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Cloud Computing is an unavoidable topic for business professionals and there are so many different ways the Cloud can be interpreted. So what should you consider when deciding if the Cloud is right for your business?

Cost Savings
In the present economy, does your business need to save money? Of course it does! Good business practices demand maximizing cash flow no matter what the economy looks like. By not having to purchase hardware, software licenses, or paying maintenance and IT costs, Cloud Computing is a cost effective way to deploy the same apps you are currently using, no matter the size of your business.

Scalability
Purchasing software licenses means that no matter what happens with personnel within your business, you are always stuck with a set number of software licenses. This may not be a big issue if you need to add a license, however, what if you downsize or have a seasonal business? You will still be stuck with licenses you paid for, whether you use them or not. The ability to scale users up or down depending on business needs to accommodate seasonal workers, or other business factors, scalability is a great advantage of cloud computing.

Mobility
Deploying through the Cloud means that you can access your business applications from any computer or device with internet access. Work from anywhere, anytime and drive your business into the future. Whether you are working from another state, another country or just need have the ability to work from home when your kids are sick, mobility means everyone in your business will be working at maximum efficiency.

Seems like a no brainer to consider the Cloud, right? The biggest objection that is consistently voiced is, “data is not secure in the Cloud.” Check out the link to another article called How Secure is your On Premise Application? You will discover why this may not be as critical issue as you may think once you consider the source of the information. http://njevity.com/blog/how-secure-your-premise-application

I ran across an issue with Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2. In several cases once the service pack was installed I could not log on the servers remotely. Some research found that the issue was with update KB 2667402. On one server I was able to resolve the issue by checking for updates again. On another I had to uninstall KB2667402 and leave it uninstalled. I found the answer to this issue at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverNIS/thread/f5d... Thanks to posts by MyITNetowrk and Gryffon-G-Wiz.

Okay, confession time:  this blog is late.  I usually publish my blogs on Friday’s and an endless number of things have gotten in my way.  However, the biggest thing that has gotten in my way is simply this:  Writer’s Block!  Oh yeah, good old Writer’s Block!  But then, recent events have brought me to thinking about the Cloud Office of today. 

To quantify this, I am speaking of the physical office and how it can be fully deployed in the Cloud.  Is it reasonable to expect a Cloud solution to be fully deployable at your office?  My recent conclusions are:  yes. 

It is recent that I have had the need to investigate some of the critical elements of a Cloud office that until now have been undefined.  The critical element missing has been an online phone system such as Lync Online.  So we begin there:

In my quest for the Cloud Office, my first line of thinking is to look at the first line of communication many companies receive:  the telephone.  Most phone systems of the past were very costly.  They were also very specialized and very maintenance intensive.  Sound familiar?  This is like many of the servers your company has and shares the same fate as many servers.  For many years we have had VOIP phones with providers such as Packet8, Cisco and Altavox.  However, integrations to the Microsoft Office productivity system (Office 365) have been lacking. 

Recently, my partner and I have researched the possibility of using a Lync Communications Server to accomplish the same functionality as Cisco, Packet8 or Altavox.  However, Microsoft’s recommended configuration of Lync requires many servers, software and services itself.  Not being discouraged, we have done further research into this and have found several providers of Lync VOIP services as a service.  This provides you with an integrated environment between Lync LiveMeeting, VOIP calls from your desktop, screen sharing and real-time presence information. 

Office Communications is necessary in order for your team to collaborate.  To bring the whole Cloud Office together, Office 365 with Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint and many other applications provides you with the functionality to create the office documents you need.  However, using Office Communicator will further enhance your communication with an instant message environment where office persons can ask quick questions securely and quickly.  Further, to enhance the experience, the integration with the phone system as available with Office 365 Levels E3 and E4 will give you a more integrated environment. 

How we track our external communications such as Leads, Customers, Opportunities and other CRM functions is fully available with NjevityToGo CRM.  When looking for a CRM system, it is important to ensure that you have the proper phone integration to “pop” the contact information when a call comes in.  This functionality means that you will know who is on the phone and have an idea as to the reason they are calling.

To bill your customers, the use of NjevityToGo Dynamics GP (Great Plains) or SL (Solomon) will accomplish this nicely.  The difference between the two applications will depend upon your business needs.  Dynamics GP will give you robust financial, distribution and manufacturing functions.  Dynamics SL is ideally suited for distribution and project or professional services companies.  Having an integration between your ERP and CRM System is a must and the NjevityToGo Integration will provide you with robust, deep and complex functionality not normally seen in a Cloud Office environment. 

To collaborate and share documents, SharePoint Online (part of Office 365) provides you with the ability to collaborate with your colleagues, customers, vendors and others.  Couple this with Business Intelligence available through Business Analytics and you will be able to provide your team with the latest information available on the health of your company and where your business stands.  Further, combine this with Mobility and you now have anywhere, anytime, any device access to the information necessary for your business.

On a final note, there are hybrid environments that exist that can help you get to a Cloud Office with many features listed above.  It’s important to meet with a trusted advisor to get a vision of your Office in the Cloud!  

When you are considering ERP or CRM software, what factors do you weigh when thinking about deploying on premise or in the cloud? Do you like the flexibility of deploying in the Cloud with scalable users and fixed monthly billing? Are you more confident with the perceived security of deploying on premise? Who owns your data and how do you receive it back from a SaaS provider like NetSuite or Salesforce.com if you decide to make a change to an on premise solution in the future?

The question you should be asking yourself is, “why should I have to lock myself into an on premise or cloud deployment?” Consider solutions that offer flexibility to move back and forth between on premise or cloud deployments depending on the changing needs of your business or your preferences. Njevity offers this flexibility by giving you the power of choice to deploy on premise or in our NjevityToGo Cloud. We only provide ERP and CRM solutions with flexible deployment options that can be tailored to meet your changing business needs. Our software solutions include Dynamics GP, Dynamics SL, Dynamics CRM and Acumatica which all offer flexibility in deployment. Flexibility means you can choose the best deployment option for your business at any time but always have the option to switch between deployments if necessary.

The value in choosing a software solution that offers flexibility in deployment over products that are only deployed online is significant, yet often overlooked until it is too late. Consider who owns your data and how you receive your data back if you ever decide to make a switch to another software solution. What if your business needs change and requires an on premise deployment? For example, we have moved customers from Salesforce.com to Dynamics CRM. The move becomes very cumbersome and time consuming because Salesforce.com provides your data through hundreds of spreadsheets that require an excessive amount of detective work to decipher. We have found the same with other SaaS providers like NetSuite as well. The reason they do this is to keep you a customer by making it too much of a hassle to switch to another solution regardless of business or deployment needs.

Njevity is structured to grow and adapt with your changing business needs. We have customers who prefer on premise deployments and we also have customers hosted in our NjevityToGo Cloud. All of our customers have the option to move to the Cloud from on premise or from the cloud to on premise depending on their business needs. Data belongs to customers and is easily transferred between the two deployment environments. Njevity has also acquired Dynamics users who were not Njevity customers but they recognized the value of flexible deployments and the cost advantages of Cloud Computing. It was as easy as backing up their data and customizations and then deploying in our NjevityToGo environment. Contact us to learn more about our deployment strategies and we can help determine the best deployment solution for your business needs.

In today’s electronically connected world information security is vital to our financial security both in the workplace and at home. This means we have to juggle multiple user names and passwords. Here are a few ideas on making your passwords hard to crack and easy to remember.

First - don’t make it obvious (like leaving the combination to your brief case as “0000”). “P@ssword” or “passw0rd” or even “p@ssw0rd567” will be guessed.

Second - don’t use words and numbers that are easily associated with you. If you were born in July of 1985 “0785” is a bad pin for your bank card. “julie0785” is and equally poor password for your online credit card accounts.

Third - Don’t share your passwords. Many hackers use social engineering to obtain access. Rather than trying to pick a lock they will ask for the key. This could be as simple as a phone call from someone claiming to be with your bank asking you to reset your password.

Fourth – Don’t make them all the same!

So what makes a password good?

One – use lengthy passwords.

And two - mix lower case letters, upper case letters, numbers and special characters. If my password is four characters long and contains only lower then there are 23,751 possible combinations. It won’t take long for a quickly written program to try 23,751 possibilities even if it has to wait 15 minutes after every three tries. If I include uppercase characters then the number of possibilities becomes 341,055. Make it an eight character password with upper case and lower case letter and the possible combinations increases to 2,217,471,389. Adding numbers and special characters only increases the possible combinations.

So how do I remember that password? Make it something you can remember. If my bank is Applewood State Bank then I might think “Applewood” is like “apple seed” like “Johnny Appleseed.” Then I might make my password “Johnny”. To make it more complex I can choose to replace the “o” with a zero, the “y” with an “i3” (using the 3 for the “e”) and capitalizing the “H”: “j0Hnni3”.

Pick simple substitutions.

Another trick is to pick the lyrics from a song. You can even use a song you don’t like. I’m not a fan of “Hotel California” by the Eagles. I could use the line “This could be heaven or this could be hell.” mangle it a little; “This could be Denver or this could be Cleveland.” (Sorry Cleveland, nothing personal) Take the first letter of each word, “tcbdotcbc”. Mangle that a little “tcbD0tcbC”.

A little imagination can make passwords easy. And, the only downside is that you may start typing numbers for characters.

Ch33rs,

Tud0r