These past few months of 2012 have been big for Microsoft, with the officially announcement of Windows 8, two new tablets and new versions of nearly every Microsoft product. The Redmond, WA based company has indeed been busy. One of the more recent developments is a new version of Office, Office 2013 or Office 15 as the technical preview labels it. Office 2013 is promising to bring about some big changes.

Here are the major changes you are going to see with Microsoft Office 2013:

Overall changes With Office 2013, all of the major Office components have been updated to take advantage of the new layout in Windows 8. This means that the whole Office suite is now set up with a tablet friendly layout.

At this time, there are five different plans available for users who want to buy Office 2013.

1. Office Web Apps. A free web based version of Office that is integrated with SkyDrive, Outlook.com and Facebook Messages.
2. Office Home Premium. The consumer version that comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, OneNote and Publisher. This version can be installed on up to five computers at once, and comes with 20GB of storage space on SkyDrive.
3. Office 365 Small Business Premium. Has the same programs as the consumer version, but instead of SkyDrive, uses Office 365. This version also has Exchange email, SharePoint and Lync.
4. Office 365 Pro Plus. This plan has the same programs as Small Business as well as InfoPath.
5. Office 365 Enterprise. Enterprise is the most complete plan, with all accounts being 365 Enterprise accounts and the full version of Exchange.

You’ll also be able to subscribe to Office, which will allow you to take your account anywhere and access/stream Office software and documents. Office will download/stream the program you need while you’re using it and then delete it afterwards. Almost every major program of Office has also been updated.

Word Word has been cleaned up a little and the ribbon at the top of the window (where all your editing options are) has been modified slightly to make it more useful. Laying out your documents has been made a lot easier with the ability to insert images directly from the Internet without having to download them first. You’ll also be able to adjust images more quickly due to enhanced alignment tools.

It’s obvious that Word 2013 has been designed for tablets by default, and the window is slightly taller but a lot wider. Some functions like Spell Check also take up a lot more space, which can make it tougher to edit/navigate documents. This could take some getting used to, but shouldn’t pose much of an issue for your employees.

PowerPoint PowerPoint shines with the new layout, with your project or presentation taking center stage with tools fading into the background. If you’re editing a presentation and you close the program, you’ll get a pop-up offering to take you directly to where you left off last time when you restart the program.

Embedding images and videos is a lot easier with the ability to search for media within PowerPoint and embed it directly, without having to mess with code and downloading images. Media also has quick formatting options which are easily accessed from where show up as a small box beside the media element.

There are also some great new presentation tools, including a preview of the next few slides that only you can see, the ability to zoom in/out on slides, and better ability to jump between slides.

Excel Excel has also had a similar facelift, with the latest features aiming to help users with their spreadsheets. Select a range of cells and Excel will give you a Quick Analysis option which can suggest ideas about what you may want to do with that data. When creating a chart or graph, Excel will make a suggestion as to the most appropriate chart/graph for the data. With complex data that can be analysed using pivot tables, Excel will build the tables automatically. Editing of charts, tables and data has also been made easier.

Excel has been made to look more ‘alive’. If you make a change you will visually see the results (if you change data, the resulting chart will update). If you make an error, Excel will now give you detailed explanations about the error, not just the usual error code from previous versions.

Outlook Outlook has been updated to be more efficient too, and you’ll be able to view and reply to emails directly from the main screen, without having to open emails in a new window. Instead  your emails open in a new pane that’s part of the main screen. You’ll also be able to quickly view all of your unread emails, by simply clicking Unread.

The address book has also received an overhaul, to bring it closer to the one on Windows Phone. It will try to put similar accounts together into one card and addresses can be more easily viewed.

There is a slight downside though, as notifications stack up on the right side of the window. If you’ve been away on vacation and return to 100s of emails, you’ll be flooded with notifications that take up a large portion of the screen. They do fade after a few seconds, but they could prove to be a nuisance.

There have been lots of changes made in Office 15, and no doubt more will be made before the retail release of Office 2013. You can sign up to preview Office 2013 here. While you can try it, we recommend that you don’t implement it as the new office suite in your office until the retail version is released. If you’re as excited as we are about Office 2013, and would like to learn more about implementing it after the release please contact us.

The Internet is a magical thing; a gateway or connection to the rest of the world. Currently, the Internet is quick enough to do nearly anything without delay, and as such, companies have come to expect Internet connections to always be fast. The truth is, connection speed varies widely, and this can create problems for many companies.

Have you noticed that from time to time the Internet is a lot slower than it should be? If so, this could be because something is hogging all the bandwidth, which is the rate at which data is transferred in and out of one connection. Here are six of the most common bandwidth hogs.

1. YouTube. If you allow employees to watch YouTube or connect to other streaming services, and they are using it frequently, you’ll notice a significant decrease in overall Internet speed. Some companies have noted that 40 staff using YouTube will account for over half of the total bandwidth usage.
2. FTP sites. Some companies run FTP sites that host essential files that employees can download. When more employees are downloading/uploading files to the FTP site there’s less bandwidth available for other operations, so the Internet will be slower.
3. P2P. P2P covers a large number of aspects including video conferencing and sharing of files via programs such as BitTorrent. All P2P services use an incredibly large amount of bandwidth when in operation, slowing the Internet to a point where speeds from 10 years ago were faster.
4. Online backup. Backing up essential files will capitalize bandwidth leaving very little for other operations. It’s a good idea to conduct backups after office hours to minimize interruptions.
5. Encryption. In certain industries regulatory bodies require a certain level of encryption, or for companies to take certain steps to secure data. Any extra encryption or security features will slow sites down, however this usually cannot be avoided.
6. Spam/Virus/Malware. As many scams aim at stealing information the main way this is done is by sending the information over an Internet connection, that is your Internet connection. If you have viruses or other security threats you can guarantee that your Internet will be slower.

If you notice your Internet is slowing down at certain times, it’s a good idea to check and see if any of these six bandwidth hogs are in action. You can:

• conduct a virus scan to look for malware;
• ensure your computers aren’t backing up and if they are schedule the backup for later;
• turn off or block any and all sharing services, and schedule video conferencing for times when bandwidth isn’t needed by other functions; and,
• limit the bandwidth assigned to YouTube and other streaming services.

Before you tinker with any network connections though, it’s best to contact an expert . We may not just be able to help, but potentially provide an even better solution for you, speeding up your connection and your business success.

2012 is shaping up to be a really big year for tech giant Microsoft. With the impending release of Windows 8, nearly every Microsoft product and service is receiving an update to both its visuals and features. One of the latest changes Microsoft has made is with its aging Hotmail. The change is a massive one, and it appears to be for the better.

In late July Microsoft quickly announced and released @outlook.com, their new cloud based email service. If a Web based email service from Microsoft sounds familar, it is, as Outlook.com is a reinvented and drastically improved version of Hotmail.

Outlook.com has completely ditched the clunky, outdated layout Microsoft has used for Hotmail for years and released something that looks 100% modern, and maybe even a little spaceage. The general opinion is that it looks fantastic. For Gmail users, it looks instantly familiar, with files and folders on the left-hand side of the window, your emails in the center and addons on the right-hand side of the screen.

Hold on, isn’t that exactly the same as Gmail? Yes, and for a reason: it works really, really well. However, Outlook.com does improve on Gmail with integration of a large number of features including:

• Integration with Microsoft Office. All documents sent to you can be viewed and edited online.
• Integration with SkyDrive. When you click the Outlook box at the top of the window, a drop-down menu opens with the ability to shift to your SkyDrive. This makes it easier to switch and share files between the two services. This also allows you to share larger files that don’t have to be sent via email, slowing down delivery. Just share the file on SkyDrive and link to it in the email.
• Synchronized contacts. You can instantly synchronize your Facebook and LinkedIn contacts and chat with them directly from Outlook.com.
• Skype. Experts wondered what Microsoft would do with Skype when they bought it last year. The answer is: integrate it with Outlook.com. While it isn’t active yet, Microsoft has noted it should be part of Outlook.com soon. When it’s activated, you’ll be able to call and chat with your Outlook.com contacts via Skype, directly from the Inbox. There will be no need to install Skype on systems.
• Mobile support. You can access your account on nearly any mobile device that can connect to the Internet.

How do I get an Outlook.com account? If you’re interested in getting an outlook.com account, you can sign up for free at outlook.com. If you have an existing Hotmail account you can log in, select Options followed by Upgrade. All your contacts, emails, password and rules will be transferred over.

Outlook.com looks like a viable competitor to Gmail, and because it’s a Microsoft product, it’s a near certainty that it will be a heavily supported platform that can and will attract many businesses and other organizations. If you’re interested in learning more about Outlook.com, please contact us.

One of the main issues that puts off a large number of businesses is how secure their data is in the cloud. If a company uses a cloud service they have no choice but to trust the provider with their data, and recent attacks have shown that some cloud provider technology isn’t as secure as it needs to be, potentially putting your data at risk.

In this year alone, nearly every major cloud provider has had issues with their services. From natural disasters to hackers, companies have seen their data exposed or unavailable, and this isn’t the first time this has happened. In 2011, Sony Entertainment had nearly 77 million accounts hacked, exposing user’s information, Dropbox had numerous service outages, and Gmail had a 30 hour outage that resulted in 44,000 accounts being lost. The list goes on and issues since 2011 go to show that cloud providers and their systems aren’t invulnerable.

Despite numerous attacks and problems, many data centers where cloud providers have their servers are physically secure. Google’s recent security video is a good example of how secure the physical locations are.

When companies talk about cloud security however, they don’t just talk about how secure their physical location is, they also strive to protect against three other elements:

1. Service outages
2. Confidentiality of your personal information and control over who can access it
3. Privacy of banking details and other related information

By focusing on these four factors cloud providers are able to provide close to 99% security. However, many companies are still at risk when using the cloud and this risk actually comes from inside the company. Nearly every cloud service requires a password to access, but scammers know this and they can attack other services, or your company, to get you to give up your password. Once they have obtained this your data is compromised regardless of where it’s stored. This is what happened in a latest security issue with Dropbox.

If your company utilizes cloud services there are a number of things you need to be aware of when it comes to security:

• According to all cloud providers, liability for sensitive data stored in the cloud rests with your company, not the provider.
• Some cloud vendors provide reports written by a neutral third party on the security of their service. These should be taken into account when looking for a provider.
• As with anything online, you should be taking steps to backup data stored in one cloud to a secure physical location.
• You should establish a process that encourages your employees to change their passwords at least every three months.

Do you have cloud solutions in your company? If so let us know what your concerns are about security. If not, then let us know why.

In the last productivity article we discussed using webinars in your company. Webinars are a great way to train people or increase interest in your brand or products and can help you reach a wider audience. If you’re interested in hosting a webinar there are a number of steps you should be aware of in order to make it a success.

This week we present to you six steps to planning a successful webinar.

1. Is a webinar the right tool for the situation? When planning a meeting or training session, you should take into account who your audience is, the purpose of the meeting and the message you’d like to get across. Some messages are better delivered through other mediums, or in-person. If you’re hosting a seminar that’s scheduled to last longer than 2 hours, webinars are probably not the best medium to use, while a 15 minute introduction of your products to a potential client will go over well as a webinar.

2. Who will speak/ who will be support? If you decide a webinar is the medium to use, you need to assemble staff to help you run the webinar and choose the person who will speak. If you have experience addressing small audiences and running a powerpoint and related visuals while doing so, you can do it by yourself. If not, it will help to have a support team to help answer questions, run visuals and acting as tech support.

3. What format will you follow? Like any meeting, webinars require a format to be successful. Will you or your speaker be addressing the audience like a traditional classroom with questions and comments to come later? Or do you want to run more of an open forum and discussion where the speaker moderates? Picking a format will help you develop the content and maybe predict outcomes.

You should also pick how you will host a webinar. If you’re unsure with the options available, please contact us, we may have a solution.

4. Create an agenda When you feel the webinar is almost ready and the key ideas are in place, you can set an agenda. Try to make an educated guess on how long it will run for and how long each part will last. Write the schedule down and include extra time for technical issues and questions. By sticking to an agenda you can better stick on schedule, get the message across and your audience won’t get lost and shortly thereafter be bored.

5. Publicize For any webinar to be successful, you need to publicize who is speaking, when the event will happen, the topics it will cover and what programs will be used to run the event. It’s important to get this to as many people as possible, so put the info on your website, share it on your social networks and create an email to send to participants explaining the event and rundown.

6. Practice A few days to a week before the webinar, you and your support team should conduct a dry run of the event in the location it will take place. This is an important step as it can help identify technical issues and weak spots with the presentation itself. If you have staff who are unfamiliar with the technology or the process, this is also the time to train them.

By following these general steps, you will have a solid foundation with which you can host a successful webinar. To learn more about using your computer systems for communication, please contact us.

As technology advances at an increasingly faster rate, small businesses often have a tough time keeping up with the cost of constantly upgrading to new systems. One way to solve this problem is to allow employees to bring their own devices to the office. This concept is commonly referred to as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and it’s gaining popularity amongst many small businesses. Have you been thinking of adopting BYOD?

Here are four steps you should take to enact a successful Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) plan in your office.

Step 1: learn the tools There are a large number of operating systems in use, and while some employees use Macs, others prefer Windows or another OS. This can pose a problem for managers and IT services as it can be a costly chore to manage and deploy software and work across platforms, not to mention incompatibility of programs. To solve this issue, many companies use virtualization, or more specifically hosted virtual desktops and locally deployed and managed desktops that provide a set platform that can be accessed regardless of the system used by employees.

Hosted virtual desktops are desktops that are hosted by another company and accessed by employees via the Internet. These are also called Desktop as a Service (DaaS), and differ from locally deployed and managed desktops as the company doesn’t need the servers and infrastructure to deploy the solution. There are pros and cons to each, and before you decide which to use, it pays to research them to see how they meet your needs.

Step 2: understand your employees Each employee is different, with some working better when away from the office while others are more productive during off-peak hours. Throw in the fact that employees all have their preference in the technology they use, a differing knowledge level and requirement of technology, and you have a lot you need to consider when developing a plan.

It’s worth taking the time to understand your employees and their needs, as it may turn out that BYOD may not work for some staff members. You should find out which workers are willing to buy their own technology, can work with a locked desktop, or work away from their desk more, and who might pose a security risk and would reduce productivity under a BYOD plan.

Step 3: Research alternatives Be sure to look at other solutions, maybe some employees are asking to bring their own computers to work because they prefer to work on another OS. The best way to find out is to ask your employees what they think of a BYOD policy and why they want it. If you have employees with experience in other industries maybe they have other ideas on ways you can implement a workable system.

You can also contact managed service providers and companies like us. We may have another option for you that you haven’t explored yet. Whatever you do, it’s important to weigh up all your alternatives first.

Step 4: Start small When you do decide on a plan, you need to ensure that all staff are onboard and that the systems work. Many companies start with a soft launch, letting staff who are the most comfortable with BYOD trial it first. From their experiences you can then modify and expand the plan to other staff or departments.

What matters most is that with a BYOD plan, you provide a clear separation between an employee’s personal and work environments on their device, hence a virtual desktop. With this, you will be able to control the work related environment as you normally would, and employees can keep their personal environment secure. If you’d like to learn more about BYOD or virtual desktops, please contact us.

Macs, long touted by Apple to be the safest and most secure computers available have been coming under increasing attack lately, with a growing number of Mac specific malware infecting systems. This has caught many users off guard and they have been scrambling to ensure their systems are secure. There is a new threat that could cause trouble for Mac users.

Dubbed OSX/Crisis, this malware has just been discovered, and it’s an interesting one.

OSX/Crisis silently infects Mac users regardless of their status. If a user visits a website it is hosted on, or downloads an attachment with the malware attached, it will install itself without letting the user know.

As Mac users know, there are two types of users: Admin and non-admin. Admin users have rights to install and delete files, while non-admin don’t. Typically, if a user install something they have to enter an admin password to complete the install. OSX/Crisis doesn’t ask for this permission, meaning the user won’t even know they’ve been infected.

When the trojan is installed, it opens a backdoor to your computer, so a hacker can quickly and easily enter your computer without you noticing, or having to log in. The disturbing thing about OSX/Crisis is it installs different files depending on the user’s access privileges, giving hackers access to the computer regardless of authority of the user.

Intego.com, the company that found the malware has noted that there have been no cases of this malware in users. While it isn’t out there yet, chances are highly likely that it will be soon. The company also noted that it only works on OSX versions 10.6 and 10.7, earlier versions and the new version, 10.8 won’t allow it to install itself.

If you use Macs in your office, you should take precautionary steps by installing virus scanners, ensuring they’re up-to-date and conducting scans on a scheduled basis. To learn more about this threat and other security issues, please contact us.

There’s a scene in Spaceballs, a movie by Mel Brooks, where the evil Spaceballs are trying to steal air from the planet Druidia. To do so, they force the king of Druidia to give up the password - 1,2,3,4,5 - to the airlock. After you hear the password, one character exclaims, “That’s the stupidest combination i’ve heard in my life.” While it may be stupid and you’ll probably never hear someone admit their password is 12345, recent account leaks from a number of websites have proven we still use passwords that are easy to guess when they shouldn’t be.

Here are three tips on ensuring that your password is secure and how to keep it that way.

Strength is important Websites use a security method called hashing to ensure your passwords are secure. Hashing is an algorithm that encodes your password, making it theoretically harder to unravel.

You shouldn’t trust on hashing to keep your password secure as recent breaches have shown that a company’s hashing may not be secure. Instead, pick a password that’s hard to guess. The most effective passwords have no full English words and a mixture of numbers and symbols. e.g., San1@3 is more secure than San123.

Watch for apres-hack emails After a company’s systems have been hacked and account information stolen, scammers often jump at the opportunity to send emails to users. These emails are designed to look like they come from the company when they really are phishing campaigns aimed at getting you to enter your personal information, or have links to websites with malware. If you get an email from a website, don’t click the links in the email. You should go directly to the website in your browser and log in from there.

Have more than one password Ideally you should use a different password for each website you have an account with, however, it can be hard to remember so many passwords. At the very least you should have separate passwords for work, personal and bank/financial related accounts.

If you’re worried about the strength of your password or the general security of your devices please contact us, we may have a solution for you.

The cloud and all related services are making large inroads into businesses around the globe, with many utilizing at least one form of cloud. One of the most popular categories of cloud in use is cloud storage. Until recently cloud storage has been relatively secure, but, a major cloud storage provider has recently had an incident where account information was stolen.

The cloud service provider that had its security breached was Dropbox. While the company has taken steps to remedy this situation, some users had their information leaked before the situation could be solved.

What happened? Dropbox made an announcement that hackers had stolen account information from another - undisclosed - website and used that information to log in to Dropbox accounts. One of the accounts happened to belong to a Dropbox employee who had other email addresses connected to Dropbox accounts stored in a document.

With the stolen account names, the hackers proceeded to send spam messages to users’ email addresses. It was complaints from users about spam emails being sent to accounts that are only associated with Dropbox that alerted the company to the problem. From information we’ve been able to attain, it appears that accounts stolen were mainly in Western Europe, and the UK.

Is Dropbox doing anything? Dropbox is to be commended for a quick reaction. They let users know as soon as they found out and announced two enhanced security measures on August 2. The first measure is two-factor authentication, most likely a password you enter that’s provided by SMS at the account activation stage. This measure should be in place within the next couple of weeks. The second measure is an account activity page which is available now and shows all the devices that have connected to your account.

As with any security breach, if you or your employees use Dropbox, you should take appropriate steps to change your password. To change your password, log in to Dropbox on your browser, select your account name from the top right of the page and click Settings. Select Security followed by Change password. You’ll also notice the devices or computers that have accessed your account here.

While this may seem like a big issue, Dropbox has handled the leak well and taken appropriate steps to remedy the situation. You shouldn’t let an issue like this sway your opinion on cloud services. If you’d like to learn more about how Dropbox, or other cloud storage and service solutions can be integrated with your business please contact us.

When running your own business, one of the most important things to know is where your money is and the return on any investments you’ve made. There are many ways to calculate this and small business owners in different disciplines will give you slightly different ways to calculate returns. The majority of these methods are based on Return on Investment, or ROI.

When investing in, or looking for investment in your next IT project, or any project for that matter, you will need to calculate ROI and what factors to consider when making investment decisions.

ROI Defined ROI is calculated by taking the gain on an investment, subtracting the initial investment amount and dividing this number by the original investment amount. If calculated correctly, you will get a decimal that can be multiplied by 100 to get a percentage. If you take this percentage, and multiply the original cost by the percentage, you will get your total gain or loss.

To calculate ROI of a product, project or anything that brings in direct income - sales - to your company take the amount of money you will save or make over the life of the product and subtract the cost of the product over the total expected life. Divide this number by the cost to get an ROI in decimal point, which should be multiplied by 100 to change it into a percentage.

ROI in example Assume you’re looking to invest in a new CRM system based in the cloud that costs $50.00 per year and plan to use it for three years. You also estimate that by using this software, you will save $75.00 per year. With these numbers your calculation would look like this: Cash saved: 75 x 3 = $225 Cash spent: 50 x 3=$150 ROI= (225-150)/150 = 0.5 x 100 = 50% This means that your ROI will be 50% of your initial investment, in other words, you will make $75 (225-150).

Why ROI is important ROI, in percentage form is one of the most important factors to investors, as it gives them a number with which they can compare other investments. For example, when comparing two investments, one that returns $5,000 and one that returns $3,000. On these numbers alone, it seems the $5,000 return is the better. Looking into the costs however, you find that $5,000 return carries a cost of $4,000, while the $3,000 investment carries a cost of $1,800. The ROI on the bigger investment is lower, meaning you end up making less money.

ROI is a simple calculation that helps you determine the bottom line of different options. When investing in a project or product with established, historical ROIs, be aware that these are based on past measurements, not future measurements. This means that you may not achieve the same ROI. If you’d like to learn more about technical products and services that can help increase ROI, please contact us.