I’ll never forget my first true IT disaster.  The IT department had just finished migrating an entire department onto a new computer system.  Everything had gone extremely well, and I was congratulating the team when I received a call the staff could not access the new program.  The IT department soon informed me the new storage system had failed and we would be down for several hours while they restored the data from backup.  

The real problem started when the IT Director came to my office and said one of the few things you never want to hear from the technology department, “The last backup we can find is…”, proceeding to explain the only available backup was the manual backup taken when the system was first installed; the backup system had not been updated to include the database for the new application and all of the newly entered data had been lost. Five thousand dollars, two weeks, and four temporary workers later, the data was re-entered and the system was up and running again.

Unplanned equipment failures and failed backups no longer top the list of risks associated with technology, nor are the risks isolated to job related technologies.

The wide-spread use of technology in all sectors of our lives increasingly adds personal and business issues to the list of things you never want to hear from IT.

#8.  “Do you have a copy of your password…”  - ever wondered what you would do if you could not remember that Internet password and security question?  My sister found out – she had to register for a new email account, delaying her online certification program required for her teaching position.

#7:  “The system was not protected by a….” – lightning and down power lines can render systems unusable unless protected by a working UPS.

#6:  “Your warranty expired last….” – one of the best protections against unexpected costs associated with hardware failures is an up to date warranty.

#5:  “The AV system stopped updating last…” – email and the Internet are now the most used distribution methods for viruses and malware. Installed and up-to-date Anti-Virus and Malware solutions are the best protection against these threats.

#4:  “When was the last time you backed up…” or “The last backup we can find is…” – tape backup is becoming increasingly impractical as the amount of data stored increases and disk-to-disk solutions with offline Internet copies are becoming more affordable. But remember, it isn’t the backup that is important, it is the restore.

#3:  “How many times have you used that password….” – Internet banking, online payments, eBay, Amazon, Facebook, email. Shared passwords across systems increase the risk, and cost, that may be incurred if your password is stolen.

#2:  “PII data is missing….” – Personally Identifiable Information: credit card data, social security numbers, medical records, and address lists are only a few of the types of data that can be lost through that laptop or backup tape left in the car for a few minutes. The U.S. Department of Veteran’s affairs spent a reported $160.5 million monitoring credit for 17.5 million veterans after a laptop was stolen from a single employee.

#1:  ” Hackers got in through…” – ever wonder what hacking can cost? T.J. Maxx spent an estimated $20 million dollars investigating, notifying customers, and hiring lawyers when 45 million customer records were lost to a hacker attack starting from an unprotected wireless network.

1. The Ribbon – Now Included Outlook 2010 Too!

Why would I list the Ribbon as my number one loved feature in Office 2010 when the Ribbon was introduced in Office 2007? In Office 2007 it was the feature that caused controversy. But in Office 2010, it’s been truly perfected and included in all Office products including Outlook and OneNote.

That’s great news, why? The big reason is that you now have control over your Ribbon and what items appear on its tabs, and you can even add tabs of your own to easily add your favorite commands. No more “My favorite command that was on a menu can’t be found anywhere on the Ribbon!”  And as a business, you can deploy customized commands, groups within tabs, or entirely new tabs for your employees.

But my favorite new reason to love the Ribbon is that it’s been added to Outlook 2010. Unlike Word and Excel, most of us don’t/didn’t have Outlook commands customized just the way we wanted them. Outlook historically has been an application everyone in business needs to use, but never had any fun using. The Ribbon, with the inclusion of “Quick Steps,” allows you to easily find what you need in Outlook, and if you want a command that’s not out-of-the-box, build it with “Quick Steps”. You can easily create complex commands without any programming. I used it for escalating an important client e-mail as shown in Figure 1.  With one click, I am able to take that e-mail and move it to a special folder, forward it to my manager, create a task, and set importance.
 

2. Save Time and Stress, Preview Before you Paste

I am often finding myself cutting and pasting graphics, columns, text, and many other elements between documents. If you do too, you will also love Paste Preview.  Why?  You can often get unexpected results when you paste, especially with text formatting.  Get what I’m saying?  Office 2010's Paste Preview function gives you control over the pasting process.

Past Preview Cool Features:

• Allows you to see what a paste will look like before actually executing the command.
• Offers multiple options to manipulate your clipboard contents before pasting.
• Depending on what you are pasting, you can use it to remove, merge, or preserve formatting, convert to an image, remove borders, and so on.

Now that saves time ! Especially when working with large, complex spreadsheets where columns of numbers, associated formulas, and embedded formatting needs to be adjusted whenever you move something around.

3. The Many, Many Helpful Add-ons for Outlook 2010

As someone in sales, I can’t speak enough to how helpful it is to be able to have as many activities as possible in one place. Outlook 2010 has done a lot to become the one place I can stay and still get pretty much everything I need to do and keep tabs on. Here’s what I mean:

• With Social Media Connector, I can sync LinkedIn and Facebook so that before I reply to my clients e-mail, I can see that his anniversary was yesterday and he recently received a promotion. I’ll note in my e-mail.
• With Twinbox, I can respond to any client questions or comments from Twitter with instant notification.
• With Bing, I can book my travel arrangement and have Outlook automatically create calendar events, task reminders, and set my out-of-the-office autoreply automatically when I’m gone. Video how-to here.
• And finally, with the Dynamics CRM Client for Outlook, I can link my activities to the right client with a click.

4. The Surprisingly Advanced Graphics Tools

If you ever add any graphics to your documents in Word, Excel, Publisher, and PowerPoint or your e-mail, this may just be the feature that pays for the upgrade.  Instead of needing a complex, expensive graphics editor to make changes to a picture or graphic before inserting into your document, you now have a very large set of tools built right into Office 2010. As shown in Figure 2, you can crop, resize, color correct, and remove layers and background, change brightness and contrast, add artistic effects and visual styles, and do many more tweaks.

5. Adding Screenshots and Screen Snips

If you are a tech writer, blogger, or a user who just needs to submit a helpdesk ticket. Word 2010’s new Screenshot tools couldn’t be easier to use. It gives you a visual listing of every open window and dialog box easy screen grabbing, or you can click “Screen Clipping” to create your own custom sized screenshot.

Traditionally, businesses purchase hardware & software to have them available physically onsite, with all software running on company-owned machines.  In the ‘traditional’ model of business, where most business was done ‘onsite,’ this worked fine.  Now, with companies becoming more mobile, and with more employees and executives working out of the office, organizations are reaching toward new technologies to adapt to the more mobile environment.  This is where cloud computing steps in.

So, what is Cloud Computing anyway?  Cloud Computing is where both hardware & software runs on the Internet.

You may not know it, but you could very well already be using Cloud Computing.  What are some ways you could already be using the cloud?

• Online email (Microsoft Live Mail, Microsoft Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc.)
• Online documents (Microsoft Live Office, Google Docs)

What Cloud Computing brings to the table:

• Scalability.  Your organization has the ability to expand and contract based on changing needs.
• Cost Effective.  Only pay on the services and utilities that you use.  And remember… the services can expand and contract where needed.  When you use less, you pay less.
• Automatic Backups.  When your information is hosted in the cloud, it is the job of the technology company to back up that information.  You do not have to worry about disaster recovery.  Your plan is already in place.
• Location is no longer specific.  With key applications and data located in the cloud, you are no longer tied to the office.  Information is available from anywhere that you have a connection to the Internet.

Two weeks ago, Craig Sroda and Matt Brown (Pinnacle Partner & Director of Sales) went to the Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C. to learn about the latest and greatest in Microsoft’s trends and technologies.

At this conference, that focused on Microsoft’s vision and strategies, there were 130 countries and over 10,000 partner representatives attending.  Here are a few takeaways we would like to share:

Microsoft is “All In” with cloud computing

• Microsoft is shifting a huge focus toward Cloud Computing, cutting edge technologies and innovative products.
• Microsoft is fully committed to offering all of their software in the cloud.
• On premise, email is typically the first move to the cloud, BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) offers ease to that transition at an extremely affordable price
• Per Gartner, 20% of customers will have no IT assets by 2013.

Microsoft is still growing!

• Bing’s Decision Engine has gained 21 million users since its release. (Gaining 1% market share per month)
• Office 2010 Beta has experienced over 9 million downloads to date.
• An estimated 370 million PC’s will ship over the next twelve months.
• Great new products like Windows Phone 7 and Kinect (http://www.xbox.com/en-us/kinect ) will be the hottest items this holiday season!

We were excited to be one of 359 companies globally to be awarded the Microsoft Business Award, President’s Club.  This puts us in the top 5% of Microsoft Dynamics Partners worldwide.  Thanks again to our dedicated customers and employees for making this possible!