Cobweb

More iPhone news - iPod touch supports ActiveSync

If you can't wait for an iPhone to come back in to stock there is an alternative. The iPhone 2.0 software update is available for the iPod touch, minus the phone functionality. It includes Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support, so if you need email on the move and are always near a WiFi hot spot then this could be the answer. Add a VOIP application and away you go, ideal for those mobile office bound workers.

See the Apple site for more information, http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/whatsnew.html.

Gartner advises firms under 1000 users to outsource

Interesting piece about Gartner advising business to consider Webmail as a viable cost effective alternative. We at Cobweb say - great news - Gartner are endorsing the IT model that we have been delivering since 2001 - but wait a moment, are they seriously suggesting that businesses should use Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail for their mission critical communications medium? Managing mail for over 5000 business customers I think we have a good idea of the needs of the sub 1000 user organization and there are 3 things these customers need great support, great support and great support.

Of course they also need mobility options, Blackberry, Windows mobile, Iphone, also compliant archiving as well as flexible migration scenarios, simple and complex mail routing and an array of other technical features, but, most importantly they need to know that they can access high quality support in way they want to, when they want to.

It is also important to recognise that different roles in any business require different features, deskless workers may or may not need offline working, office users may need interoperability with other office systems such as CRM or ERP solutions. So yes I agree - businesses under 1000 users should not deploy internal mail systems, but, as they outsource - do the due diligence and find a provider that meets their own individual needs, and my guess is that not many of them will opt for Hotmail!

See the Computer Weekly artical here

   

iPhone 3G with Exchange Server

With the launch of iPhone 3G/2.0 software update there has once again been a lot of hype, but how good is the iPhone for business users? If you are a Cobweb customer, you can use your new iPhone 3G or updated iPhone to access your mailbox using ActiveSync.

Push email support is provided for users of Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and Exchange Server 2007. The usual raft of security policies can also be enforced including, but not limited to; Remote Wipe; Password, Inactivity Time before lock out. One policy missing however is, storage encryption. With a modern Windows Mobile or BlackBerry a business can choose to protect the data stored on the device and any storage cards out of the box by encrypting it.

The iPhone 2.0  software also supports popular industry standard VPN protocols and WPA2 Enterprise, both of which make use of certificates for authentication. Productivity is handled by iWork, which is compatible with Microsoft Office documents so you can read them on the go.

One consideration to keep in mind is does your organisation allow MP3 and other personal media files to be stored on the network and computers? Does this policy extend to mobile devices? If so, users may be a little upset when they get their shiny new iPhone and then be told they are not allowed to store music on it.

Cobweb launches new Partner Programme in Texas

Resellers are invited to partner with Cobweb as it grows to 100,000 hosted mailboxes and expands the services available.   

The Partner Programme which offers four different levels; White Label; Sell With Premier; Sell With and Refer.  Each tier presents a compelling proposition for resellers with appropriate levels of branding, marketing, technical, service and training support as well as lead generation and collateral. See the press release here

ActiveSync or BlackBerry? Now we can Mix 'n' Match.

Recently a site called AstraSync.com has appeared offering ActiveSync (MS's mobile email technology) software for BlackBerry devices and last year RIM announced the release of "virtual BlackBerry" for Windows Mobile.
The first question that came to my mind was, why? I guess it comes down to choice for the end user and IT pro supporting it in the back ground. BlackBerry made mobile email a must for business all over the world, but it's technology does rely on third party servers and networks, in addition to mail servers and the internet. ActiveSync works on Exchange Server out of the box and just uses the internet.

Cobweb are off to the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, Texas

Howdy!    Cobweb are attending Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference again, only this time we're exhibiting on a stand as well as going to the conference.   We will be on the massive Software+Services stand (it's more like a huge pavillion really #875) which is being run by the worldwide MS Hosting teams. 

There will be 9 other Managed hosting companies from around the world, they are mostly US based, and we are the sole UK company on the stand.     The event is truely grand with 10,000+ attendees, key notes from Balmer etc. and plenty of networking, parties and late nights.

We are using this event as the perfect launch of our new Partner Programme for the white-label, resell and referral of Managed/Hosted Services. Mark Adams will be talking about this in a presentation on Tuesday 8th July and Wednesday 9th July at 1.15pm.   We'll get some video of this and post that up for all to see.

We're flying out tomorrow (Sunday) and will there for the week.   You can find out more about Mark, Dan, Shelley and Julian

We will also be posting blog updates on this site, and pictures of the event and other activities to our Travel photo blog

Congratulations Oli (MVP - Microsoft Most Valuable Professional)

Just wanted to say a quick congratulations to one of our employees; Oliver Moazzezi for successfully renewing his MVP status (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) as he’s not the sort to brag, so we thought we’d do it for him!

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Oliver is 1 of 8 Exchange MVP’s in the UK and has been working on the Technology Early Adoption Programme with Microsoft, currently working on the Exchange 2007 platform, which will be available to both new and existing customers very shortly. 

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To find out more about the Exchange 2007 launch at Cobweb, click here, or you can read some of Oliver’s Exchange 2007 posts here.

You learn something new every day

I had an interesting review with a recent new customer of ours this week - which has opened my eyes a bit...

This customer is truly global with near 1000 mailboxes running some 2GB mailboxes, Email Archival and BlackBerry.  They are very smart with their systems and we've been dealing with some very technically versed people, and have been undergoing a fairly lengthy and complex migration from their legacy mail servers to our platform.   There have been some challenges along the way - co-ordinating their resource and activities in remote offices, with the activities of our engineers in setting this up, combined with the impact to the end users, have given us both a few teething problems. But, we've worked these out and generally found that communication is the key to making this work (it usually is!)

So, I was expecting a few challenges about some of the slips along the way, but when it comes to platform availability and performance, generally things have been OK and there are no worries here... or so I was thinking. 

I heard about some of the real issues that have been causing pain to their administrators of the system - those IT admins that make our system work for their end-users.   I was to hear about issues that I thought were fixed, resolved, dead and buried - or so I thought...  These were not showstopping issues, the service still worked and mail still flowed, but some of the real-time admin data and interfaces used to administer the services or a provisioning action was repeatedly incorrect or failing for these administrators.    I heard about one issue that we've been having on and off repeatedly for many months, which on reflection is something that we will resolve for good now. 

So I learnt that fixing a problem and moving on, doesn’t necessarily mean that others (my customer in this case) has moved along with you.  Reflection is important, it’s easy to assume that a technical fix affects the customer perception when in reality things may be a little different.

Funday Friday - Beachwear day

Hello all - we try and relax a bit on Friday at Cobweb... still lots to do but we have some fun while we're at it.   Today's been particularly good with a Beachwear day - shorts and sunnies all round despite the somewhat overcast weather!   

 

Be Positive

“Call me Old Fashioned”   ……. My own personal view, great customer service stems from the basic values of life itself. Personally I have an outlook to life that is simple, treat others as I would like to be treated myself. In work, as in life I follow a few simple rules, honesty, and openness, respect, polite and approachable; never promise what I can’t deliver. Sticking to these basic guidelines has not let me down.

Experience through life, is in my opinion, something to be valued, and if something affects your personal life you truly learn from this, more so than something learnt in a classroom.  We all remember the bad experiences when making purchases, for example, the gum chewing person busy chatting to their associates about their exploits the night before, or the way you were treated when complaining about a faulty product. Not being listened to completely, so that you have to repeat yourself, leading to a great deal of frustration.  I could go on…..

However, on the other hand, good customer service is rarely reported but should be applauded.  Have you ever had a good experience and let the person or company know.  I must admit, I never used to, but in the many years I have been involved in Customer Service (too many to say) I have reported on good customer service a lot more, making the experience a lot more enjoyable, only through being positive about an issue rather than negative.  So no more Mrs Grumpy, my grievances are approached with a smile and never made personal.  What’s the benefit of that, you might ask.  Well, experience has shown me that, firstly, I don’t get frustrated or stressed about the situation, next comes the buying into helpfulness, the more agreeable I am the quicker issues are resolved, the other party listens more carefully so that removes the repeated conversations.

Go on, report good customer service, being positive is great.  Why not tell the person behind the counter or on the phone that they have done a good job.  Spread the “feel good” factor, I know if I feel good I do a better job, you never know, it might just catch on!

Val Wilson