Global Hosted Email Provider Unveils New Managed Network Featuring Cisco Routers and SAVVIS Global IT Services Platform
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mail2World, Inc., a leading global provider of hosted email and collaboration solutions, today announced that its new network infrastructure featuring new Cisco routers is fully operational. The network is managed jointly by Mail2World and SAVVIS, Inc. (NASDAQ:SVVS), a global leader in IT Infrastructure services for business and government applications. SAVVIS hosts Mail2World’s applications in a Southern California data center with connectivity to SAVVIS’ global IT services platform, which encompasses 25 data centers spanning 45 countries.
Data Systems Worldwide, Inc. (DSW), a Cisco Silver-certified IT solutions firm that designs, builds and manages large-scale enterprise application infrastructures, was the main integrator for Mail2World’s new state-of-the-art network. This successful deployment marks another major milestone in bringing Mail2World’s leading-edge email and collaboration solutions to the company’s global customer base. The network expansion also accommodates Mail2World’s explosive business growth worldwide and maximizes its infrastructure resilience, data protection and security.
“On a day-to-day basis, people rely on email more than any other technology,” states Mail2World Executive Vice President and COO Youssef Abed. “To meet and exceed our customers’ demands for high performance and reliability, Mail2World is building its business based on industry-leading network and IT infrastructure from Cisco and SAVVIS.”
“Mail2World’s SaaS delivery architecture features Cisco’s advanced network and routing capabilities, which integrate security and load balancing at the core of the network, and hosting services provided by SAVVIS data centers running on the SAVVIS global IT services platform,” explained Mike Mogavero, Vice President of Sales at DSW. “As an integrator, DSW is excited about working with Mail2World. The company clearly understands and values an investment in technology as an essential means to achieving their vision of providing fully hosted, powerful, comprehensive email and collaboration solutions and services with superior management capabilities and the highest levels of scalability, security and redundancy for all types of businesses at the lowest cost of ownership.”
From a business perspective, Mail2World expects the new network to further differentiate the company within the hosted email and collaboration industry and provide the stickiness to retain existing customers while gaining new ones. On the operational side, the network upgrade enables Mail2World’s network operations and engineering teams to dramatically reduce power consumption and the use of precious data center space by consolidating to a single platform. This strategy helps to keep costs down, which allows Mail2World to invest in building rich application features instead of spending unnecessary time and effort managing an unnecessarily diverse set of point solutions that would negatively impact customers’ total cost of ownership.
“SAVVIS solutions enable business-critical applications providers like Mail2World to improve the performance and security of their IT systems, lower the cost of their IT operations and become more agile by scaling their IT infrastructure up or down as business needs change,” said James Whitemore, Chief Marketing Officer for SAVVIS. “We are delighted to have met Mail2World’s strict requirements and look forward to continuing our support for their current business and future global growth.”
About Mail2World®
Mail2World, Inc., (http://www.mail2world.net/) designs, delivers and supports a technology-leading and award-winning suite of Software as a Service (SaaS) email and collaboration solutions. Custom-engineered to handle tens of millions of mailboxes, Mail2World’s hosting platform addresses the growing need for advanced, ultra-reliable and cost-effective email and collaboration in global enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses and large-scale service providers. The company’s growing list of customers includes prominent organizations from around the world, such as publicly-traded corporations, top five colleges listed in Newsweek’s America’s Best Colleges 2007 report and some of the largest and most-recognized online properties. Founded in early 2000, Mail2World is a privately held corporation headquartered in Los Angeles, Calif.
Contacts
Mail2World, Inc.
Carol Mason
310-209-0060, ext. 103
Fax: 310-209-0079
cmason@mail2world.net
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Getting $ from the CFO, Simple Math, Value > Cost
In my 28 years in the technology industry there has always been a struggle between IT who want more goods and services and the CFO who wants to cut spending. If you want to get your projects funded, it is important to understand the economic equation as you present your solution to the CFO, CIO or other financial driven decision makers. At the end of the day, the solution you seek to obtain funding for must provide greater value than cost.
When you present your solution to financial managers, you must understand that you are “selling” your solution to the CFO as though he is your customer – for him to buy, he must understand the value in economic terms. If your solution is presented in economic (ROI, TCO, EBITDA, etc) vernacular, your chances of success are much higher than if presented in technical vernacular (speeds, feeds, TCP/IP, etc).
While cost is generally easy to obtain, make sure that you understand all costs! Leaving costs out will create doubt that the solution should be funded. A general overview of cost includes the following:
1. Capital Expenditure = hardware + software price (often expressed as depreciation over the life of the investment on an income statement)
2. Operational expenditure = installation, training, maintenance for the life of the investment
3. Financing cost = cost of money
The total price should be factored into a useful life over the term of the investment and then divided by the number of months and divided once again by the number of users to obtain a cost per month per user. When comparing cost models, make sure you communicate the life of an investment, emphasizing that newer technology has a longer life span than legacy technology. For example, if an investment costs $100,000 but has a five year useful life it has a cost per year of $20,000 which is less money than a $70,000 investment with a three year life, equating to $23,333 per year.
The second and more difficult part of the equation is the value side. You must understand how the investment will allow the company you work for to save money or make money. For example, if you were purchasing a new communications system, the ability to automatically route calls to available agents would increase efficiency and allow you to have fewer call center reps to handle more calls. If you were deploying a network for a new facility that can handle multiple facility applications such as voice, video surveillance, video conferencing, digital signage and building controls, etc., the savings on cabling and operational expense for moves/adds/changes (MACs) is significant allowing more technology to be deployed and managed with lower headcount and therefore lower operational expense.
Consider the following hypothetical example to justify the purchase of a 100 user IP communications system for a call center with 10 users spread among two branches that has the expectation that call volume will double over the next 12 months:
Cost side:
1. Capital Expenditure : Phone system hardware and capital cost is $100,000
2. Operational Expenditure: Maintenance = $50,000 for five year s, installation = $20,000, training = $10,000.
3. Financing cost: 0% interest over 36 months = $0
The total cost in this case would be $190,000 / 60 months/100 users = $31.67 per user per month
Value side:
1. Call center users = $30,000 per year x 10 users currently. As volume doubles with the current system, users must double. With the new system, users only have to increase to 16 due to efficiencies within IP telephony such as integration into software to support screen pops, predictive dialing and 4 digit branch to branch communication. Therefore, the value obtained in this scenario is $30,000 x 4 people x 5 years = $600,000 in savings.
2. Telephone charge savings = by using IP, PSTN costs drop as WAN’s can be leveraged for inter-branch calling. In addition, conference call costs and travel costs can decrease due to the integration of new technologies like telepresence and meeting bridges. For this example, we will assume $500 per month savings or $18,000 over 60 months.
3. Cabling leverage = By installing the new system in a secondary branch, only one cabling infrastructure needs to be installed, saving about $10,000 for cable runs to support 20 new users.
The total value in this case would be ($600,000 + $18,000 + $10,000) / 60 months/100 users = $104.67 per user per month
As such, the value of $104.67 represents a better than 3:1 return on investment (ROI) versus the $31.67 per month cost.
Another example is the cost savings by implementing server and storage virtualization resulting in additional capital expenditure offset by lower maintenance, staffing and energy costs.
If you think about the value that each solution provides your company before you ask for money, your chance for funding this expense will increase!
Please let us know how we can help you justify your strategic technology decisions!
When you present your solution to financial managers, you must understand that you are “selling” your solution to the CFO as though he is your customer – for him to buy, he must understand the value in economic terms. If your solution is presented in economic (ROI, TCO, EBITDA, etc) vernacular, your chances of success are much higher than if presented in technical vernacular (speeds, feeds, TCP/IP, etc).
While cost is generally easy to obtain, make sure that you understand all costs! Leaving costs out will create doubt that the solution should be funded. A general overview of cost includes the following:
1. Capital Expenditure = hardware + software price (often expressed as depreciation over the life of the investment on an income statement)
2. Operational expenditure = installation, training, maintenance for the life of the investment
3. Financing cost = cost of money
The total price should be factored into a useful life over the term of the investment and then divided by the number of months and divided once again by the number of users to obtain a cost per month per user. When comparing cost models, make sure you communicate the life of an investment, emphasizing that newer technology has a longer life span than legacy technology. For example, if an investment costs $100,000 but has a five year useful life it has a cost per year of $20,000 which is less money than a $70,000 investment with a three year life, equating to $23,333 per year.
The second and more difficult part of the equation is the value side. You must understand how the investment will allow the company you work for to save money or make money. For example, if you were purchasing a new communications system, the ability to automatically route calls to available agents would increase efficiency and allow you to have fewer call center reps to handle more calls. If you were deploying a network for a new facility that can handle multiple facility applications such as voice, video surveillance, video conferencing, digital signage and building controls, etc., the savings on cabling and operational expense for moves/adds/changes (MACs) is significant allowing more technology to be deployed and managed with lower headcount and therefore lower operational expense.
Consider the following hypothetical example to justify the purchase of a 100 user IP communications system for a call center with 10 users spread among two branches that has the expectation that call volume will double over the next 12 months:
Cost side:
1. Capital Expenditure : Phone system hardware and capital cost is $100,000
2. Operational Expenditure: Maintenance = $50,000 for five year s, installation = $20,000, training = $10,000.
3. Financing cost: 0% interest over 36 months = $0
The total cost in this case would be $190,000 / 60 months/100 users = $31.67 per user per month
Value side:
1. Call center users = $30,000 per year x 10 users currently. As volume doubles with the current system, users must double. With the new system, users only have to increase to 16 due to efficiencies within IP telephony such as integration into software to support screen pops, predictive dialing and 4 digit branch to branch communication. Therefore, the value obtained in this scenario is $30,000 x 4 people x 5 years = $600,000 in savings.
2. Telephone charge savings = by using IP, PSTN costs drop as WAN’s can be leveraged for inter-branch calling. In addition, conference call costs and travel costs can decrease due to the integration of new technologies like telepresence and meeting bridges. For this example, we will assume $500 per month savings or $18,000 over 60 months.
3. Cabling leverage = By installing the new system in a secondary branch, only one cabling infrastructure needs to be installed, saving about $10,000 for cable runs to support 20 new users.
The total value in this case would be ($600,000 + $18,000 + $10,000) / 60 months/100 users = $104.67 per user per month
As such, the value of $104.67 represents a better than 3:1 return on investment (ROI) versus the $31.67 per month cost.
Another example is the cost savings by implementing server and storage virtualization resulting in additional capital expenditure offset by lower maintenance, staffing and energy costs.
If you think about the value that each solution provides your company before you ask for money, your chance for funding this expense will increase!
Please let us know how we can help you justify your strategic technology decisions!
Driving to Work is a Thing of the Past!
Getting up at 6 o’clock in the morning and driving down the freeway; other cars conspiring to make you late to work; and the increased chances of ending up in an accident are now a thing of the past.
Welcome to what technology has been promising for years. Imagine waking up at 8 AM and joining a conference call in your PJs. Jump on to your PDA and check your day’s calendar, then start the trek to your office (aka downstairs).
Telecommuting hasn’t yet become a reality for many of the millions of office staff and executives that still try to traverse the dangerous wild we call freeways. But the technology is here! Why aren’t we using it effectively!
For example, if you are one of the few who hasn’t yet, installing Exchange 2003 or 2007 allows simple things like opening Outlook from home or any other location using a protocol called RPC/http (RPC over http). This centralizes your data on the server while allowing access from anywhere via the very utilized Outlook.
So let’s discuss what's needed to successfully distribute your workforce.
1. The ability to accomplish all of your work without the need for having a business location. The employees that come to mind are salespeople, administrators, and other in-house business representatives. While other factory workers and accounting team that directly correlate to pushing paperwork or writing checks may still need to work in a small distributed office or company warehouse. A very interesting example is of a Cisco Executive Assistant named Margaret shown in the picture. She is sitting at her desk and doesn’t commute to that location in San Jose…in fact she is in Texas in this picture.
2. A strong communications plan. Most businesspeople know that you can't really manage your team without seeing them. Often times, body language is more telling than verbal, so the ability to see your fellow worker, boss, or employee is crucial to the design. As well, since email has become a more reliable and traceable format of communications, having the ability to check those messages anytime and anywhere has become very important.
So how does this design look? An exchange server running RPC over http and a mobile client like active sync or Blackberry Enterprise Server are truly invaluable. This has become a requirement over an option in the last year.
But since email is sometimes not enough, a voice system is needed. This system should be a distributed phone system using VoIP that enables a telecommuter to pick up their office phone and make calls just like they were sitting in their office downtown. Adding on the video option, the computer screen becomes a two way video conferencing utility.
Unified messaging takes all of these technologies and connects them all into an easy to access message box. Imagine checking one voicemail box and email box and it being the same box. How about responding to emails with your cell phone by speaking the response and the reply turning it into a wav file attachment that the recipient can play back on their phone.
One of the common issues is not knowing where someone is. Are they out of the office, on a flight, at their desk, or gone for the day. Can they be reached with a video call, or are the busy on another call. With Cisco Presence, you can find out the exact status of another individual in your office and communicate with them in the best fashion without wasting time listening to each other’s voicemails.
I hear a lot of you asking about ROI. Return on investment is a very easy task. Let’s examine the most common savings. Studies show that occupying office space for a 1 year period which includes such items as the cost of the building and maintenance, the cost of furniture, computers, phones, and other items like janitorial service equal $12,000 per year per person.
Cabling is another money saver. On average, a phone in an office is moved 3 times per year resulting in a MAC (Move Add Change) work order which us telecom companies charge on average $100 per MAC.
Not to bore you with more of these, many studies have been done that show that both a distributed workforce as well as VoIP has an average ROI of 7 months.
It’s obvious to the 49 million Cisco VoIP users and 13 million telecommuters that this is the wave of the future. Are you riding this wave? If not, contact your DSW representative to tell you more, show you a demonstration, or help you develop a ROI for your company.
Welcome to what technology has been promising for years. Imagine waking up at 8 AM and joining a conference call in your PJs. Jump on to your PDA and check your day’s calendar, then start the trek to your office (aka downstairs).
Telecommuting hasn’t yet become a reality for many of the millions of office staff and executives that still try to traverse the dangerous wild we call freeways. But the technology is here! Why aren’t we using it effectively!
For example, if you are one of the few who hasn’t yet, installing Exchange 2003 or 2007 allows simple things like opening Outlook from home or any other location using a protocol called RPC/http (RPC over http). This centralizes your data on the server while allowing access from anywhere via the very utilized Outlook.
So let’s discuss what's needed to successfully distribute your workforce.
1. The ability to accomplish all of your work without the need for having a business location. The employees that come to mind are salespeople, administrators, and other in-house business representatives. While other factory workers and accounting team that directly correlate to pushing paperwork or writing checks may still need to work in a small distributed office or company warehouse. A very interesting example is of a Cisco Executive Assistant named Margaret shown in the picture. She is sitting at her desk and doesn’t commute to that location in San Jose…in fact she is in Texas in this picture.
2. A strong communications plan. Most businesspeople know that you can't really manage your team without seeing them. Often times, body language is more telling than verbal, so the ability to see your fellow worker, boss, or employee is crucial to the design. As well, since email has become a more reliable and traceable format of communications, having the ability to check those messages anytime and anywhere has become very important.
So how does this design look? An exchange server running RPC over http and a mobile client like active sync or Blackberry Enterprise Server are truly invaluable. This has become a requirement over an option in the last year.
But since email is sometimes not enough, a voice system is needed. This system should be a distributed phone system using VoIP that enables a telecommuter to pick up their office phone and make calls just like they were sitting in their office downtown. Adding on the video option, the computer screen becomes a two way video conferencing utility.
Unified messaging takes all of these technologies and connects them all into an easy to access message box. Imagine checking one voicemail box and email box and it being the same box. How about responding to emails with your cell phone by speaking the response and the reply turning it into a wav file attachment that the recipient can play back on their phone.
One of the common issues is not knowing where someone is. Are they out of the office, on a flight, at their desk, or gone for the day. Can they be reached with a video call, or are the busy on another call. With Cisco Presence, you can find out the exact status of another individual in your office and communicate with them in the best fashion without wasting time listening to each other’s voicemails.
I hear a lot of you asking about ROI. Return on investment is a very easy task. Let’s examine the most common savings. Studies show that occupying office space for a 1 year period which includes such items as the cost of the building and maintenance, the cost of furniture, computers, phones, and other items like janitorial service equal $12,000 per year per person.
Cabling is another money saver. On average, a phone in an office is moved 3 times per year resulting in a MAC (Move Add Change) work order which us telecom companies charge on average $100 per MAC.
Not to bore you with more of these, many studies have been done that show that both a distributed workforce as well as VoIP has an average ROI of 7 months.
It’s obvious to the 49 million Cisco VoIP users and 13 million telecommuters that this is the wave of the future. Are you riding this wave? If not, contact your DSW representative to tell you more, show you a demonstration, or help you develop a ROI for your company.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Web 2.0 Security Threats
As the emerging trend toward the use of Web 2.0 technologies reaches the enterprise, CIO’s and other IT personnel may find them a nuisance. Business driven applications, such as Wikis, Podcasts, or internal Blogs is on the rise, According to a Nermetes Research report, 18% of executives said that their company is using blogs, while 32% are using wikis, and 23% are using RSS. One of the major issues with these evolving 2.0 technologies is their lack of security. Web 2.0 applications expose companies to both inbound and outbound security threats that transcend legacy security measures associated with Web 1.0
The interactive nature of these applications creates new pipelines for information leakage, and makes them inherently difficult to secure. Couple with the hyper-speed of Web development, and the pressure to get new tools in the hands of users as quickly as possible, and you’ve got a security nightmare waiting to happen. So what can companies do to ensure that Web traffic coming in or going out of the network isn’t malicious in nature? Many have begun adopting Web security appliances which scan the actual content of web traffic coming in and out of the network for malware, spyware, viruses, worms and Trojans.
A Web security gateway is an appliance that plugs into the network, scans all HTTP and SMTP traffic both entering and exiting the network to ensure that each piece of content isn’t infected with malware. The traffic is scanned against a database of threat protection signatures and is allowed if no malware is uncovered. Some would argue that desktop software is more efficient or effective at protection from Web-borne malware, but an IT person will clearly tell you that managing and servicing 50-5,000 desktops with software is challenging keeping all up to date and now requires both AV and Anti-spyware clients. A single Web security appliance can apply both signature and reputation filters delivering complete protection from Web-borne malware. If the appliance is a network-friendly appliance, it will fit seamlessly into any network typography, and perform at gigabit rates – with no network performance degradation.
Web security appliances not only contain signature-based scanning of all HTTP and SMTP content, many include URL filtering and reputation filtering as well. This 3-pronged approach to securing the network is becoming increasingly popular as it covers all bases.
URL Filtering
URL filtering is especially good for setting and enforcing policies for employees. The most traditional approach used to block malware from entering a corporate network is URL filtering. Based on policies set forth by network and security administrators in the organizations, users are either permitted or denied access to certain categories of sites. As the Internet is made up of hundreds of millions of sites, URL filtering approaches rely on web crawlers to categorize sites to add them to its database. However, hackers are getting more sophisticated at fighting Web crawlers, by serving up good content so they are placed on the list of permitted sites and then when a users visits that Webpage they are served malware.
Content Filtering
Content filtering scans traffic coming in and out of the network and inspects every webpage coming in and out of the network for malicious code. This approach utilizes camouflaged machines which are placed around the world to collect malware samples. These samples are continually analyzed & are added to the database of threats that a company is protected from.
Reputation Filtering
Reputation Filtering is the newest approach to fighting Web-borne malware. Based on site reputations, content may not be scanned or filtered. For example, CNN is a popular news site and must have a good reputation so it isn’t scanned or inspected. However, well known sites are compromised all the time. The best method of Reputation filtering is to utilize it as a black list instead of a white list. Black listed sites are always blocked while white listed sites are always permitted to pass. Thus blocking access to sites known to distribute malware is more effective.
The more popular Web 2.0 becomes in the business world, the more attractive it will be to those with malicious intent. Seemingly legitimate Web pages can introduce malware or spyware into a network.
The following link is to a recent blog post by a self-proclaimed life hacker who clearly outlines the top 5 Web 2.0 services that hackers will love.
http://www.gnucitizen.org/blog/the-top-5-most-popular-web20-services-hackers-cannot-live-without .
YouTube and Monster.com, two popular sites for social networking and job searches are visited frequently by employees looking for a new job or wanting to watch the latest funny videos. In addition to visiting these sites while at work, users are linking from internal Wikis and podcasts to their MySpace.com pages opening up the network to potential hackers.
Managing the influx of security issues that come along with Web 2.0 is a collective work in progress; however, with web content security appliances on the rise, the need for desktop software that requires constant updates and troubleshooting on a multitude of machines is quickly falling by the wayside.
Friday, October 5, 2007
0% Financing Offer for Cisco Unified IP Communications
What Makes This Unique and Compelling?
- This is a 0%, 36 month, $1 Buyout new customer financing program
- This program will cover any SMB sub-100 Voice Deal (CallManager Express or CallManager)
- This program is valid through July 28, 2008!
Example: $36,000 solution
$30,000 in hardware
+
$6,000 for 3 years of Cisco SmartNET
=
$1,000 for 36 months
- This is a 0%, 36 month, $1 Buyout new customer financing program
- This program will cover any SMB sub-100 Voice Deal (CallManager Express or CallManager)
- This program is valid through July 28, 2008!
Example: $36,000 solution
$30,000 in hardware
+
$6,000 for 3 years of Cisco SmartNET
=
$1,000 for 36 months
Contact Us for more info
Partnership Announced with New Horizions: Free Training Offer
PARTNERSHIP ANNOUCED WITH NEW HORIZONS: FREE TRAINING OFFERDSW and New Horizons of Southern California have partnered to bring your training experience to new heights by offering a free day of training in any of the New Horizons of Southern California centers including Anaheim, Culver City or Burbank. Through end of 2007, DSW is offering a free one day Cisco or Microsoft training course for any customers who purchase Cisco or Microsoft products through DSW and redeem Cisco or Microsoft training credits through DSW and New Horizons. Any customers with existing unused training credits may also take advantage of this offer provide the credit are redeemed through DSW and New Horizons by the end of 2007!!!!!!!!!
By using Cisco or Microsoft trainings credits at New Horizons, DSW will provide a voucher that may be redeemed through New Horizons. The voucher is offered for training in the Mentored Learning lab from 8am-5pm with pre-registration on a Cisco Intro class or any available Microsoft MOC classes. This is a great way to expose your team to New Horizons facilities and take advantage of the breadth of classes they offer.
Please have the interested employee contact Dan Lake to enroll at (818)226-1739. Dan will make sure you are enrolled in the correct New Horizons location and the appropriate choice of class.
Sincerely,
DSW and New Horizons of Southern California
Terms & Conditions: Voucher must be presented at the time of attendance. Not redeemable for cash. Pre-enrollment is required. Valid for one-day Mentored Learning classes. GOOD ONLY AT ANAHEIM, CULVER CITY or BURBANK. Available for: Cisco Intro or any Microsoft MOC class. ONE COUPON PER COMPANY. MUST BE REDEEMED THROUGH DSW.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Cisco Announces the Next Generation of Faster and More Reliable Wireless, the 802.11n
Mobile Performance with 802.11n
The new 1250, 802.11n wireless access point has delivered the next-generation wireless solution that offers greater performance and extended reach for pervasive wireless connectivity. Delivering unprecedented reliability and up to five times the throughput of current 802.11a/b/g networks, 802.11n technology makes wireless networks an integral part of every type of organization by offering the following benefits. The Cisco 1250 wireless access point can be managed by the Wireless LAN Controller for simple wireless deployments. Data rates of up to 300 Mbps per radio supports more users, devices, and mission-critical, bandwidth-intensive applications.
New multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) technology for predictable WLAN coverage and reliable connectivity, next generation wireless provides the greatest investment protection to support emerging mobility applications
Cisco Network Admission Control for Wireless LANs
Cisco Network Admission Control for Wireless LANs (NAC) is a solution that uses the network infrastructure to enforce security policies on all devices seeking wireless access network computing resources. WLANs need to be protected from security threats such as viruses, worms, and spyware. The NAC Appliance provides security threat protection for WLANs by enforcing device security policy compliance when WLAN clients attempt to access the network. These solutions quarantine non-compliant WLAN clients and provide remediation services to help ensure compliance. The solution is fully interoperable with the Cisco Unified Wireless Network.
• Wireless client network resources access controlCisco Network Admission Control for Wireless LANs
Cisco Network Admission Control for Wireless LANs (NAC) is a solution that uses the network infrastructure to enforce security policies on all devices seeking wireless access network computing resources. WLANs need to be protected from security threats such as viruses, worms, and spyware. The NAC Appliance provides security threat protection for WLANs by enforcing device security policy compliance when WLAN clients attempt to access the network. These solutions quarantine non-compliant WLAN clients and provide remediation services to help ensure compliance. The solution is fully interoperable with the Cisco Unified Wireless Network.
• Enforcement of security policies
• Significant cost savings with automated device repairs and updates
Contact your DSW rep for more information: Contact us
Ten Tips for Increasing Operational Efficiency
DSW believes that to remain competitive in an increasingly competitive world, businesses must boost operational efficiency wherever possible. "Sooner or later, any company not operating efficiently will be out of business," says Laurie McCabe, vice president of small and medium-sized business (SMB) insights and solutions for research firm AMI-Partners. It's particularly important for SMBs to operate efficiently, McCabe adds, because they often have more limited resources than larger enterprises.
The following are 10 tips for using network technology to help your business increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction, and stay ahead of the competition. Additionally, we have provided a link to an important tool developed by Cisco that will guide your business through some of the key business and technical questions that lead to Operational Efficiency (please click here:
http://www.ciscowebtools.com/ucbusinessadvisor/)
1.Provide employees with secure, consistent access to information. One advantage of being an SMB is the ability to react more quickly than larger competitors. But if your company network is frequently down, sluggish, or unsecured, that competitive advantage is eroded. A secure, reliable, self-defending network based on intelligent routers and switches provides your business with maximum agility by providing reliable, secure access to business intelligence. What's more, a secure, reliable network infrastructure provides the necessary foundation for a number of efficiency-enhancing technologies and solutions, such as IP communications.
2.Deliver anytime, anywhere access to mobile employees. SMB employees are typically more mobile than those in larger enterprises, says Jan Dawson, research director of Ovum Research. "Ubiquitous access to people and information is particularly important for SMBs," in order to be productive while on the go, he adds. Technologies enabling ubiquitous access include virtual private networks (VPNs), which securely connect remote workers to the company network, and pervasive wireless networks, which enable workers to stay connected to the network while roaming about an office building or campus.
3. Create effective business processes with partners. Some large enterprises make efficient, secure business processes a prerequisite for doing business with them. To develop efficient business processes that meet the requirements of your partners, your business needs a secure, reliable network infrastructure.
4.Make it easy to collaborate. Effective, interactive collaboration between employees, partners, suppliers, and customers is a sure-fire way to boost efficiency while also reducing costs. Integrated voice, video, and data and wireless provides the kind of interactive calendaring, videoconferencing, IP communications, and other technologies your business needs to foster seamless, easy collaboration.
5. Enable employees to take their phone systems wherever they go. Missed calls create any number of business challenges, including operational inefficiencies (from trying to reach absent colleagues), project delays, missed opportunities and lost revenues. An IP communications solution enables your workforce to have one phone number that simultaneously rings on multiple devices, greatly increasing the chances of being reached on the first try. Workers can access their entire communications system wherever they go and can check e-mail, voice mail, fax and pages all in one inbox, among other benefits.
6. Streamline communications with customers. Interacting with customers efficiently and knowledgeably helps keep them satisfied—and few things are as important to your bottom line as satisfied customers. Linking an IP communications system to a customer relationship management (CRM) solution is one way to enhance customer communications. When a customer calls, a pop-up window of the customer contact record appears on an employee's IP phone screen, computer screen, or both. Before the second ring, the employee answering the call has access to information about the customer calling, such as orders pending and recent returns.
7. Reduce unproductive travel time. Any time spent traveling, particularly by airplane, can dramatically reduce operational efficiency. An IP communications solution that offers rich-media conferencing, such as videoconferencing, helps reduce the need to travel to offsite meetings and training sessions. The time saved from traveling can be better spent on more productive pursuits. Also, reducing travel saves money.
8. Outsource IT tasks. Is it the best use of an employee's time to manage your network security or IP communications system? Often, a more efficient option is to outsource such tasks to a managed service provider. A service provider has the expertise that your business needs but may lack, without the need to spend time or money developing that expertise in house.Also, outsourcing enables your employees to stay focused on productive activities related to your business's core competencies. And that helps keep your business competitive.Outsourcing tasks can help improve customer satisfaction and your competitiveness. "A lot of small businesses think it's cheaper to do everything themselves," says AMI-Partner's McCabe. "But employees can get overloaded, and they may not be in a good mood when interacting with your customers." McCabe adds that SMBs often don't do as good a job at an IT task, such as IP communications, as a managed service provider would do for them. "And if you're not doing a good job at something, your competition probably is," she adds.
9. Improve employee retention and satisfaction. When your business has inefficient processes, such as antiquated phone systems or a sluggish network, employees can get frustrated, because they can't get their jobs done with the tools provided. Customers may perceive that frustration and lose confidence in your business. Even worse, valued employees can become burned out and decide to move on. Not only have you lost a productive worker, you must spend time and money hiring a replacement. To help ensure employees are productive and satisfied, your business needs, at a minimum, a secure, reliable, always-available network.
10. Develop a long-term technology plan. Whenever you replace hardware that has become obsolete or ineffective, it's disruptive to workers—and that results in low productivity. You can minimize or eliminate such disruptions by carefully determining short- and long-term business objectives and the carefully mapping technology solutions to those objectives.
"Every year, you should try to determine how well your technology solutions map to your business objectives," McCabe advises. Ask your value-added reseller, network provider, or other trusted adviser for help, she says. "The companies who have a plan and keep it updated are most likely to streamline their operations—and outperform their competition."
Solutions from Cisco
Cisco and Data Systems Worldwide along with DSW managed services offer solutions tailored specifically to the needs of SMBs. Among the solutions are:
- Intelligent routers and switches, for deploying a secure, reliable network foundation.
- Unified Communications, for merging voice, video, and data into one phone system
- Security and VPN, providing integrated security for remote access and safeguarding against internal and external threats
-Wireless mobility solutions, enabling workers to stay connected securely on the go
-Advanced applications, such as Cisco Business Application Connectors, linking the Cisco Unified Communications solution to CRM solutions
DSW works closely with SMBs to identify business objectives and map them to specific solutions. Local Cisco resellers can provide the service and support your business needs to successfully deploy a secure, reliable network infrastructure and other solutions that enhance operational efficiency. And
Cisco Systems Capital can provide SMBs with flexible leasing and financing options designed for their needs.Contact your DSW rep with any questions or comments: Contact Us
Replace All Your Company Computers with Toasters!
Back in the day, thin clients connected to mainframes to display session information on the screen. Some companies still run these legacy applications, but the advent of Microsoft Terminal server and Citrix Presentation server along with new thin clients like Wyse and Neoware have brought Microsoft Windows sessions back to the terminal.
When Microsoft added a PCAnyware type of capability to their Windows product line, it was used for remote connectivity, administration, and some used it for delivering non-distributed applications to their employees and customers. Now, the capability has expanded with increased quality of service on the network to use office applications, sound transmittion and even video capabilities.
So why do you care? Support costs! How much time is envolved in supporting failed hard drives, a bad driver, a virus, and network connectivity to name a few.
As well, centralizing data and backups are major concerns for companies. How do you keep all your data on your network. This allows much better trackability of your company data and allows for one set of servers to backed up.
Now lets add a few more technologies to make life even easier and to answer a few commonly asked questions.
SANs allow you take all of that data we just talked about and store it on a detached central data store. In the event the terminal server(s) develop a non-recoverable issue, you simply reinstall the system drive and reattach the data store. Plus, storage has become robust enough to create quick replicas and snapshots so you can build that into your solution.
How about the argument that if the terminal goes down, then all my users are down. VMWare will reolve this issue by quickly creating a new virtual terminal server, you can be back up in minutes, if not seconds. VMWare can also handle load balancing issues by autocreating new sessions to take over when a session gets overloaded.
Neoware makes an excellent Thin Client appliance with a management interface that's easy to use. Implement Neoware and you can send users to a new terminal server automatically with the click of a button thus substantially lowering your distributed support costs and centralizing IT management at the access layer.
I could go on forever about how you can save money and aggravation by switching to a terminal environment. If you would like to know more, contact your DSW representative today to schedule a no cost consultation.
When Microsoft added a PCAnyware type of capability to their Windows product line, it was used for remote connectivity, administration, and some used it for delivering non-distributed applications to their employees and customers. Now, the capability has expanded with increased quality of service on the network to use office applications, sound transmittion and even video capabilities.
So why do you care? Support costs! How much time is envolved in supporting failed hard drives, a bad driver, a virus, and network connectivity to name a few.
As well, centralizing data and backups are major concerns for companies. How do you keep all your data on your network. This allows much better trackability of your company data and allows for one set of servers to backed up.
Now lets add a few more technologies to make life even easier and to answer a few commonly asked questions.
SANs allow you take all of that data we just talked about and store it on a detached central data store. In the event the terminal server(s) develop a non-recoverable issue, you simply reinstall the system drive and reattach the data store. Plus, storage has become robust enough to create quick replicas and snapshots so you can build that into your solution.
How about the argument that if the terminal goes down, then all my users are down. VMWare will reolve this issue by quickly creating a new virtual terminal server, you can be back up in minutes, if not seconds. VMWare can also handle load balancing issues by autocreating new sessions to take over when a session gets overloaded.
Neoware makes an excellent Thin Client appliance with a management interface that's easy to use. Implement Neoware and you can send users to a new terminal server automatically with the click of a button thus substantially lowering your distributed support costs and centralizing IT management at the access layer.
I could go on forever about how you can save money and aggravation by switching to a terminal environment. If you would like to know more, contact your DSW representative today to schedule a no cost consultation.
Ryan Peterson
Director of Intelligent Facilities
UC500 Lunch and Learn. Click Image to Learn More
What Makes This Unique and Compelling?
- This is a 0%, 36 month, $1 Buyout new customer financing program
- This program will cover any SMB sub-100 Voice Deal (CallManager Express or CallManager)
- This program is valid through July 28, 2008!
Example: $36,000 solution
$30,000 in hardware + $6,000 for 3 years of Cisco SmartNET = $1,000 for 36 months
Contact Us for more info
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