Updates

Cost effective technology for your organization - Part 1

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:28:00 GMT

Microsoft Office Communications Online delivers robust instant messaging (IM) and presence functionality that enables real-time person-to-person communication via text, voice and video, across an organization. Through presence awareness, staff can quickly detect a colleague's availability for a time-sensitive consult or business-critical decision—and then connect rapidly using a reliable, security-enhanced IM solution.

The purpose of this article to highlight some of these features, in order to increase the adoption rate of this cost efficient alternative to long distance calling, quick-click video conferencing, and article threads that can be cut down to quick IM conversations.

OCS can be used as a standalone application, on your mobile device or on the web. It provides real-time collaboration capabilities within Microsoft Office programs.

All these applications are part of the technology suite available to your entire staff with Managed Company Business Suite

OCS Features

Click-to-call (voice) feature prerequisites:

A PC or Mac with latest updates
Headset (w/mic)
Webcam (optional for video)
OCS Application - Windows
OCS Application - Mac (setup)
OCS Configuration - Windows (Setup the client by downloading and running the .reg file (unzip the .zip file))
OCS Web Access - Mac, Windows
OCS Mobile - Blackberry
OCS Mobile - Windows Mobile
OCS Mobile - iPhone (coming soon)

OCS Voice How-to
This is a quick video on how to utilize the talk/video functions of OCS http://screencast.com/t/ZZBLXBY3W

Resources

Access OCS on your browser (recommended for Mac users):

In addition to MS Office Communicator client installed locally on your machine, you can access OCS using Communicator Web Access specifying your email address and password to login.

Download Office Communicator on your Blackberry Device: http://www.managedcompany.com/products/ocs-mobile

FAQ's

Manual configuration of OCS: http://exchange.managedcompany.com/support/kb/default.asp?id=1375
How do I store my Office Communicator (OCS) chat history? http://exchange.managedcompany.com/support/kb/default.asp?id=1406
Mac Office Communicator (OCS) install http://exchange.managedcompany.com/support/kb/viewKBArticle.asp?id=1458
How can I use OCS on my windows mobile device? http://exchange.managedcompany.com/support/kb/viewKBArticle.asp?id=1413
What is my User Name and Primary Email Address for my Exchange 2007 mailbox? http://exchange.managedcompany.com/support/kb/viewKBArticle.asp?id=1637

For more videos, tips and updates follow us via twitter @managed @emailhost

Security Alert: Microsoft Internet Explorer Vulnerability

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:24:00 GMT

As you may have heard via news reports, there is a new Internet Explorer exploit that has been reported. This exploit downloads malware via the video ‘Active X’ control in Internet Explorer. Microsoft does not have a patch for this exploit at this time, but has a temporary workaround that we recommend you download immediately.

Please note that this is a proactive security tip for the Managed Company Hosted Solutions Community. Non-MC clients, should your company or organization need outsourced email servers or hosted online business solutions please contact us today - I'm sure we can be of assistance.

Vulnerability in Microsoft Video ActiveX Control

Earlier today, Trend Micro also informed us that about 967 Chinese websites are reported to be infected by a malicious script that leads users to successive redirections and lands them to download a JPG file containing the exploit. Trend Micro detects it as JS_DLOADER.BD. Upon successful exploitation, the script downloads another malware detected as WORM_KILLAV.AI. This malware disables and terminates AV processes, and drops other malware on the affected system. Unfortunately, the Microsoft workaround will likely disable your ability to view video via Internet Explorer.

To download the workaround, please click on the following link, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972890, and follow the steps after ‘enable workaround’ that Microsoft recommends:

For more information on this vulnerability, the Microsoft Knowledge base article can be found at, http://bit.ly/mc-microsoft-ie.

Monthly retained customers will be kept you updated on this vulnerability stand by and be prepared to take action as soon as a patch has been released by Microsoft.

Resources

Microsoft's free online saftey scan http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm
Microsoft “Critical” security advisory http://bit.ly/mc-microsoft-ie
Workaround http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972890
Trend Micro: http://bit.ly/mc-trendmicro-ie
Managed Company Support Portal http://www.managedcompany.com/support/kb

Kind regards,
Managed Company at Anobleworld

.yu domains will stop working after Sept. 30

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:05:00 GMT

Source: Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
Are you the owner of a .yu domain? Then you might have heard the news: as of September 30, all .yu domains will stop working, regardless of their renewal date. This means that any content you're hosting on a .yu domain will no longer be online. For those of you who would still like to have your site online, we've prepared some recommendations to make sure that Google keeps crawling, indexing, and serving your content appropriately.

Check your backlinks. Since it won't be possible to set up a redirection from the old .yu domain to your new one, all links pointing to .yu domains will lead to dead ends. This means that it will be increasingly difficult for search engines to retrieve your new content. To find out who is linking to you, sign up with Google Webmaster Tools and check the links to your site (you can also download this list as a "comma separated value" -- .csv -- file for ease of use). Then read through the list for sites that you recognize as important and contact their webmasters to make sure that they update their links to your new website.
Check your internal links. If you are planning to simply move your content in bulk from the old to the new site, make sure that the new internal navigation is up to date. For example, if you are renaming pages on your site from "www.example.yu/home.htm" to "www.example.com/home.htm" make sure that your internal navigation reflects such changes to prevent broken links.
Start moving the site to your new domain. It's a good idea to start moving while you can still maintain control of your old domain, so don't wait! As mentioned in our best practices when moving your site, we recommend starting by moving a single directory or subdomain, and testing the results before completing the move. Remember that you will not be able to keep a 301 redirection on your old domain after September 30, so start your test early.

While you're moving your site, you can test how Google crawls and indexes your new site at its new location by submitting a Sitemap via Google Webmaster Tools. Although we may not crawl or index all the pages listed in each Sitemap, we recommend that you submit one because doing so helps Google understand your site better. You can read more on this topic in our answers to the most frequently asked questions on Sitemaps. And remember that for any question or concerns we're waiting for you in the Google Webmaster Help Forum!

Written by Luisella Mazza, Search Quality Senior Analyst

The Seven Pillars of Email Security

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:45:00 GMT

SaaS and the importance of email security

Software as a Service (SaaS) has quickly become the standard delivery model for critical business IT software and services. Business customers realize many benefits by leveraging SaaS services. The On-Demand model ofSaaS infrastructure provides benefits to the customer by lowering their overall costs, while increasing flexibility, reliability, and overall solution security. However, as new businesses begin to evaluate SaaS software and services, many still have concerns about security, fearing that hosting their critical business applications and data with a SaaS provider will expose them to greater risk and loss of control. This concern is particularly acute for businesses’ messaging and collaboration needs around email and instant messaging. As business email is now a primary method of inter- and intra-corporate communications, including the exchange of sensitive financial data and intellectual property, businesses are growing increasingly concerned about the need for secured email and messaging services.

Microsoft Exchange is the leading business email and collaboration solution for the small, up to the large, business markets, and this post provides you with the seven pillars of email security. By choosing Managed Company as their Hosted Exchange SaaS Solution Provider, businesses can achieve email and total messaging security, as well as a piece of mind, by leveraging Managed Company’s infrastructure and experience with running a secured messaging platform.

The Seven Pillars of Email Security

The properties that make Microsoft Exchange a powerful communications and collaboration tool also make it vulnerable to different types of threats. A comprehensive security strategy protects against these important threats:

Viruses and malware – Attackers who use email as a conduit toinvade corporate networks for the purposes of either stealing information, or taking control of computers for other illegal activities.
Phishing – Attackers who lure users into submitting personal or business information by convincing them they are interacting with a legitimate vendor or business partner, when they are in fact communicating with the attackers.
Malicious employees & employee negligence – Employees or ex-employees who inadvertently compromise sensitive business information, or worse, purposely try to access and/or steal privileged information.
Corporate Espionage – Attempts by competitors to gain an unfair advantage by accessing internal company information including product designs, launch plans or financial data.
Hackers – Internet pirates looking for valuable information that they can either use to illegally profit or sell on the “black” market.

To properly secure email against these threats, business must employ a multi-tiered security infrastructure across seven pillars:

Physical Security
Logical Server Security
Network Security
Client Security
Antivirus and Antispam
Administration and Policy Security
Backup and Recovery

In-House vs. Manage Company's Hosted Email Services are you covered

Email is a powerful platform for communication and collaboration, especially in distributed environments. But with these benefits come serious inherit security risks that require ongoing attention. A comprehensive security strategy employs multiple layers of defense from the physical to the digital, and up to the process and policy layers of an email solution. Employing this comprehensive strategy is costly and time-consuming as both an initial investment and on an ongoing basis. Managed Company is a thought leader on email security and offers one of the most comprehensive and effective security programs for hosted business email, all included in the low monthly cost of its hosted Exchange offerings.

Learn More at Exchangeasaservice.com

Managed Company Adds Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to our suite of services

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:33:00 GMT

Fully customizable CRM solution extends company's collaboration portfolio

Alexandria, VA (January 20, 2009) - Managed Company, an emerging software as a service (SaaS) provider specializing in messaging, eBusiness and collaboration solutions, has announced that it is now offering Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 as a hosted service. This offering extends Managed Company's reach within the productivity and collaboration space, offering an easily deployable and customizable customer relationship management (CRM) solution to its existing hosted Exchange email and collaboration, SharePoint collaboration platform and Office Communications Server instant messaging and presence services.

Unlike other one-size-fits-all hosted CRM offerings, Managed Company's hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 integrates with our Online Business Platform, an integrated system that runs your website, email marketing and online shop. Customized with Dynamics CRM now you can grow your customer database linking your online business with your in-house operations. This level of customization is possible because each CRM customer is guaranteed its own virtual dedicated server. Other vendors rely on shared server infrastructure and a basic control panel which limit their ability to meet every customer's specific needs. With Managed Company's new offering, customers gain a clear competitive edge because they are able to narrow sales leads, tactics, and sales and marketing campaigns to their unique core competencies and market demands. Managed Company's channel partners gain an enhanced revenue stream from the opportunity to fine-tune and tailor the CRM solution to the needs of each customer.

"Managed Company's hosted Dynamics CRM 4.0 enables us to add a high-margin recurring revenue stream offering into our product mix that tightly integrates into our existing hosted Exchange offerings," said Joseph Kowalenko, President of a mid-sized Chicago-based managed services provider, and a Managed Company channel partner. "The flexibility of their service enables us to customize solutions for our customers, making us much more relevant to them than standard off-the-shelf software."

"CRM has become a business critical application because optimizing and tracking the sales process has become more and more important to increasing sales and growing customer relationships," said Noble Ackerson Managed Company's CEO. "I am passionate about changing the way businesses think about technology. Smaller to mid sized companies should not have to sacrifice productivity because of the cost of hosting and maintaining their own hardware and software. That is why we provide a solution that will help our customers meet their online business and on in house business needs."

In addition to customization benefits, Managed Company's Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is tightly integrated with our eBusiness Management software and our hosted Microsoft Exchange and Outlook, allowing a minimal learning curve and quick return on investment. It can be fully synchronized with email, tasks, contacts and calendars. Users can also seamlessly export data into Excel for fast analysis and reporting.

Businesses around the globe looking for a trusted provider of SaaS, including Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, Microsoft Exchange 2007, SharePoint, Office Communications Server 2007 and Online Business Management tools, visit Managed Company's Exchange Hosting Web site at www.exchangeasaservice.com

Email Marketing with MC eBiz

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:53:00 GMT

Working through the holidays is hard work. Today we put the final touches on our new revamped email marketing reporting framework which we will be adding to our eBiz platform. To give some background, email marketing has been a part of our plaform for a few months now and the reporting is definitely due for a face lift. But in that time we've launched our Goals Framework which acts like a brain for all eBiz customers. The new reporting framework will provide customers with information previously near impossible or too time consuming to collect.

Email marketing is a commodity and you can expect reports such as: open rates, bounces, popular links, subscriptions and unsubscriptions from almost any provider. Now imagine without having to add a single line of code to your eBiz website, you get stats like:

Of those who opened the email:

10% bought product x, 22% bought product y
23% filled in your "December Sales Enquiry Form"
5% subscribed to your other monthly newsletter
22% made a comment on your blog
Average sale price via the online shop was $344
and the list goes on..

I'm pretty excited about this improvement and what it'll mean for our customers and partners. I know it'll turn the email marketing game upside down!

5 Tough Questions for Tough Economic Times.

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:29:00 GMT

You don't need another reminder that we're working through a period of slow economic growth and a jittery business climate. But amongst all the doom and gloom, this stormy cloud comes with a silver lining for people working in Online Marketing and Web Design which are traditionally B2B consulting services.

Your prospects and clients probably realise that when times get tough they need to get creative and innovative with their products, their services and, most importantly, their marketing. It's a time to invest in the future and look inwardly at how you can improve, all so you can prepare for the next boom.

Despite this fact, it's no secret that you're finding it harder to close deals. But lets go back to basics: your pitching needs to begin with education, and education begins with asking the right questions. Here's some questions you should be asking your prospects to clinch your deals:

1. What's In Your Marketing Inventory - Is it working for you?

One simple activity I like to do is pull out a spreadsheet and line up all my advertising spending and how many leads each one is generating for me. 'Leads' can range from anything to phone calls, inquiry forms, direct emails, site registration for forum participation, leaving comments - whoops, there's one problem - I don't actually know how many customers I'm getting from all my offline advertising...

The point is that print ads like classified ads in the local paper and yellow pages ads are expensive and have declining reach and readership.

Most importantly, it's hard to measure how much business they generate for you. This is not to say they're valueless - but contrast this with an fully fledged online business. With concrete and clear metrics, you know the exact ROI of your online marketing campaigns. Best of all, you can optimize and redeploy online campaigns in a few hours - dollar for dollar, online is where the smart money is.

2. People are staying home, and staying online more - what are you doing about it?

Tight belts and high gas prices mean people are spending a lot more time at home in front of the TV and the computer. Where are they hanging out online? Have a think about this - you need to be advertising in their space, participating in their blogs and becoming an authority in their forums.

For example, let's imagine you sell model train kits. You could be sponsoring some train modelling blogs and forums in return for some inexpensive and targeted advertising. These banners can link back to pages on your website which could be designed to educate, sell and encourage online community participation. All of which is 100% measurable, so if it's not effective - just cut the spending.

3. What's your Freemium Strategy?

People love free stuff and they love it even more when they haven't got much to spend. I'm not asking you to give away your products for free but what about online 'cash' coupons or discounts that they have to register on your website to receive? And once they've registered you'll be able to market to these customers in a monthly e-newsletter. We all have to move stock and attract new customers - so think about some clever online marketing strategies to do it...

4. Have you Cleaned your House yet?

Back to basics once more - now's the time to be pushing business branding and website makeovers. Is the website from 2003 looking a bit tired? Does it match up with your bricks and mortar branding? Does your customer service live up to your promises? Is your content up to date? Are your landing pages and catalogs well laid out and easy to use? Lets spring clean your whole online business 'house' and entice those customers back.

5. You are the Online Business Hero.

Working in a B2B industry, you're going to get worried business owners looking for advice and solutions to their problems. You can gain their trust by giving your expert advice for free. And to your clients?

Well you can tell them that anybody can make a dime when times are good. But true to the old saying, when times get tough...the tough get going.

So ask them: What are you doing to toughen up your (online) business?

New Web Form Credit Card options streamline and automate your business!

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:42:00 GMT

We've added 2 new credit card options to our web forms feature that'll help you streamline and automate your online business. Currently we have one credit card option that simply allows you to collect and process payments in real-time, e.g. collect donations. The 2 new options allow you to:

Process existing invoices - If you are using the Order/Invoicing framework in this system, then you can manually or automatically send invoices to your customers and have them visit a specific page on your website, enter the relevant invoice number and pay for it in real-time using their credit card.
Update credit card details - This feature is particularly useful if you are using our recurring billing engine. You can now put the 'Update Credit Card Details' form on any web page and have your customers visit this web page as and when they need to update their credit card details.

To learn more please go to: Modules->Web Forms.

Marketing vs. Money & The Brain vs. The Brawn

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:45:00 GMT

I was thinking today about the uphill battle that many small business owners face. They're fighting for business against larger, better funded competitors. How can you win?

In war, you can amass the biggest army and throw your soldiers at the enemy. The bigger the enemy is, the more soldiers you'll need - but hey, it works. Mostly.

In business, if you want to solve a problem, you can throw money at it. The bigger the problem, the more money you'll need to throw - but hey, it works. Mostly.

Big companies tend to throw money at problems, just like big guys are more likely to muscle their way through conflict. Little guys prefer to talk their way out of conflicts, like little companies attack their competitors with smart and efficient marketing.

When I say "marketing" I'm not talking about advertising and spending money on billboards. I'm talking about having a conversation with your customers; about making deals with like minded companies; about letting your customers spread the word for you; about making your product that much better than anyone elses; about making your service shine and delight.

History shows us that the biggest armies can fall to superior strategy and tactics; think Henry V and the battle of Agincourt. History also shows us that diplomacy and negotiation can achieve better outcomes than any war, and hence the saying that "the pen is mightier than the sword."

Well, I say Marketing is mightier than Money.

Right now, times are tough. And I've heard many business owners wish that they had more funding, or the resources of their larger competitors, so that they could weather the storm more comfortably.

That's fair. But the true winners out of this are going to be the smart, little companies who figure out that this a storm that they can talk themselves out of.

In this climate, smart marketing is a thousand times better than deep pockets.

QuickBooks Integration is Live

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:39:00 GMT

It's been in the works for some time but our first release of QuickBooks integration is now live and running. This new feature allows you to push all your online sales and related customer information directly into QuickBooks as required. To learn more please refer to the QuickBooks article in the Wiki.

To get started go to: eCommerce->QuickBooks.

Duplicate Workflow Emails Issue

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:40:00 GMT

Some customers may have experienced receiving a handful of workflow notifications emails which may have seemed out of place. This was due to a small error in an upgrade we made earlier and for a period of around 5 minutes workflow emails were duplicated to a handful of users, possibly including you.

Please accept our apology. And rest assured that we are already improving our processes so that such a mishap won't take place again!

You can safely delete these emails.

Want to sell recurring products in your online shop?

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:42:00 GMT

Ever wanted to sell recurring products in your online shop? Now you can. For any given product you can choose its recurring cycle and have the system automatically create orders that recur when a customer purchases such products.

To take advantage of this new and exciting feature:

Go to eCommerce->Products and choose a product
Click on "Show More Options" and locate "Cycle Type" drop down
Set the appropriate recurring frequency for this product, you can choose between Once, Daily, Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly and Yearly

Now for example if a customer buys a handful of products in which a couple have a monthly recurring cycle, then upon successfully paying for the order the system will create a new recurring order with the recurring products. The system will use payment details from the initial order for subsequent recurring orders. Also the original shipping charges will apply to subsequent orders.

Silence the noise

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:32:00 GMT

Not sure what project you should work on next? The All About Agile weblog's got a pragmatic method for setting priorities: by charting your projects on an importance/difficulty matrix, pictured above.

Once you've got all your things on the grid, think about the four quadrants. Things in the top left are "No-Brainers". These things are clear priorities. Things in the bottom right are potentially for the bin, as these things are of the least value.

How do you get your priorities straight? Let us know in the comments.

How to prioritize quickly and intuitively [all about agile]

Businesses survive on providing great service

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 02:09:00 GMT

Some how our superior quality of service coupled with high integrity, honesty, and proactive approach to delivering our service means a lot to our clients...who knew. Well 2008 began with the wheels already spinning, our little secret is getting out there. There are a few new residents of Anobleworld S3 and they benefit from great services and products like Managed Company here are a few:

Company	Vertical	Service
Novus Energy Management	Energy	Infrastructure /Support
Mark Warner for Senate	Political	Infrastructure /Support
Crosshill Financial	Financial	Asset Acquisition/Consulting
Highland Risk & Crisis	Government	Office setup/Support

And we continue to grow. So in case you ever wondered to yourself "...self, I wonder if my company could use a better IT vendor?"

The answer remains. ANOBLEWORLD S3, Inc. Become a resident , start a business relationship or become a client today.

Contact us