series, MS Office for Office suites, and its prize cash cows – MS Exchange and MS Sharepoint for enterprise messaging and collaboration.

Now, the above mentioned software are essential for every enterprise, and 5 to 10 years back, Microsoft did undoubtedly offer the most robust solutions available. In those days, since every body was eyeing the juicy big business enterprise segment, with their thousands of users implementations and IT budgets bursting at the seams, it was for that audience these software were developed. So although Exchange and Sharepoint required dedicated servers, complicated implementations and dedicated IT to man and maintain the system, nobody really minded, because these mega enterprises had the money and staff to spare.

The Present

But there was a segment which minded it, the small to medium size business (SMB), segment which had neither the staff, nor resources, nor the inclination. Since not many alternatives were available, they either had to bear the burden, or do without these technologies altogether. But in recent times, things have started to change. In the past 3 years or so, a new approach has emerged, spurred on by technology improvements and increased bandwidth – the software as a service approach. And its primary market is the small to mid sized business segment.

In a recent SaaS survey conducted by Cutter Consortium, nearly three-quarters (72%) of the people who responded reported that they are using Web-based solutions to fill unmet needs. More than a quarter of the respondents (28%) are hoping that these solutions will cut their costs by 20%-30%.

It is true that there was some initial skepticism initially about the viability of SAAS solutions, in that it involves letting go of some control and allowing the organization’s critical data lie on a third party SAAS vendor’s servers. But the benefits of this approach have been so overwhelming, and due to providers like salesforce.com and HyperOffice providing SAAS solutions effectively over the years, that organizations across the board, from small to mega enterprises, have been converted.

Microsoft Plays Catchup

With the enterprise market saturated, Microsoft has also been eyeing the relatively untapped small to mid sized business market in the past few years. Considering the success of SAAS with this segment, Microsoft has introduced offered a succession of software offered as a service in recent times, under the Microsoft Office Live banner. But the real success story with this segment was “hosted Exchange” and “hosted Sharepoint” solutions offered by independent vendors; many of them certified Microsoft partners. First, a little refresher:

What is Hosted Exchange (and how it differs from Exchange Server)?

Every company needs dedicated company email for its employees, as well as some basic productivity solutions to lubricate everyday working (task management, calendars, address books). To cater to these universal needs, Microsoft developed Exchange Server whose major features consist of electronic mail, calendaring, contacts and tasks. The front end client for Exchange through which employees access all this information is usually Outlook, but Exchange also supports mobile and web based access (called Outlook web access or OWA for short). But implementing Exchange is hardly easy, as it includes setting up a dedicated server, undertaking a complex Exchange implementation, in addition to additional anti spam and anti virus implementations for the security of the server. Also, dedicated staff needs to be hired to monitor the system and keep it running, and to manage a myriad of complexities that may arise, since Exchange is a vast solution.

Under hosted Exchange however, all aspects of implementation and maintenance of the Exchange implementation are outsourced to the servers of a specialized “hosted services” provider. Customers still get the most of the features of Exchange – dedicated email, shared calendars/contacts/tasks, and premium features like mobile and web access to information (typically at an extra cost). But unlike an in house implementation, where everybody accesses Exchange over the local network, in this case it is accessed over the internet. This approach is especially beneficial for small to medium businesses which are saved the huge costs of in house implementation and instead have to pay a reasonable monthly subscription.

What is Hosted Sharepoint (and how it differs from Sharepoint Server)?

Apart from basic email capabilities, companies also need the ability to manage the company’s information, stored in documents, and the ability for employees to work together on this information. This is what SharePoint, Microsoft’s browser-based collaboration and document management platform does. It can be used to host and create a company’s web site that includes shared workspaces and documents, as well as specialized applications like to do lists, discussion boards, wikis and blogs. But Sharepoint’s power is coupled with its complexity. It’s implementation is no less cumbersome and costly than Exchange. Moreover, it is not end user friendly. Subject matter experts cannot share their knowledge directly; they always have to either go through IT intermediaries, or undergo specialized training which consumes time and diverts attention from competencies.  Knowledge is not dispersed freely through the organization, but is choked by having to pass through the IT bottleneck.

As with hosted Exchange, under hosted Sharepoint, all aspects of a company’s Sharepoint implementation and management are outsourced to third party vendors. Customers can still access all of Sharepoint’s features over the internet, but for a reasonable monthly fee.

Microsoft Takes the Big Services Plunge

As long as the hosted market was not sizable, Microsoft was content selling Exchange and Sharepoint as software products, and let its partners and independent vendors do the hosting. But considering the bourgeoning of the SAAS market lately, and its future outlook, coupled with tough competition from “alternative” collaboration and messaging offerings like Google Apps, Gmail and HyperOffice, MS finally In Oct. 2007, Microsoft finally took the plunge when it announced hosted Sharepoint and Exchange for enterprises with more than 5,000 seats – titled Exchange Online and Sharepoint Online. In Feb 2008, it went one step further by opening these services to all organizations, irrespective of size.

The Hot News – Microsoft’s “Hosted Service Bundles”

Keeping with its recent rapid movement, on July 8, 2008, Microsoft made another announcement, introducing a novel, if not controversial strategy. In addition to offering its hosted services as single offerings, it announced that early in 2009, it would also offer them as “bundles”, a combination of services at a reduced total cost.

Microsoft has introduced two “bundles”, titled the Deskless Worker suite and Information Worker suite. The deskless worker suite is priced at just $3 per user per month, and will include Exchange Online services as well as read only access to Sharepoint Online services. This is supposedly targeted at workers who typically spend only a very small part of their day in front of the computer. The information worker suite is priced $15 per user per month and includes a full range of offerings including Exchange Online, Share Online and Live Meeting, Microsoft’s web conferencing software.

An Assessment

Great Solution?

At first view, it would seem that Microsoft has come out with a great offering. The entire range of Microsoft’s best of breed enterprise applications, rolled into one, available at a very affordable monthly fee. Exchange online for email, calendars, address books, task management and access over the web and mobile; Sharepoint Online for collaboration and customized portals for teams and partners; and LiveMeeting to conduct audio and video conferencing with multiple participants no matter where they are. All at the customers disposal, in a single offering, at an imminently reachable $15.

A good opportunity to validate the parts – as in they have the right idea messagin, project collaboration, document management, Outlook sharing, couple with online meetings.

Think Again

Whenever something seems so perfect, it always makes sense to bring ones guard up, and look closer. The first phrase to reconsider is – “rolled into one” or “all in one”. Does it mean that all of Microsoft’s great offerings have been integrated into a single, seamless solution, with all aspects communicating with each other? Or does it mean something else.

Well, it means something else. All in one refers more to “all in one pricing”. The services remain exactly as they were; only they will cost less when purchased jointly. Individually, Microsoft sells hosted Exchange Online for $10; SharePoint Online for $7.25; Office Communications Online for $2.50; and Office Live Meeting Online for $4.50. So a joint pricing of $15 means a saving of $ 9.50 per user per month.

Moreover, even the separate components of Microsoft’s new offerings are bare bones solutions, requiring implementation and configuration, before a workable solution is set up. This is effort most small to mid sized businesses are not equipped to make, nor do they want to make. Although the pricing of Microsoft’s bundles may be very tempting, a major reason companies go to “hosted service” providers in the first place is that in addition to hosting they also offer “managed services”. All aspects of configuration, integration and maintenance are their hassle. If all the components – Exchange, Sharepoint, LiveMeeting and Office Communications; are to be integrated into a single seamless solution, that will require massive implementation.

So, although Microsoft’s offering looks enticing from a distance, it is hardly the end to end, ready to use solution businesses are really looking for. Microsoft offers all pieces of the puzzle, but they remain separate pieces that don’t fit together. Even the measly priced Deskless worker suite has attracted a lot of flak. The verdict is that it caters to an imaginary class of worker who needs only read only access to company information. Although real life workers of this class don’t access the company’s information systems as much, they often interact with the system in critical ways. An example is a nurse who may need to keep the hospital’s drug stock updated.

Hosted Service Provider’s Perspective

With Microsoft jumping into the fray, and at very competitive prices at that, traditional providers (Microsoft Solution Providers) of Exchange and Sharepoint hosting are certainly feeling the heat. Setting up Microsoft infrastructure on their servers, and further selling it as a service offered them a steady and ongoing revenue stream. But Microsoft offering such services directly will certainly cut into their pockets as they can hardly hope to compete with Microsoft’s pricing.

Microsoft was well aware that the latest announcement would pinch hosted service partners bad, and not intending to cut them out of the picture completely, it made another announcement intended to keep them interested. Partners can resell Microsoft’s new hosted service offering and pocket a percentage of the ongoing revenue. Partners will receive 12 percent per user, per month, up front for a first-year contract, and 6 percent per user, per month, of the ongoing subscription fee. So in the first year, resellers of hosted services will receive 18 percent margins on the subscription value, and 6 percent for subsequent years. But in spite of this carrot, partners are still smarting, because reselling Microsoft services won’t be nearly as profitable as letting out on premise implementations. 

Some Microsoft solution providers are worried that this puts them in the feast-or-famine mode of trying to find the next project to generate consulting revenue as opposed to recurring revenue streams associated with keeping Exhange and SharePoint servers running.

There is Hope

Although hosted service providers who provide bare bones hosted Microsoft products will feel the competition from Microsoft’s new offerings, but there barely are any vendors who do just that. A vital part of what these companies do has always been adding value by offering integration, consulting and management services on top of the basic Microsoft products they host for their customers. And this need for integration, management and consulting still remains because Microsoft will merely offer basic hosting of its products, while end customers need ready to use products, without the hassle of implementing and managing the application.

So, these companies can continue to do what they’ve been doing all along and still attract customers – host Exchange and Sharepoint on their servers, and build solutions on top of that and offer them to customers as services. Alternatively they can resell Microsoft’s hosted services by adding value added services on top of that, and attract a premium price. One example could be offering support for email on iPhone and Blackberry that stripped down hosted Exchange does not. Or a company could integrate all the components of Microsoft’s bundle – Sharepoint, Exchange, LiveMeeting and Office Communications, into a single seamless solution with a centralized console.

The Search for Truly “Complete” Solutions

Although with this announcement, Microsoft didn’t quite deliver what it seemed to offer, the need it sought to address is nonetheless very pertinent. The need for a truly end to end, integrated messaging, collaboration and web conferencing solution, with each component fitting seamlessly into the whole and communicating with every other component. Solutions which don’t require any hardware, downloads or maintenance and are ready to use from day one. Solutions which come at an affordable monthly subscription.

So, do end customers have to wait for a couple of years before somebody else takes up this challenge? The answer is a resounding “certainly not!”. Although Microsoft may make it seem like it was the first to serve this compelling need (not that it really did serve the need), it was for the precise reason of pressure from rival products that Microsoft took the “bundled hosting” plunge. Google for one offers many compelling alternatives to Microsoft’s Exchange and Sharepoint with Google Apps, Google Pages, Gmail et all. But even Google’s star products are piece meal, and it hasn’t so far come up with a truly integrated end to end solution. Moreover, it doesn’t have a web conferencing solution at all, which would be vital in a totally complete solution.

But there is a another category of solution providers, who may not be as big as Google and Microsoft, or get that kind of frenzied airtime, but they have for years offered very compelling solutions to small and mid sized businesses. Many of these solutions would put the biggies to shame, and are in intimate touch with the real needs of the small to mid sized business segment. To present my case, I shall discuss the web based application HyperOffice. HyperOffice has been operating in the “Exchange and SharePoint Alternative” domain for years, and they’ve built their solution bottom up, based on experience. It would not be wrong to say, that they’ve been doing for years what Microsoft promised to do just now, and did not do even that.

Now to assess HyperOffice on the basis of the parameters we have defined for a truly end to end solution.

Exchange Features

HyperOffice includes business email, shared contact management, shared calendars and shared task management. It also includes Outlook integration and can be used to power the Outlook accounts of your employees as if Exchange were running in the background, only that its not. Users can access their accounts on their desktops using Outlook or online using any Mac or PC browser and all information is automatically kept in synch. Moreover users can also access and synch their accounts from mobile devices like iPhone, Blackberry etc.

Sharepoint Features

As an alternative to Sharepoint, HyperOffice includes a publisher tool which can be used to set up dedicated intranet and extranet workspaces for employees, departments, partners or clients. The publisher allows for deep customization of the workspaces according to user needs. Users can finely manage the appearance, layout, pages, interlinking of these workspaces. In addition they can choose from a range of collaboration tools to add to each workspace – document management, calendars, address books, to do lists, task management, forums, IM, polls etc.

HyperOffice also includes a rich online document management tool. It allows for easy online storage and organization of all file types and allows people to collaborate on documents using features like versioning, notifications, locking, overwrite protection etc.

Web Conferencing

Keeping with growing travel prices and increasing openness of companies to web conferencing as a mode of communication, HyperOffice has recently introduced HyperMeeting, its web conferencing tool. It is as robust as any web conferencing solution, with the ability to conference with upto 125 participants, file distribution, presentations, application and desktop sharing, whiteboard etc.

Integratedness

The best thing about a solution like HyperOffice is that all parts fit perfectly into the whole. This makes sense, because even in a business, all parts are forever interacting with each other, and so it should be with a collaboration solution. Consider the following scenario – A web conference needs to be set up. Since it is a meeting, invites need to be sent out to all the participants. So an automatic invitation tool will be involved. The invitation tool will need to talk to address books so that the right recipients are selected. Moreover, to ensure that participants don’t have clashing schedules, calendars will need to be compared. Before the meeting is undertaken some documents may need to be distributed to the participants, and collaborated on. So the document management tool would be involved. The conference may relate to an important milestone in a project. So the project management tool would be involved. This is only one situation in which one can envision different parts of the system having to interact with each other; there may be a myriad of other such situations. The synergies that are to be had in such a system are tremendous.

In HyperOffice, different parts of the system come together simply, logically and effectively. It’s no wonder that it’s been nominated for many awards under the “design” category. The solution allows users to set up workspaces for individuals with tools like email, personal document libraries, address books, calendars, to do lists, links, reminders etc. On the second level workspaces can be set up for groups with looks like document management and collaboration, shared calendars, shared address books, group tasks, web conferencing, forums, polls, chat etc. This is a great example of the coming together of messaging, collaboration and web conferencing features.

Moreover, HyperOffice includes a myriad of other features which can only come after years of experience working with clients. These are the ability to integrate the solution with Outlook, mobile access for devices like iPhone and Blackberry, and the ability to manage documents and drag and drop upload documents directly from the desktop.

Another great aspect from an administration point of view is the ability to manage everything from a central console. All aspects of collaboration are contained within HyperOffice and users don’t have to look in different directions and learn a myriad of software for different uses.

Tailored for SMBs

Big names like Microsoft and Google always eye the bigger customers of the range of around 5000 seats because of the juicer profits to be gotten from those clients. So both the products and the services offered around these products take shape with that segment in mind. Smaller companies like HyperOffice, however have been developed specifically for the small to mid sized business segment, and refined through years of experience. The onus is on developing ready to use products with easy “push button” functionality.

HyperOffice just needs a signup and can be set up almost instantly. It is an end-user’s tool, as just about anybody can get on the system and publish information or use the tools. No technical expertise is required to implement or use it. Moreover, they also offer free training and support services to assist companies along the way. If a customer chooses, they can easily scale down the solution, and choose only a subset of the tools offered based on its needs and comfort level, rather than the entire suite.

Conclusion

In conclusion, although Microsoft has opened its hosted solutions to all, they still remain suitable for organizations which are largish if not large. Vendors could also resell Microsoft’s bundles by throwing in integration and management services, but then they will ask for a premium price and the low price tags won’t remain. Frankly, even in their hosted avatar, Microsoft tools are still not suitable for small businesses because they never were developed for this segment, and the effect will always be of trying to squeeze a big foot in a small shoe.

Clearly, the lesson for growing organizations is that although Microsoft and other big names have rather belatedly gotten on the “Small to medium sized business” bandwagon, one has to cut through the hype, and look in all directions for the best solution. And more often than not, the most compelling solutions will come from elsewhere.

 

The author has 5 years experience working with web based technologies. His expertise lies especially in collaboration applications for the SMB segment.

Microsoft Access in Today’s Business

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I have designed databases and custom scripts in Microsoft Access to carry-out a wide-range of different functions to meet business requirements from small mom and pop companies to large international corporations. The applications that I have designed throughout my career involved everything from pulling specific data from world-wide ERP systems to enable users to perform targeted analysis to creating an all-in-one business solution that integrated the entire Microsoft Office Suite and could perform functions that would typically hours to perform in seconds with the simple click of a button.


Microsoft Access is a very cost-effective tool that integrates perfectly with the most popular office software in the world (Microsoft Office). Programs can be integrated effectively and flawlessly with such applications as Excel for charts, pivot tables and graphs, Word for mail merges and labels, Outlook for automated e-mails, PowerPoint for automated presentations etc.


I presently have started my own company (Data Gopher), which can be found at http://www.datagopher.net. My company does provide a number of cost-effective business solutions through the use of Microsoft Access. MS Access is more than just a stand-alone database application, which it is arguably mostly known for, it offers a wealth of data functions. One of the greatest assets that I have utilized it for throughout my career has been extracting data from ERP systems to give users the flexibility to produce their own reports and pinpoint the exact datasets that they need. Operations such as this can save a company 10s of thousands of dollars from eliminating the need of having an upgrade performed on an ERP system and paying the additional support fees.


The thing that I have learned from my experience as a Microsoft Access developer is that when it comes to data related operations, there is very little that Microsoft Access is incapable of doing. Access offers a wealth of power when it comes to a company’s business requirements. The capabilities of Microsoft Access are overlooked many times and more expensive technologies are used instead. These more expensive technologies typically cost a substantial amount of money whenever upgrades and enhancements are needed. The big benefit of having a Microsoft Access application is that enhancements are generally very cost-effective and less time-consuming to perform.


If your company is in the process of looking at different technologies to perform various data functions whether it is data extraction, data marts, custom reports etc. consider Microsoft Access as a realistic solution. It is an application that is self-contained, integrates well with Oracle, SQL. . Net, MS Office and other applications, it also does not require any type of monthly service fees. It additionally integrated flawlessly with the most popular office suite in the world. A complete business solution that entails data analysis, mailing lists, Power Point Presentations, charts and graphs etc. can be developed with Microsoft Access that is not only cost effective but offers powerful customized solutions for today’s business.

Dan H is the owner of Data Gopher Custom Microsoft Access Solutions and is a well respected <A Href=”http://www.datagopher.netAccess Developer. He has designed Access database solutions for many fortune 500 companies and is an active contributor to the Microsoft Access development community.

Microsoft Access in Today’s Business

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I have designed databases and custom scripts in Microsoft Access to carry-out a wide-range of different functions to meet business requirements from small mom and pop companies to large international corporations. The applications that I have designed throughout my career involved everything from pulling specific data from world-wide ERP systems to enable users to perform targeted analysis to creating an all-in-one business solution that integrated the entire Microsoft Office Suite and could perform functions that would typically hours to perform in seconds with the simple click of a button.


Microsoft Access is a very cost-effective tool that integrates perfectly with the most popular office software in the world (Microsoft Office). Programs can be integrated effectively and flawlessly with such applications as Excel for charts, pivot tables and graphs, Word for mail merges and labels, Outlook for automated e-mails, PowerPoint for automated presentations etc.


I presently have started my own company (Data Gopher), which can be found at http://www.datagopher.net. My company does provide a number of cost-effective business solutions through the use of Microsoft Access. MS Access is more than just a stand-alone database application, which it is arguably mostly known for, it offers a wealth of data functions. One of the greatest assets that I have utilized it for throughout my career has been extracting data from ERP systems to give users the flexibility to produce their own reports and pinpoint the exact datasets that they need. Operations such as this can save a company 10s of thousands of dollars from eliminating the need of having an upgrade performed on an ERP system and paying the additional support fees.


The thing that I have learned from my experience as a Microsoft Access developer is that when it comes to data related operations, there is very little that Microsoft Access is incapable of doing. Access offers a wealth of power when it comes to a company’s business requirements. The capabilities of Microsoft Access are overlooked many times and more expensive technologies are used instead. These more expensive technologies typically cost a substantial amount of money whenever upgrades and enhancements are needed. The big benefit of having a Microsoft Access application is that enhancements are generally very cost-effective and less time-consuming to perform.


If your company is in the process of looking at different technologies to perform various data functions whether it is data extraction, data marts, custom reports etc. consider Microsoft Access as a realistic solution. It is an application that is self-contained, integrates well with Oracle, SQL. . Net, MS Office and other applications, it also does not require any type of monthly service fees. It additionally integrated flawlessly with the most popular office suite in the world. A complete business solution that entails data analysis, mailing lists, Power Point Presentations, charts and graphs etc. can be developed with Microsoft Access that is not only cost effective but offers powerful customized solutions for today’s business.

Dan H is the owner of Data Gopher Custom Microsoft Access Solutions and is a well respected <A Href=”http://www.datagopher.netAccess Developer. He has designed Access database solutions for many fortune 500 companies and is an active contributor to the Microsoft Access development community.

Microsoft Zune Vs. Apple Ipod

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When it comes to listening to digital music, there’s two major giants that are on the market today. The first being Apple Ipod, the second Microsoft Zune. Although Microsoft Zune may be a newcomer to this new digital music market, they aren’t in any way lacking when compared to Apple Ipod. When making the choice between the two, you’ll want to compare both side by side. We’ve done that in this article, to help make the decision making process easier for you when you decide on a digital music player.It seems that Microsoft has learned from the Apple Ipod’s mistakes in many ways, and have thus benefited from these observations. For example, one of the advantages the Zune capitalized on is in the area of video. Apple’s video screen was noted for being small in size and somewhat hard to view clips on it. The people at Microsoft recognized these weaknesses and designed a screen which is about .5″+ bigger than the Ipod’s.Zune is also looking to the future as it boasts WiFi abilities. With a feature like this, Zune users will be able to send songs to their friends closeby. Your friend can listen to the song you’ve sent him or her for up to three days, but then they have to purchase it to continue listening to the song for after the 3 day limit. This is definitely an interesting addition that adds a community sharing-type element to digial music.Price isn’t a deciding factor here. Both Ipod and Zune offer a 30GB player at $249. It’s important to look at the features of each music player so you can decide what is right for you. The Microsoft Zune music selection may not be as large as iTunes, but with backing from Microsoft it grows larger and larger everyday.Personally, I tend to like Microsoft Zune better. Not only is the device easier to use, the screen is bigger and more attractive. I also see a bright future for this device under the leadership of Microsoft, it will be tough on Ipod to see this kind of competitor enter the ring.

Written by Andrew Scherer. Find more information on Microsoft Zune at the best Zune community: ZuneUser.

Microsoft to Buy Yahoo!? What Does it Mean for the Search Industry?

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Nothing ever remains staid for long in the realm of internet search. Only this afternoon, a little-known firm called Microsoft, is interested in building its online advertising empire with the acquisition / merger (depending on what report you read) of another little company you may have heard of, called Yahoo!

This is indeed, big news! Its, what is known in the finance market, a “Whopper!” of a news story! But what does it all mean and who benefits?

The benefits from this news are apparent from today’s NASDAQ figures. The market was so buoyed by the rumour, that the Yahoo! share price jumped a massive 19% from $5.19 at opening to $33.37 within minutes of the news being released. A quick glance at Bloomberg also shows that this is the greatest jump Yahoo! has seen in 4 1/2 years! If I were a Yahoo! shareholder I’d be dancing in the streets just now!

Interestingly, the news didn’t do much for Microsoft’s share price which were down slightly by 1.7% to $30.47 (at time of writing). Doesn’t this seems strange? Well it is on the face of it.

However, despite recent efforts to break into online advertising, Microsoft have struggled to make headway against the current search engine of choice: Google. This means that software remains Microsoft’s biggest profit driver, and spending the whopping amount of $50billion to acquire a company in the area you’re least experienced – not to mention least profitable – makes people nervous.

Especially city people!

Chris Cathcart, finance vertical strategist for bigmouthmedia said of the proposed deal:

“Recent years have not been kind to Yahoo!, and their growth has been slowing down. Last quarter, their revenue growth was 7% – the first time its been below 10% in five years. This deal will be good for both them and Microsoft as the deal will take Microsoft’s online market share (in the US) from 12% to 38.5% in comparison to rival Google’s’ 48% market share.”

However, it’s all yet to be seen if any deal is actually going to transpire as both Yahoo! and Microsoft are giving the media the traditional “No Comment” response. On a personal level, I hope it does go through: its been a while that anything this exciting happened in the markets – let alone the search engine industry.

And its good to see Microsoft getting back into the things they’ve been renowned for in the past, with the return of their in-famous “Can’t beat ‘em, Buy ‘em!” attitude. The difference is this time they are taking on a big dog! And big dogs often bite!

Bigmouthmedia, part of the GlobalMedia Group is a leading digital marketing agency based in the UK, Mainland Europe, Asia and the USA. With over 300 clients across all sectors, ranging from SME’s to major global brands, bigmouthmedia offers a range of search marketing services leveraged to offer its clients maximum return for their online investment.

Microsoft to Pay a £345 Million Fine

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Software giant Microsoft has lost its appeal against the European Commission at the Court of first instance and due to its anti-competitive actions it has been ordered to pay a £345 million fine.

“The court of first instance essentially upholds the commission’s decision finding that Microsoft abused its dominant position”- Court’s statement.

Over the past 9 years the European Commission has battled against Microsoft to make the software market a more competitive one. More recently in 2004, Microsoft was ordered to share information with its software rivals, so that their products could operate with other computer systems. As well as making their Windows operation software available without Windows Media Player, which was seen as being anti-competitive since the user would not have a direct option as to what entertainment software to use.

On Monday the court has ruled that Microsoft’s behaviour has been anti-competitive, and that their software should not be sold as part of a package and that they should share information with rivals. Microsoft is now unlikely to appeal again, and will comply with the demands. However they feel that handing information over to rivals would only affect theirs and competitors creativity.

Neelie Koroes, the competition commissioner has stated that “Microsoft cannot abuse its windows monopoly to exclude competitors in other markets”. She has also predicted Microsoft’s 95% market share to decrease.

Anja Glauch is the co-founder and managing director of Tetridia Ltd. She began her career in Information Technology more than 11 years ago. She is leading the companies Online Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation activities.

Great Plains Integration Tools: Microsoft Dynamics Gp Integration Manager

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Microsoft Dynamics GP, current version is 10.0, as of October 2007 – is successor of former Great Plains Software Dynamics/eEnterprise. Great Plains Software specially created GPS Dexterity technology and programming language to be used as the shell to abstract Dynamics business logic from computer operating system, database and graphical platform (such as MS Windows and MAC OS) in earlier 1990th. IM was initially and still is to the certain extent Microsoft Dexterity application, which uses Microsoft Dynamics GP workstation as OLE server to validate integration business logic behind the scenes. This is the reason, why performance might be a bit disappointing for large scale integration. However IM is powerful user friendly and “developer-friendly” tool, if you are comfortable with VBA scripting and ODBC SQL queries (including SQL data aggregation), you should be able to program advanced integrations

1. IM Queries. You can have tab or comma delimited text files as the sources (these are the most popular, especially tab delimited, as you can expect commas in customer or vendor names). The second option is ODBC queries, where you can have simple and advanced. Advanced will allow you to group records into one, good example is GL transaction import from one file, where you create GL transaction header by grouping records in the source by date. Advanced ODBC queries also allow you to script sophisticated SQL select statements (however you should be aware that ODBC standard does not support all SQL expressions and functions)

2. VBA Scripting. VBA scripting was very popular prior to the time when Microsoft introduced new software development and customization conception – Microsoft.Net. VBA scripting allows you to extend and customize Microsoft Office applications: Excel, Word, MS Access and as you could expect Microsoft Dynamics GP Integration Manager. As VBA was designed and it is applicable to GP IM – certain events are exposed to VBA developer: before document, before records, after document, after records – where you can intercept and replace or modify original IM logic. The example of interception would be changing document date to the end of the week

3. eConnect performance improvement project. IM is in the process of being rewritten in eConnect. eConnect has SQL stored procedures in its core and these are definitely or supposedly faster than Microsoft Dexterity cursors and OLE GP server

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group: http://www.albaspectrum.com help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving Microsoft Dynamics GP Great Plains customers in USA/Canada nationwide. Local service is available in Houston, TX: Richmond, Sugar Land, Katy, Rosenberg, Missouri City, Pearland, Friendswood, Meadows, Mission Bend, Jersey Village; Chicago, IL: Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook, Romeoville, Joliet, Wheaton, Lisle, Downers Grove, Schaumburg, Elk Grove, Lombard, Woodridge, Darien, Westmont, Batavia, St. Charles, Elgin, Crystal Lake. Service is also available in Houston and Dallas metros, plus internationally in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Oceania and UK

Microsoft Great Plains Modifications – Overview Plus Implementation and Integration Options

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Each ERP system should be considered as the platform, which could be tuned to fit your company business processes through custom programming, integration, reporting and existing logic modification. Microsoft Dynamics GP isn’t exception and in this small article we would like to come through typical GP alterations scenarios

1. Great Plains Dexterity. This is Integrated Development Environment or IDE with its own programming language sanscript. Dexterity was designed specially for Great Plains Dynamics in earlier 1990th and this is one of the reasons why Dex is a bit “old-fashioned” and if you are software programmer, you should not expect to begin programming in Dexterity over night. If you are thinking about creation GP extension for the open market, then you should know that most of the extensions are written in Microsoft Dexterity. In order to understand the internal side of Dex, please take a look at Dynamics.set file, where all the products are listed. You begin Dex project by opening Dynamics.dic dictionary and adding or modifying resources in it: forms, reports, windows, fields, scripts, etc. Some Dex hints – copy Dex.ini from your GP workstation folder to your Dexterity application directory – this will allow you to launch Dex in debugging mode. Since version 7.0 Dex can call Microsoft COM objects.

2. eConnect. This tool opens you the access GP work transactions (SOP Invoice, POP Purchase Order, GL record, FA depreciation to name few examples) and master records (customer, vendor, employee, Fixed Asset, General Ledger account). Initially eConnect was designated to eCommerce developers by opening Sales Order Processing, Inventory and Receivables Management modules, but later on it was extended to cover most of the GP objects. You can call eConnect from your Microsoft Visual Studio C# or VB.Net projects, as internal logic of eConnect (business objects) is written in MS SQL Server encrypted stored procedures

3. VBA/Modifier. If you are comfortable with VBA scripting (remember MS Excel modifications?), you can add some logic to existing GP windows, such as SOP Entry screen, where you can put new button with Modifier and then attach VBA script to this field. If you plan to hit GP database from Modifier-added buttons and field, you should deploy ADO technology, where more likely you will have to hardcode user ID and password. Modifier allows you to include GP Dexterity sanscript scriplets into the VBA code – this allows you to use Continuum for VBA technology to switch GP modules and manipulate Dexterity objects across your multi-module GP workstation, however this technique is very complex and typically causes expensive version upgrade work

4. SQL Scripting. One of the most popular routines, where you deploy SQL stored procedures is Electronic Document Interchange or EDI. EDI has header, body and trailer and you deploy such SQL constructions as CAST, CONVERT to address fixed length fields EDI formatting

5. GP Integration. Microsoft Dynamics GP Integration Manager should be considered first – it is possible to extend IM with VBA scripting and fields translation table (you can create translation table in Excel and then import it to Integration Manager). If IM doesn’t do the job, consider eConnect, SQL scripts and Dexterity. Please, be aware – IM validates GP business logic and this prevents you from all the possible errors in integration. SQL scripting, in opposite doesn’t validate GP logic and by not doing so – it may compromise your data integrity

6. Modification Upgrade. Obviously you should expect some complication in GP version update if you deploy custom GP development technologies. In the case of Great Plains Software Dexterity alternative logic, you should keep Dynamics.dic or Extract.dic with modification scripts in them – Dex developer should be able to upgrade your custom logic. Talking about Modifier with VBA – if you do not deploy Continuum modules switch tricks, upgrade should be straightforward. IM typically is GP version proof. To give you additional version update considerations – Great Plains versions 7.5 and earlier: 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0 and 3.2 were available on alternative DB platforms: Btrieve (later on this DB was renamed into Pervasive SQL Server), Ctree/Faircom, and respectively, if you are on these legacy platforms, your modified logic might deploy programming constructions, specific to these DB platforms only – if you are thinking to upgrade to recent GP version (10.0 or 9.0) – you should come through custom logic porting to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2000

7. GP Reporting tools. ReportWriter is Dexterity module and it is seamlessly integrated in GP workstation interface and GP security model. Report Writer reports are stored in Reports.dic. RW is typically used when you need to modify GP existing reports: SOP Invoice Long Form (place your company Logo is classical example). Crystal Reports – you should consider good report design practice to offload report record set creation to MS SQL Server stored procedure or SQL view. SRS or Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services – in our opinion this tool is competitor to CR and you should be aware to use similar strategy – placing record set selection logic to SQL stored procs. You can also deploy MS Excel and MS Access to do reporting for GP – please research ODBC connection options for these tools

8. GP modules licensing consideration. Depending on your GP version – GP professional, standard or business ready, you should be aware that custom modules might require additional purchases, please contact you Microsoft Business Solution partner or MBS ISV

9. Data conversion consideration. If you are switching from legacy MRP, such as Accpac, MYOB, PeopleSoft, Oracle EBusiness Suite/Financials/Applications, JD Edwards, QuickBooks, PeachTree, MAS 90/2000 to GP, data migration and massage might be required. We recommend you to keep legacy accounting system for data inquiry and lookup and do not do historical ERP data conversion to Great Plains. However if historical transactions migration is required, please contact us for the data cleansing quote

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group, http://www.albaspectrum.com help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving customers USA/Canada nationwide: Illinois, California, New York, Quebec, Ontario, Colorado, Utah, Wisconsin, Florida, Texas. Local service is available in Houston & Dallas: Richmond, Sugar Land, Katy, Rosenberg, Missouri City, Pearland, Friendswood, Meadows, Mission Bend, Jersey Village, Fort Worth; serving GP customers in Chicago, IL: Naperville, Aurora, Joliet, Wheaton, Bolingbrook, Romeoville, Lyons, Niles, Downers Grove, Lisle, West Chicago, Barrington, Schaumburg, Elk Grove Village, Lombard, Morris, Ottawa, Marseilles, Seneca, Oswego, Plainfield, Darien, Winchester, Hinsdale

Microsoft Great Plains – Implementing ERP System for Mid-size Business

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Microsoft Dynamics GP MRP product family has various options for small, midsize and large businesses. Microsoft Great Plains Dynamics GP package fits to midsize businesses in various industries: discrete manufacturing, services, staffing, project organization and constructions, wholesale, warehouse management, distribution and logistics. In this small article we would like to concentrate on GP software implementation scenarios, including installation, customization, data conversion, user training, custom reporting, integration with legacy system and EDI:

1. Installation – technical overview. GP installation creates DYNAMICS and company databases on MS SQL Server 2005 or 2000. Client workstation side is Microsoft Dexterity application with Dynamics.dic, where application business logic is stored. We are not talking here about integration tom Microsoft Office stack of products, especially MS Outlook

2. Integration Manager and eConnect.. eConnect should be considered as background technology to enable integration, especially new type of integration scenarios. IM helps you in initial data conversion, where you need to transfer open AR and AP to your newly implemented ERP system – Microsoft Dynamics GP. Regarding

3. eCommerce and batches Autoposting. eConnect, being set of encrypted stored procedures, does wonderful job in bringing work transactions in Sales Order Processing module, which is typical target for eCommerce websites, however automatic batch posting is outside of eConnect scope – you will need Albaspectrum Dexterity posting server to do automatic posting for your e-commerce application

4. Dexterity Software Development. If you need GP business processes advancing, modification and tuning, you should review GP customization tools. Great Plains Dexterity is GP Integrated Development Environment with Sanscript programming language. Dexterity programmers are typically rare resources on the job market, and it is recommended to appeal to Microsoft Business Solutions ERP development partners to do Dex customization job

5. GP Reporting. In our opinion, you can deploy various tools for GP, especially if you will follow the rules of separating report result set generation in MS SQL Server stored procedures – if you do so, Crystal Reports, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, and even Microsoft Excel will do wonderful report design job

6. Initial Data Conversion. As our experience indicates, the best approach is to enter GL beginning balances and avoid historical RM, PM, SOP, and POP data conversion, please consider the scenario, when you have old ERP system for data inquiry and lookup

7. GP remote vs. local support. If you work for nationwide public corporation, then you should seek local support for your headquarters or the most important branch. If your ERP system is already implemented, then remote support might be budget saving option

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group, http://www.albaspectrum.com – help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving customers USA/Canada nationwide: Illinois, California, New York, Quebec, Ontario, Colorado, Utah, Wisconsin, Florida, Texas. Local service is available in Houston & Dallas: Richmond, Sugar Land, Katy, Rosenberg, Missouri City, Pearland, Friendswood, Meadows, Mission Bend, Jersey Village, Fort Worth; serving GP customers in Chicago, IL: Naperville, Aurora, Joliet, Wheaton, Bolingbrook, Romeoville, Lyons, Niles, Downers Grove, Lisle, West Chicago, Barrington, Schaumburg, Elk Grove Village, Lombard, Morris, Ottawa, Marseilles, Seneca, Oswego, Plainfield, Darien, Winchester, Hinsdale.

Recover Damaged Mail and Data in Microsoft Outlook

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Microsoft Outlook is the de-facto standard for office communication. A typical office employee’s entire workflow consists of tasks, contacts, and email exchange in Microsoft Outlook. But what happens if one day a system crash happens, or a hard drive fails, or some malware targets and corrupts your Outlook data? Does this mean the end of the day for your entire office?

Are you betting on the chance that corruption is unlikely to happen? Consider the following. In a typical office environment, Outlook PST and OST files that contain all email, tasks, appointments and contacts are the files accessed most frequently. Computers read and write to these files all the time during the working day, except for the lunch break. If there is one file that is likely to be damaged or corrupted during a power outage, that would be an Outlook storage container. If Windows crashes at the moment Outlook was accessing a PST or OST file, the corruption will occur almost inevitably. If that happens, Microsoft Outlook will not be able to access that data, and it will report a corrupt database.

Modern hard drives are made to barely survive through the warranty period. Chances of hard drive failure increase exponentially after about 3 years of use. Don’t let a hard drive failure to get you unprepared!

Power outages, black-outs and brown-outs are becoming all too common. A UPS can save you from power outages, firewalls can protect against viruses and malware, and regular backups will get you back on track if the unpredictable happens. But what if the backup is a few days old, and you’re in the middle of something important? What if you cannot afford to lose several days of work? Consider repairing the corrupt Outlook database to save you days of work!

Outlook has a built-in recovery mechanism. If Outlook detects corruption in a PST or OST file, it rejects the file automatically, not allowing you to continue your work.

Microsoft provides another level of recovery in the form of a special Inbox Repair Tool to recover corrupt databases called ScanPST.exe. It claims to recover corrupt Offline Folders (*.ost) and Personal Folders (*.pst). Unfortunately, this level of data recovery can only cope with small problems, and frequently fails if more serious damage is done to the database. Even worse, sometimes its recovery attempt produces files even more damaged than the originals. Microsoft warns that using that tool can result in data loss.

If everything else fails, refer to a third-party solution such as Recovery ToolBox for Outlook (download) http://www.recoverytoolbox.com/outlook.html. The product maximizes your chances of successful data recovery of your mailbox files with all email folders, tasks, appointments, contacts and any other data stored in the PST and OST files. Unlike many similar tools, Recovery ToolBox for Outlook can repair PST and OST files that are seriously damaged, and can even deal with the harsh consequences of running Microsoft ScanPST.

Recovery ToolBox for Outlook allows you to access PST and OST files directly, bypassing Microsoft Outlook completely. It implements its own algorithm of accessing Microsoft proprietary formats and optionally converting data into a set of regular .eml files. The toolbox is not limited to just data recovery, allowing you to convert your *.pst and *.ost files into a set of *.eml and *.vcf files, or convert *.ost files into *.pst format.

Download your copy from http://www.recoverytoolbox.com/outlook.html and keep it installed on all PCs in your office and at home to be able to get back to work instantly in case of an unpredictable event!

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