Power Cut - so what?

By Lindsay,
Today we had a major power cut throughout the North Island.  So what.  I turned my Iphone to personal hotspot ON, switched the notebook to use the access point, and continued.  Time not working - 15 seconds.

That's the power (no pun) of using cloud based solutions.

There is a recession don't you know..

By Lindsay
I can tell from my accounts receivable that there has been an impact on business in the current recession.  So what to do?  Well I planned for this myself by thinking through my response to the likely downturn in business.  So:

• I wanted to become even closer to my customers. I invested heavily in remote management tools so I can monitor down to the workstation level, in real time. I added value to my customers by giving this tool free to my customers.
•  I took on a part timer to ensure that when I wasn't looking at the remote management screen, someone else was.  And that the phone would be answered in the office, and that I had resource to respond in a timely manner. 
• I adopted cloud based solutions for my remote management tools so I can do this anywhere, and am not constrained by location. 
•  If I miss my office phone calls, the voice messages are turned to emails and I get them straight away. 
• And I use a cloud based email system so your emails are received on two computers, an Iphone, and an android tablet simultaneously.

To my customers I promote cloud based services so they can get the same benefit from them that I do as well.  For the accountants it means that capital costs now become operational costs.  They are non-contract, monthly, and can expand and contract as you do. 

The Christchurch earthquake was certainly a wake up call for Chritchurch business owners.  Those that couldnt get access to their computers had a hard time.  With cloud based services that doesn't matter.  You only need to get access to your data - and any web browser will do.

Yes it's hard for businesses at the moment, so business owners need all the advantages that they can get.  Remember, you only need to be 1% better than your competitors to win all the business.  So now in this recessison your competitors are also thinking through the strategies that they will implement to target your customers.  Your best strategy to counter this is to get closer to your customers, to increase responsiveness, and to be seen to be open to business 24 hours per day.  And cloud based services are one part of that strategy.

Changing Broadband Service providers

By Lindsay
One day you will want to change your broadband service provider.  You may get a better deal, or a better bundle of services such as mobile phone and broadband etc.  So here's a guide if you have a in-house mail server in your business:

• If email is being delivered to your server directly, and if you can't get your old static IP address, then contact your domain name holder to get them to change the mail records.
• Change your outgoing email configuration to match the new provider settings.
• If a new router has been provided as part of the change then ensure that it has the same network IP address that the old one had.
• Turn off DHCP in the router otherwise it will conflict with the server.
• Ensure that port forwarding is set up to allow email to come into the server.
• If you have users using VPN then reset this up for them.
• Anyone using mobile devices will have to change their email settings to match the changes.
• Have someone ready to answer the phone as your customers ring up as emails they are sending you are bouncing back - are you still in business?

The change ideally should be done on a Friday afternoon to let the new static IP change to propogate throughout the internet.  Expect your email to be out of action for at least 6 hours, up to 24 hours.  This process will take up to 2 hours of technician time as well.  And a restart of the server.

If you have a cloud based email system this is the process that you follow:

• Plug in the new router.

Yes that's about it.