Hosted services are becoming a more attractive and realistic options to the small business owners. Realizing that proper client/server setups and hardware can sometimes carry a significant investment - many small business owners are opting to take the monthly fee approach.
A hosted solution provides a user or users with the power of a larger software package for a fraction of the cost. You also offload the responsibility of administrative tasks to the hosting company. Management items such as updating, monitoring, troubleshooting, securing and backing up servers are delegated to the host and not the customer.
Some examples of hosted solutions are:
1. Mail - from simple email POP3 hosting to Exchange hosting services - email has become a staple of the modern business world. Exchange hosting is extremely beneficial to small businesses because it allows you to take advantage of the full capabilities of Microsoft Exchange. This includes features such as calendar and contact sharing.
2. Web - most small businesses do not want to bother hosting their own web site. With so many web hosting options and companies nowadays, there is no common reason that a small business needs to take on the responsibilities of hosting their own website.
3. Sharepoint - An up and coming software suite in the eyes of the small business. Sharepoint is a powerful collaboration utility that is very customizable to suit the needs of almost any business. It allows for a company intranet right out of the box and offers many free templates and user community online.
4. Anti-Virus - Yes, even anti-virus is offered as a hosted solution. If you have multiple computers but have no server, the benefit of using hosted antivirus is the control you have over those particular AV installations and the ease of keeping licenses managed (i.e. renewals). Most of the time, not only is hosted AV easier to manage and more effective, but cheaper too!
5. Backups - Automated off site backups are a convenient way of making sure your data is protected and backed up with little to no intervention on your part. Online backups can be a "set it and forget it" type of deal - simple to implement but invaluable to have.
For more information on different types of hosted services, please visit http://www.vcsolutions.com
Showing posts with label email. Show all posts
Showing posts with label email. Show all posts
Monday, May 12, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
The Simple Spam-Killer
Nothing is a more monumental waste of time then sitting at your desk in the morning and filtering through 157 viagra, cialis, levitra, and get rich stock emails. I estimate that a person could essentially waste 1-4 seconds a day per spam mail they have to deal with, either by deleting or by adding to a "junk mail filter." If you have 50 of these a day on average, then realize you could inevitably we wasting a good amount of time just deailing with junk.
A client of mine sat with me and did a calculation, once, on how much time he spends dealing with junk email each day. Turns out, he was burning almost 20 minutes a day dealing with the incessant spam that came to him. His company employs about 150 people - so let's say all 150 spent the same amount of time dealing with that junk each day. How much time is being wasted?
I am a big fan of efficiency. Everything I do with my business is process and document driven. When I go in to an organization and see such a blatant waste of time in terms of dealing with junk mail it blows my mind because spam is such an easy thing to eliminate and the payoff is huge!
My advice is simple - do one of the following:
I. The best option is to invest in a service that filters and tests your email before it even gets to your organization, whether or not you are hosting your email in your office. This is typically one of the most expensive options, but also the most effective. Good anti-spam services will typically run anywhere from 30-60 independent spam tests on each email that comes through.
II. Having anti-spam and anti-virus services on the server that provides your email services is the next best thing. If you host email in your office, then this requires you purchase software to provide the filtering. This costs less than option I, however understand that the spam still gets to your server in some fashion and you are relying on software to eliminate it.
III. Running anti-spam software on your personal computer is the cheapest in terms of software costs, but I would say most of my clients who do this end up seeing little value over time. The software has to be maintained and tweaked by the user and is usually not very intuitive. I never usually recommend this option unless we are talking about a single user with little spam.
If you are having spam problems, stop procrastinating and do something to eliminate it. Honestly, with all the facets of your business that require fine tuning and improvement - eliminating spam has big and immediate payoff compared to its minimal solution cost. For more information, have a look at http://www.vcsolutions.com/spam_filter.php to see how my company does it.
A client of mine sat with me and did a calculation, once, on how much time he spends dealing with junk email each day. Turns out, he was burning almost 20 minutes a day dealing with the incessant spam that came to him. His company employs about 150 people - so let's say all 150 spent the same amount of time dealing with that junk each day. How much time is being wasted?
I am a big fan of efficiency. Everything I do with my business is process and document driven. When I go in to an organization and see such a blatant waste of time in terms of dealing with junk mail it blows my mind because spam is such an easy thing to eliminate and the payoff is huge!
My advice is simple - do one of the following:
I. The best option is to invest in a service that filters and tests your email before it even gets to your organization, whether or not you are hosting your email in your office. This is typically one of the most expensive options, but also the most effective. Good anti-spam services will typically run anywhere from 30-60 independent spam tests on each email that comes through.
II. Having anti-spam and anti-virus services on the server that provides your email services is the next best thing. If you host email in your office, then this requires you purchase software to provide the filtering. This costs less than option I, however understand that the spam still gets to your server in some fashion and you are relying on software to eliminate it.
III. Running anti-spam software on your personal computer is the cheapest in terms of software costs, but I would say most of my clients who do this end up seeing little value over time. The software has to be maintained and tweaked by the user and is usually not very intuitive. I never usually recommend this option unless we are talking about a single user with little spam.
If you are having spam problems, stop procrastinating and do something to eliminate it. Honestly, with all the facets of your business that require fine tuning and improvement - eliminating spam has big and immediate payoff compared to its minimal solution cost. For more information, have a look at http://www.vcsolutions.com/spam_filter.php to see how my company does it.
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