15 Questions to Ask Your Software Vendor by Jay McCormack
When making a decision to buy any piece of software there are a number of criteria typically evaluated. One of the most important elements in the decision process is the strength of the company that builds the software. In fact a survey of 19,000 customers has identified that company strength is... Does the software update cost include phone based tech support? ... When do you plan to get their? ... Are manuals available for the software? ... Question 15 – The answer to this question identifies how ‘productised’ the software is.

Disaster Recovery by Prabir Sen
In today's world, businesses are beginning to demand more from their information systems. At the same time, the outer limit of technology is being stretched to its limit to meet this demand. This in turn puts a greater responsibility on the service Organisation, with the kind of daunting... The strategy of data or disaster recovery should be where all such disasters are withstood with a well chalked out plan. ... To understand a recovery process, you should first understand your current state, find out ways mitigating the risks, and last of all make a thorough plan of recovery.

DRM Defending You by Mila Levkovsky
We’ve heard the diagnosis: viruses are rampant and hackers are on the loose. Get your firewall ready, activate your spam filter and turn on those email anti-theft controls. That’s right. Using Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology you can send personal information, original artwork and... How harmful can unsecured email be to your business? ... Today the powerful protection of anti-theft software is affordable and easy to use and can be benefited from by small and medium businesses alike. ... Protecting intellectual information not only makes a business more competitive, but also...

Spreadsheet Programs - Powerful Tools for Organizing and Managing Your Business by Groshan Fabiola
Spreadsheet: A table of rows and columns, free for the entry of data, or formulae for calculating actions on those data. Each row or column is said to contain many ‘cells’ and these cells serve as ‘homes’ for every shred of information. Many spreadsheet applications nowadays have functionality... Elaborate, properly constructed spreadsheets greatly simplify a wide range of activities and processes within companies, enabling business owners to economize valuable time and effort, increase the efficiency of their business (Analysis), keep track of different tasks, manage their budget,...

Microsoft Great Plains: Annual Enhancement Program – How To Be Re-Enrolled by Andrew Karasev
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is mid and even corporate market ERP and as being relatively complex and difficult to do self-support in-house, Microsoft Business Solutions requires you first to have so-called VAR of record, or your MBS partner and second – pay annual enhancement... This amount incorporate 16% enhancement program plan. ... If you need to get back to enhancement program, minimal re-enrollment fee is 35% of the software price list. ... Your company had tough time three years ago, your former Great Plains Partner had the same of even larger problems, trying to stay...

Data Backup - Do You Have A Data Backup And Recovery Plan In Place? by Lee Morrell
Data backup is rarely a part of a home computer user’s or business IT administrator’s plans, we all say it will never happen to me or my company, but in reality we are just mentally preparing for the time we lose our data. Its like trying to stop smoking, we all know we should do it but will... So be honest with yourself and ask yourself the question, do you have a backup plan for your data, or more importantly, do you have a restore plan which will protect your business should something go wrong?

Microsoft CRM Integration with Lotus Notes Domino: Messaging Connector – Future Directions by Andrew Karasev
IBM Lotus Notes Domino and Microsoft CRM (Client Relation Management) from now on can work in tandem. Microsoft CRM Lotus Notes Domino connector from Alba Spectrum Technologies provides seamless messaging in MS CRM through Domino. Our customers suggest future direction for the connector. ... If MS CRM is business critical and Lotus investments should be protected – we recommend our customers Lotus Notes Domino support contract. ... We do understand that our connector will work in the MS CRM environment with 30+ users, which means that it will be midsize or large corporate business.

Ten Things I Learned the Hard Way: A Guide to Building Software by Kara Brook
Somewhere in the mid 90’s, my company, Brook Group, underwent rapid growth as it converted from being an advertising and design firm to a web services firm. We were running 3 shifts at the time and we only had one manager: me. Coming from a design background, I had a lot of (sometimes very... If you don't know how to do software product development and you are bootstrapping and starting from scratch, get people involved who do know how to do software development, product development, project management, product pricing, product marketing...

Microsoft Dynamics: GP, AX, NAV, SL, CRM – Merge or Coexistence? by Andrew Karasev
Obviously it is non-official opinion and we are just trying to guess on the future direction of Microsoft Dynamics or former Microsoft Project Green. These lines are written in June of 2006, based on the analysis of Microsoft Business Solutions policy and real actions in the USA, Europe, Latin... It is good idea to have small budget to understand which international ERP brand (or combination of brands) is good for your international operations: Microsoft Dynamics, SAP mySAP or SAP Business One, Oracle E-Business Suite, etc.

What are the Facts about Data Loss? by Lee Morrell
I have been in the data recovery business for many years and have read and heard many “facts” covering the causes, costs and trends of data loss recovery. I have also heard of all the best ways to backup data ensuring total loss of data never happens. ... Key causes of data loss: 78% Hardware or System Malfunction 11% Human Error 7% Software Corruption or Program Malfunction 2% Computer Viruses 1% Natural Disasters 1% Other Depending on your location, hardware and software you use, I feel sure some of you will not agree with the above causes.