Microsoft and You

I spent this week at MVP Summit representing you to Microsoft. I spoke to countless Microsoft developers, marketing, project managers and executive management about the things that drive you crazy. I used specific examples, representing the frustration and joy that you have experienced using Microsoft software. I explained what you like, what you don't like, and gave them a lot to think about.

MVP's are not Microsoft employees. So I have no reason not to tell them to stuff it when they come up with a lousy idea that would hurt your business and so I do. Ironically this is why they gave me this award. I'm their biggest fan and their biggest critic and I'm willing and able to support my criticism. Honesty, it turns out is a rare commodity these days. Fortunately Microsoft recognizes the value of it and so once a year they invite us to give them a dose. In between Summit's they practice constant contact. (well the good departments do anyway)

Summit works like this: From 8am - 6pm I sit in a small room with maybe 20 other people. Microsoft trots in 2-6 developers, project managers and executives every hour. They tell us how they fixed the issues that we've brought up and what they are planning to do in the future. Then it's open season Q&A. After 6pm we move to an informal setting, usually a bar and continue until about midnight. Then we get up the next morning and do the same thing. This goes on for 5 days straight.  At the end both my brain and body are complete noodles.

On the last day all of the world's MVPs gather in a very large room and Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, and Ray Ozzie, Chief Architect (Bill Gates replacement), get on the stage for an hour and take questions and criticism. Here's Steve Ballmer taking notes. Unlike a lot of exec's he's not taking notes so he can remember the question, he's taking note so he can remember the criticism or action that he needs to take on an item brought to his attention. Microsoft takes the input that comes from MVP's very seriously. I hope that I represented you well.

I take this responsibility very seriously and my ability to gain the ear of the people creating the software that you use and depend upon to run your business everyday is one of the things that makes us unique in small business computer consulting.

Even so it's good to be home.

MVP Summit: 'till Friday

Once a year Microsoft gathers the people that it's awarded as Most Valuable Professional (MVP) into Seattle. Worldwide there are about 5,000. Each person has a specialty that they are awarded for and it maps to one of the many products that Microsoft makes: Everything from Office to XBox. In my award category there are 2 in the USA and 22 outside of the USA.

I'll be spending this week meeting with the developers, marketing and sustained engineering teams for Small Business Server and Essential Business Server. I'll also be meeting with Response Point, One Care and Forefront employees.

I'll be in a small room of MVP's and Microsoft staff totaling, maybe 20 people. They'll give a quick description of what they are doing, what they plan to do and then explain why they are doing it. We, the MVP's, then tell them what we think, how they should change, what our client reaction is going to be, what the consultant reaction is going to be, we make suggestions, etc. They then take back this information and it is used to shape the future of Microsoft products.

The great thing for Harbor Computer Services and you are the contacts that I make. Microsoft may be a big company but it boils down to individuals doing a job and when you know that person, our influence can be heard. Sometimes we're overruled, usually by marketing. "Sorry that can't be changed, market research says...." But usually the developers are busy taking notes and making changes right then. They want to get it right.

One of the most fun things for me in the process of being an MVP was seeing ideas for SBS 2008 literally scrawled on sheet of paper. We hashed out which ideas were good ones and which were not. That's where the team was 2 years ago. Today it's a real product almost ready for release. Last year it was Home Server and something they were not even ready to give a name. Now that something has a code name and it's going to be great for very small businesses. Hopefully after this Summit I'll be able to tell you more about what that something is.

Summit starts at 8am and the last scheduled event ends at Mid-night every day for a full week. I don't think that anyone in Seattle has seen me without bloodshot eyes, but I wouldn't miss it for the world. :-)

Eating Our Own Dog Food: Anti-Spam Solution

I'm a firm believer in eating your own dog food. How can we expect our recommendations to be taken seriously if we don't use the things we recommend? We use and recommend Exchange Defender. It is working for us and it is working for our customers too. There is a nice report that it produces that shows in a very clear way that the software is working, saving us time and therefore money.

We're actually pretty clean email users. We get very little spam compared to some of our clients. So this is a picture of what email looks like today for a small 6 person firm that gets "very little junk".  Even so, the numbers are staggering. I have to say that Exchange Defender is the best $3 I've spent in a long time.

Not only do we get spam protection but we also get virus protection and best of all email continuity. If mail were to stop arriving at our office for any reason. We can log into a website and view and respond to our mail live. When our server becomes available again, poof, all of the mail is delivered to us at the office.

Sometimes things just work and it's a wonderful feeling.

 

harborcomputerservices.net Savings

Your domain harborcomputerservices.net received 131,117 messages, which excludes directory harvesting attacks, denial of service attacks, known spammers, from senders on multiple blacklists. This total usually represents less than 20% of messages your mail server would have to process if you did not have Exchange Defender.

Your domain harborcomputerservices.net received 54,492 SPAM messages, which your employees did not have to read/delete accounting for at least 30 hours of saved productivity*.

Your domain harborcomputerservices.net received only 401,773 Kb out of 739,945 Kb that was sent to it, reducing bandwidth utilization and increasing server availability. *

 

* Productivity hours saved assumes that employee spends an average of 2 seconds reviewing/deleting each SPAM message. In reality, this time is far more than 2 seconds because it not only requires different amounts of time depending on computer speed but also contributes to more frequent worker interruptions as messages are being delivered. Bandwidth calculations assume the server only accepts real mail messages while keeping SPAM and SureSPAM quarantined. Important: All bandwidth, message counts and productivity calculations assume the basic functionality that shields the target mail server from DDoS, viruses, malware, trojans and confirmed SPAM messages. Without those totals and consequent problems are larger by several magnitudes.

Alert: Major ProSystem Fx Flaw

ProSystem fx has been transmitting tax returns unencrypted. This means that the potential for your SSN number and other personal information to have been captured is relatively high. This time of year the bad guys are out looking for mistakes like this. If you or your accountant is uses ProSystem Fx software please be sure to read the following bulletin and update the software immediately. Any transmission to or from California residents may have to be reported.

ELF Transmission Issue
Reported on: 04/08/2008
Please be aware that our latest release, ProSystem fx v. 2007.05050, which was available for download on 4/4/08, allows e-file returns to be transmitted without the added security of an 'HTTPS' transmission. This issue only affects transmissions from your office to us, not from CCH servers to the IRS. We have addressed this issue with 2007.05051, now available for download. Please download this release to ensure your e-file transmissions have the highest possible security.
To further ensure your firm's security, we have also turned off port 80 'HTTP' transmissions. By doing so, this will prevent users from uploading e-file returns to CCH. Users will continue to receive an error message when trying to upload e-file returns until your firm downloads v. 2007.05051 and thereby resumes 'HTTPS' transmissions.
Please note that this does NOT affect Global fx users; it only affects those clients who downloaded release 2007.05050.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. If you have any questions, please call support at 1-800-739-9998, option 3, then 1.

Read our blog online: http://smalltechnotes.blogspot.com

Peer Power: Learning from your Competition

Peer power is the benefit you get from interacting with your peers. Your peers are people that are doing the same job that you are doing. Or running the same type of business you are running. Or running a related type of business. They are also what is known as your competition and you need to talk to them.

I'm a member of several peer groups. I'm an MSPSN Master. We're a group of 10 IT company owners from different parts of the Country. We get together once a month and hash out how we deal with a business issues, employee issues, or marketing strategy. I also participate on several peer group mailing lists. These are technical. Here I learn how other IT people from around the world solve issues for their clients and we come up with best of breed solutions. I also run a local peer group. Where I essentially train my competition on how to run an IT business. I also speak at conferences, do webcasts, write articles and chapters for books. This trains my competition too. But what I gain from doing that is enormous. I couldn't have developed Harbor Computer Services without them. Well, I could have but it would have been a lot harder, a lot slower and much less successful. I'm not here to reinvent the wheel. Someone in one of my peer groups has already met the challenge I'm facing. I only need ask.

One of our clients had the opportunity to participate in a peer group and when I met him a week later, he was still giddy about the experience.

...I find it to be a very unique opportunity to sit around a table with a small group of peers that have nearly the exact same job function as I do but do not compete within my geographic territory.  It's an opportunity for a free exchange of ideas and "best practices" on everything from pricing strategies to employee compensation, benefit packages, warehousing and inventory strategies, commission programs, and vendor interaction.  There can be great benefit if you get the right people around the table and strike the right balance between active listening and active participation.

I hope that everyone has an opportunity to join a peer group. It's powerful. In a peer group, you quickly realize that your problems are not unique. They are not insurmountable. Other people have had that problem and found the solution and they will offer you the solution, if only you are there to listen and offer them solutions too.

I have to say it again. Peer groups are powerful. Just make sure that they are large enough and diverse enough to provide a range of opinions and before you take their advice that you have taken the time to get to know that person and their business. Once you do that there's no problem you can't solve.