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Newsletter Issue 1 - 2008

From Dave's Desk

by David Ehrhardt, CEO Apptix

As part of ongoing communication with you—our valued Apptix, ASP-One, MailStreet, and Mi8 customers—we are proud to introduce a new monthly newsletter, The Cloud. Each issue of The Cloud will expose fresh topics about cloud computing, vendor updates, and will share technical “tips & tricks” on how you can take full advantage of hosted services such as MS Exchange, VoIP, and SharePoint.

The Cloud will also include the announcement of new Apptix services, upcoming educational Webinars and events, Customer Advisory Board updates, case studies on how small business owners are taking advantage of cloud computing services, industry analyst insights, and commentary on the latest technology news.

We hope you find The Cloud to be both educational and interesting, and please remember to share it with your colleagues. In parting, if there are specific topics you would like us to cover, don’t hesitate to drop the editorial team a line.

Thanks for reading!

Best Regards
David Ehrhardt
CEO

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Mobilize Your Office with VoIP for Always-on Customer Service

by Don Dimon, Vice President, Customer Service

For any company—including Apptix—business continuity is a critical element of day-to-day success. It is hurricane season here in Florida, home of MailStreet (an Apptix subsidiary), and we see our fair share of threatening weather situations every June through November. As a company offering 24/7 customer support, we have to be available to our customers—wherever we are, whatever the situation. We can never miss a customer call, and neither should you.

In fact, whether you telework, need a flexible system to accommodate company growth, or face unpredictable weather, we have found that hosted VoIP means that employees can be located anywhere—and can pick up and move at the drop of a hat—with no lag in customer service. That’s why we use our own hosted VoIP service, internally, across all Apptix offices.

Our hosted VoIP services are located in geographically redundant data centers, and disaster recovery is built in. Even if the physical Apptix office was uninhabitable for weeks due to a natural or manmade disaster, our entire phone system would function perfectly.

Hosted VoIP offers many options to keep you connected to your customers. Incoming calls can be forwarded to a BlackBerry (or other SmartPhone) simply by logging onto a Website. VoIP phones can be unplugged and used in any location with an Internet connection. And using the “Find Me/Follow Me” feature, customer calls reach you wherever you are.

Apptix’s hosted VoIP also features a computer-based softphone. Simply launch the softphone application on your laptop or desktop, plug in a headset, and get the same functionality as you would in the office. In addition, VoIP consolidates voicemail, email, and fax into a single interface, and uniform extension dialing plans give remote offices the same features and functionality as the main office.

So whether you want to offer employee teleworking options, or there if is a natural disaster on the way, hosted VoIP provides flexibility to be a 100% customer-focused business—no matter where your employees are located.

Download whitepaper: "Is Hosted VoIP Right for You?"

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Exchange 2007 vs. 2003

As adoption of Microsoft Exchange 2007 continues to grow, more and more of Apptix’s small business customers ask about the advantages of upgrading from Exchange 2003 to 2007. At Apptix, we have worked with both the Exchange 2003 and 2007 email and collaboration environments for some time, and we’d like to share some of the practical advantages of Exchange 2007 that customers are experiencing—both from the perspective of IT Guys and end-users:

Important differences for IT Guys:

1. Improved storage efficiency can be achieved through the extended memory and larger cache of x64-based server architecture, even as mailbox sizes increase; more efficient routing ensures the best use of bandwidth
2. Built-in defenses against spam and viruses
3. Increased user mailbox sizes—up to 4GB
4. Reduced network traffic/bandwidth required when using Outlook 2007 client, compared to earlier versions of Outlook and Exchange
5. Exchange ActiveSync technology delivers an improved email and calendaring experience on mobile devices, while offering enhanced device and security policy control
6. New data replication capabilities (local and clustered) keep the system highly available while limiting the need and frequency for tape backup

Important differences for your end-users:

1. Increased storage for user mailboxes (up to 4GB)
2. Enhanced Outlook 2007 interface and features, including attachment preview, delayed message delivery, email postmarks, side-by-side or overlaid calendars, calendar publishing, RSS integration, resource booking, and meeting scheduling capabilities
3. Faster cached-mode email retrieval and offline viewing capabilities
4. A richer, Outlook Web Access (OWA) experience available from any Internet connected computer with a supported browser, providing encrypted access to the inbox, powerful search capabilities, and the ability to view different types of attachments
5. Integration of SharePoint 2007 (documents, blogs, RSS, wikis, etc.) with access from any Web browser or via Outlook

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IT Tips & Tricks - Top 6 Quick Fixes for Common BlackBerry Device Problems

by Mike Warstler, IT Manager, Apptix

1. Make sure the user has a data plan that allows BES access.
2. Anytime something funky is going on, yank out the battery and put it back in.
3. Make sure that the wireless connections are turned on.
4. Make inbound and outbound test calls.
5. Test the browser. If a browser is not present, re-provision the network connections and the host routing table.
6. If you are unable to look up email addresses against your Global Address book, check the service books.