Michigan 8 Year Recession and Technology

So we got some great news yesterday in the Free Press that Michigan is the only state in the Union mired in an 8 year recession. Others are starting to see some of the affects that we've come to know here. Frankly if I would have seen this 5 years ago I might not have started my business out of fear.

But good entrepeneurs have to face facts that sometimes we will see downturns and we have to be prepared for these just as we're prepared for anything else. (Disaster recovery anyone?)

So what can you do to tighten those belts and look ahead? Speaking from the technology sector we have to look for things that will save us money in our business and use technology to do that, not just spend to get the latest toys, black Friday aside. (Man I love my new Blu-Ray player!)

Also we might have to face that facts that saving money might mean moving job responsibilities around so that one of our own doesn't do so much in the way of technology but allows someone else to handle it. Outsourcing is a fact of life and right now just makes sense for most business. That's why so many folks are looking at having their vital apps hosted somewhere and not deal with building a network infrastructure themselves.

If you could save your Office Manager (who 9 times out of ten is the IT contact) 5 hours a week to focus on business development and getting new business and perhaps you're paying that person a total of $30/hr with salary and benefits then at the end of the month you're paying $600 just for IT in house and that doesn't include projects or hiring an expert.

For $600 a month a business with 10 PC's and a server could definitely get a high level of service from an IT house with regular maintenance and 24x7 monitoring included. Technology is taken care of and now your Office Manager can help grow revenue rather than waste it.

The same is true of projects. Small Business Server 2008 is a tremendous product however I'm sure we'll see less call for it this year than when Small Business Server 2003 came out. Why? Benefits. The price per payback just might not be there if you simply use your existing hardware.

However what about the 3-4 server shop with 100 desktops? They might definitely want to consider the new Essential Business Server 2008 and on top of that virtualize it with Hyper-V which we have found to be rock solid. That will be our default configuration going forward. Why? It's all about the payback. Now you can have one bigger server running 3 servers inside with lower energy and cooling costs that give a direct ROI.

Another cost that kills business monthly is telecommunications. Recently I did an audit for a company that has a T1 direct to another location and a new lease on an old key telephone system. The cost of just those 2 things? How about $1100/month. What if you could wipe that out immediately, install a cable modem and a point to point VPN installation (security aside for some industries) and now have the same functionality for $100/month in telecommunication costs with a new phone system that might cost you $400/month. How long is the ROI on that? 9-12 months perhaps? And you're getting better technology.

We say it time and again but technology should be about improving the business not slowing it down or just looked at as an expense. If someone sees technology as a necessary evil those are the folks that we just walk away from during our assessments because they won't get it and see the opportunities to grow in an 8 year recession.

Blackberry Controller Service Not Starting and Event 5003

OK I'm not a fan of the Blackberry and SBS. It works but I really hate the additional setup on the SBS server. However we do it because we aim to keep our customers happy. Some services such as TMobile just don't have great Windows devices as of yet.

However we've had more issues with the Blackberry Enterprise Server software in the last week than we've had the entire time I've been running this place.

The Blackberry Controller service would not start up and we would get an event 5003 that was populated in the event log. After some digging I found the issue.

The root cause is the Microsoft Patch MS08-37 that affects DNS ports.

Going here http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/articles/787/KB16001_f.SAL_Public.html I quickly found out it was the DNS server causing the issue.

So I stopped the DNS server service and then started the Blackberry controller service. Voila, working like a champ. However that won't help the next reboot.

Well the SBS Blog folks are my heroes. This contribution alone to the community is worth every ounch of effort that those folks put into it to keep us informed. By going here: http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2008/07/17/some-services-may-fail-to-start-or-may-not-work-properly-after-installing-ms08-037-951746-and-951748.aspx you see that you can reserve the DNS ports not to check.

Follow that post and add ports 4070-4071 to the mix. Now reboot. OK all set!

Stinking blackberry or as a client called them this week suckberry.

Michigan Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Seminar

One thing that I see over and over again with small businesses is the need for a disaster recovery or business continuity plan. Did you know that 94% of small businesses fail after a disaster? Your data is your business. Make sure you have a plan for it.

For that reason we created a newly developed seminar called "Building a Business Continuity Plan for Michigan Small Businesses".

We're going to talk about some of the disasters that could happen right here in Michigan and the best way to avoid them. And how we can bullet proof our data from loss due to equipment failure, fire, flood or other disasters.

Join us please. We're going to limit participants to 30 so please sign up today. Best of all...it's FREE. Come out and talk about Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity over some breakfast and get back to the office before you're missed.

Sign up today.

Microsoft gets involved in the Financial Bailout

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MICROSOFT_FINANCIAL_CRISIS?SITE=WWJAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

Pretty surprising when we see Microsoft get involved in political issues.  They’ve kept a pretty good stance of not being affected and seeing revenues grow.  I think this is an admission that everything including the technology sector will go down if financial stability isn’t seen soon.  Technology has weathered the hits pretty good lately but we also have to be realistic and understand that if everyone else is having trouble, technology will too.  That includes those of us serving the small business market.  Even though Michigan has been taking a beating the small business market has been primarily good due to increased interest in starting new businesses.  Without money or capital to start up that will dry up very quickly.

Small Business Peer Groups and HTG

So I sit here in the Omaha airport waiting for my flight back to Detroit after 2 days of power packed information from 10 other owners/principals of a peer group called HTG or Heartland Technology Group. I'm in Group 13 or HTG 13.

Dave Cooksey is our group moderator and we also have some great owners including Karl Palachuk.

As we hit the future with our Michigan Small Business economy hurting we can definitely learn from the best practices that others are doing around the country. This is true whether or not you're in technology or farming, it doesn't matter, the principles are the same.

We visited Heartland Technologies where the HTG founder Arlin Sorensen has his business. Now all we can say is that he is on the CRN fast growth path and runs a $17 Mil business out of his farm/office. Looks are definitely deceiving. It's the processes and the people behind the scenes that make it happen.

What will we do with these quarterly meetings? We'll continue to fine tune our services to provide the best small business technology and small business consulting in Michigan. Hopefully this will continue to result in better service and better technology for all of our clients. With a board of 10 other people, it's hard to be steered wrong.

Execution is also key. That was definitely pounded down this week. So whatever your area of expertise or industry definitely take a look at peer groups as a way to continue to grow your business and have goals that you follow through on.

Its official. Microsoft Says No Client Backup In SBS 2008

Well we are all waiting for SBS 2008 to come out in the second half of this year. One thing that we were eagerly anticipating is whether or not client back up would be included. It's now official it won't: Microsoft Says No Client Backup In SBS 2008 - Software - IT Channel News by CRN and VARBusiness

I had lunch at SMB Summit in Dallas with Chris mentioned in the article. I think the client backup portion really took the team by surprise. The outcry in Dallas was do it and do it right. Why do we know it can be done right? Because people are using Windows Home Server in their SBS networks right now to backup client PC's. Something I never really thought of but actually an interesting idea. Windows Home Server does a great job of client backups (10 is the limit) and so some partners are actually selling this into their Windows SBS networks to backup client PC's.

I agree that I want it as well but I want it done right. We have a couple clients using Backup Exec for PC backup. It just plain sucks. Slow and unforgiving. I'll welcome a change.

As the complexity of the OS continues to evolve (and also the size) it's getting more important to be able to restore a client PC quickly and effectively.

Oh and btw, Chris was real cool about mentioning migration scenarios. I think we'll be pretty impressed with the way the SBS team migrates us from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008.

Do you give away passwords for chocolate?

Very interesting article that I found recently. Women give away passwords for chocolates. What would you give your password away for? I might be tempted with some golf clubs but come on. Never ever give away your passwords unless it is someone you know.

As a general rule we really never write down user passwords. Its just a security risk. Keeps your passwords secure and yours...not somebody elses.

Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 Training

Greetings from sunny Dallas. I'm down here at SMB Summit to learn more about the new products coming out from Microsoft. Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008. These are some great products that will be out later this year. We'll be prepared from the get go at TAZ Networks to support these and I'll be blogging about them in the upcoming months. Small businesses will definitely get a boost from SBS 2008.

For instance one example today is of a golf course that needed management software. SBS 2008 was installed in beta and now the golf course can manage calendars for golf course personnel such as cart guys, corporate outing calendars and catering calendars. Great software to do all of this out of the box.

I'll be coming back to Michigan with all these ideas in mind. Oh and it'll be nice to get away from the golf ball size hail we saw last night here in TX. Yep everything is indeed bigger in TX.

RIM ruling right now?

This headline just floated across my email: RIM reports doubling of profit and revenue, adds 2.2 million net new BlackBerry accounts

And I have to say that I concur. In the last month we've added 3 new Blackberry Pro Express installations on top of Small Business Server. Haven't heard of that? Actually it's pretty slick for small business. For $99/user and free for the first user you can install the software on your SBS server and redirect all mail to your blackberry. It's a new software from RIM that previously would have required the higher priced Blackberry Enterprise Server.

Has Windows Mobile lost a little steam? It sure appears that way to us. When the cost is minimal such as the above then Blackberry isn't such a bad word for small business anymore.

Watch the #49 Nascar Team this weekend

OK I'll admit that I'm a NASCAR slappy. I enjoy watching the cars go around and around making left turns the whole day. It's been something that even my son and wife are into so it's pretty much a family affair that is enjoyable for all of us. So when Microsoft announced that they are sponsoring one of the nice guys in the sport, Ken Schrader and his #49 team I was glad to hear it. However Ken only has been in 2 races this year so far. But low and behold he just qualified seventh for this weekend's race. So he'll definitely be in the race this weekend at Martinsville. Must have been some serious motivation there! So if you're flipping the channels and see the race this Sunday look for the #49 Microsoft Small Business Toyota with Ken at the wheel. And don't forget that the blue Small Business Specialist logo is the same one that we have at TAZ Networks.

Sharepoint 3.0 Config Database Growing Out of Control?

Recently we've seen a growth in disk space on our SBS servers. A big culprit? The config database for Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0.
You'll probably see the database in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSMSI\SSEE\MSSQL.2005\MSSQL\Data directory.

How do we shrink this puppy ASAP?
1. Download the SQL Server 2005 Management Studio Express if you don't have it installed. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C243A5AE-4BD1-4E3D-94B8-5A0F62BF7796&DisplayLang=en
2. Start up Management Studio Express. You'll probably see SERVER1\MICROSOFT##SSEE in the Server Name. However for the embedded edition that Sharepoint Services uses this will not work. You'll get an error that an error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. It will also tell you that the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. So instead put in np:\\.\pipe\MSSQL$Microsoft##SSEE\sql\query to connect to the instance.
3. Once Studio Express is up click on New Query.
4. Enter the following commands in replacing your db name for the one below:

use master
go
backup log "SharePoint_Config_0832ab09-b60f-4e16-a0c7-86ab757e8246" with truncate_only
use "SharePoint_Config_0832ab09-b60f-4e16-a0c7-86ab757e8246"
go
DBCC SHRINKFILE ('SharePoint_Config_0832ab09-b60f-4e16-a0c7-86ab757e8246_log',1)
go

5. Hit Ctrl-E to run the command

Your Sharepoint Config database should now be back to a reasonable size. Don't forget to set a backup or maintenance plan on Sharepoint to avoid this from happening again!

2007 Year in Review

I thought I'd just reprint my letter that went out in our recent newsletter here on the blog to anyone that would prefer to read it online rather than in print.  What a year for us in 2007 and I'm grateful to many people that have taken the time to use our services.  We've grown a lot and moved forward in a lot of ways.  Especially in a Michigan economy that has been bleak to say the least.  2008 should be even better!

 

To Our Valued Clients:

I want to thank each and every one of you for the opportunity to serve you during 2007. It’s been a big year of change at TAZ Networks. As the owner, I take much pride in the fact that we have continued to grow year after year and receive much in return in the way of thanks and great relationships that we have built over the course of time.

Whether you’re dealing with me directly or one of our employees, it’s important to me that you continue to receive great support and timely fixes to any problems you have. In addition, we want our business relationship to grow with each and every one of you, knowing that we can recommend technology products that will continue to make your businesses run smoother and your lives a little easier!

With changes come bumps in the road. So we’ve seen fit to make some adjustments to the way we run our operations to try to smooth those bumps. This is all based on feedback from you, our valued clients.

What have we done in 2007? For starters, we realized that communication with our clients needed to be improved. So we revamped our ticketing system. Twice. (Ouch!)

As you all know, if you don’t at first succeed try, try again. Our newest ticketing system is state of the art and allows you to even view your invoices online. We have sent out notices to all our clients of this new ticketing and portal system, so if you did not receive your notice please let us know. We’re not done yet as we will continue to improve this system. We hope it will quickly become the number one way that all clients get in contact with us.

We sent our techs to better training in 2007. This will be a trend you continue to see as we prepare for the upcoming swarm of new releases from Microsoft and others.

We’ve invested in new technologies. If you take a look at the back page of this newsletter you’ll see information on one such technology, VoIP. We will continue to promote this even more. Right now we need 3 companies to help us out. If you’re interested fill out the enclosed sign up sheet.

What will we do in 2008? Again, service is our top priority. We will be hiring more technical people to fill out roles in our organization.

One client request that we’ve heard loud and clear is additional in-office technical support so that you don’t have to leave a voice mail message if someone is out or

on the phone. We hope to have this done in the next month.

In addition, we will be working towards upgrading many of our customers to Microsoft’s new flagship release of Small Business Server.

Also, we want you to get more value out of the products you have, so we will be doing product-focused “lunch and learns.”

Thanks again for a great year! As always, if you have questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know directly.

Thanks for staying on the train!

Tavis Patterson, President

Trend Micro C/S/M now includes hosted ERS

Just something that caught my eye now and we will start to use.  Trend Micro Client Server Messaging (C/S/M) suite which is our de facto standard for anti virus for SBS users now includes a license to their hosted Email Reputation Services.  What is this?  Well essentially it means that you redirect your email to their servers where they scan and take a look at the mail and then after it goes through this cleaning process they deliver back to your Small Business Server.  It will also act as a backup for your email server in the event that it goes down as they will host your email for up to 5 days and then send it once its up again.  This is pretty great for just being included in the product.  We've got clients using a backup MX record and this will definitely make that not necessary.  In addition with the use of the IMF filter for Exchange and other lists spam has become a non issue for our clients.  The C/S/M suite has been a winner for us and with this newest addition to me the value continues to be very high.  Check out Trend and see if it'll fit your needs.

Download OA 2008 express, is #5 the new clippy?

Office Accounting 2008 Express is now available for download.  Check out www.ideawins.com for more information.

 

When you get to the site the first thing you'll be greeted with is #5.  Is he the new clippy?  Nice accent the guy has as well.  Sort of an accountants James Bond.

 

We use Office Accounting Professional here in the office when we drop kicked Quickbooks about a year ago.  Overall it's been good.  Somethings are not as easy to do as Quickbooks but the templates with Word have been awesome.  The 2008 edition looks even better in this regard and I'll put it on as soon as possible.  Biggest thing for a small business that I really like is the ability for 5 networked users running with a proper backup on our Small Business Server.  Nothing like sleeping well at night knowing that you have a backup of your most important thing...your accounting information.

TAZ Networks is now Cisco Select Certified with a SMB specialization

Man I know that's a mouth full but we're happy to say that we are now Cisco Select Certified and we have also attained our SMB specialization.  For Cisco that means we focus on businesses with less than 250 employees.

Why did we up the ante with Cisco?  Because when it comes to communication how many times do you see a Cisco phone in an office?  Yeah I thought so, us too.  Cisco is no question #1 when it comes to new VoIP and Unified Communications.  We are excited to be a part of their culture and really help businesses grow with their UC needs here in Central and Mid Michigan and the Metro Detroit areas.

We will be focusing on putting VoIP into our core industries of healthcare, manufacturing, and professional services including accounting and legal/lawyer industries.

If you haven't seen Cisco's Smart Business Communications Systems then you really should take a look.  They are definitely an awesome integration of technology and functionality.

Also take a look at IPceleterate's IPsmartSuite product line for such items as a Doctor's office.  Cool stuff.

Cisco axes Linksys branding - Engadget

Well I knew this was coming. Engadget tells us that Cisco axes Linksys branding - Engadget. I have to admit that out of all the small office products we've used I've enjoyed the Linksys products the most. Small Businesses have Linksys coming out of the wazoo in their office. Switches, routers, WAP's, you name it. We actually are running a Linkys Gig Switch and Linksys IP942 phones. Both run great and for the price have been great products. Now no doubt having the big Cisco group behind them recently has only helped our view of them and the quality of some of these products.

One thing that the Linksys brand always seemed to have to beat the Cisco guys was ease of configuration. Hands down it seemed the Linksys was easier to configure than anything Cisco. Perhaps this is just a false impression but hopefully that part of it won't die with the Linksys brand.

We'll definitely continue to recommend Linksys phones and switches until I see a drastic change in the product and that includes pricing.

Spam email and the Microsoft Lottery

If you're like us you're probably seeing a tremendous uptick in spam email the last 2 weeks with items that come in with pdf attachments or others sending me a greeting card with a greeting that only a pervert would enjoy. Let's hope that the IMF filter update for Exchange will knock out some of those in the next week or so. At any rate I rather enjoyed seeing this one show up in the junk email box today. Gave me a laugh that I've won the Microsoft lottery! Maybe I'll show up at the Microsoft Partner Conference this week and demand a check. And who the heck is Dr. Smith?

CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE WON THE MICROSOFT EMAIL LOTTERY.

CHECK ATTACHED MAIL AND VIEW THE PROCEDURES ON HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE.

YOURS SINCERELY,

DR SMITH.

IIS iUSR accounts and passwords

It's good to be secure. But one thing that can get you in trouble is resetting the iUSR_SERVER or iWAM_SERVER accounts on an SBS system. Recently that happened to a client of ours.

Here's a great article on how to find the iUSR passwords and what to do to resync them.

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/ArticleID/48361/48361.html?Ad=1

Repartitions and Event 7001 VSS Errors

Recently with all of the new service packs, updates, patches, and Trend Micro new versions we've really seen a hit on our clients SBS servers on the system partition. Especially those that we took over that they got from Dell with the wonderful 12GB partition on it.

So as I've mentioned in the past we use a cool utility from Paragon to resize the partitions. It works well and they have a nice tech license.

However those servers that we repartitioned recently are getting an Event 7001 in the log. It shows that the shadow copies are not created. Here's the link to the fix for this item from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833779.

Now make sure to go into the scheduled tasks and delete all items associated with Shadow Copy. Simply disabling and reenabling the shadow copies won't work.

And definitely double check that your shadow copies are enabled on your data drives. No worse thing than going to show a client that there is this neat feature to get your files back quickly only to realize you or your techs never enabled it!

Trend Micro C/S/M and Vista

Interesting catch here by one of my techs. If you are using Trend Micro C/S/M suite with your Small Business Server (and many of us are). Don expect a Vista capable product until April. You can read more information at the TREND MICRO BETA Portal.