First published on Small Business Daily, Sep 17th 2009.

It’s astounding how many fantastic free resources are made available by some of the big technology vendors out there. It’s even more astounding to discover how many people fail to utilise, or even know about, these resources! So in this post, let me introduce you to a couple of resources you never knew about. These tools are so useful you’ll want to keep them a secret from others so you can “skill up” on the sly and become a genius!

HP Learning Centre – Free online classes, 24/7! This site is like a mini online university. It offers everything from quick “how-to” videos to comprehensive instructor-led online courses. Yes, that’s right; instructor led, for FREE. Click on the “See all classes” tab and you’ll find a long list of classes covering a broad range of topics. Try out “Create and print your own high-quality marketing materials” under home office, or “The other 90 percent: unlock your vast untapped potential” in business basics, or for the weekend, “Beyond basics: fundamental photography techniques” in the digital photography category.

Microsoft Business Resource Centre
An excellent resource for small businesses, courtesy of Microsoft, that offers personalised self-help, support, community connections, training and articles based on a simple profile created on sign up. So a small business owner with 10 employees in the finance industry will see content relevant to her, whereas a Creative Director in a 200 staff advertising agency will see different content more relevant to him. Note that this site is still in beta so it’s subject to changes and content may be a little light-on currently.

Jump on and sign up now – just do it!

Clayton Moulynox – Evolve IT Australia
We fix business problems, not computer problems – Develop, Solve, Evolve.
Follow me on Twitter: @claytonhm

At the recently concluded Microsoft World Wide Partners Conference, the company gave partners a preview of upcoming features in Microsoft Office 2010 that could be very useful for small and midsized companies. Among them:

1.  Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote 2010 now lets several people work on a document at the same time. Users of the desktop versions of the software will be able to send out a text link that will let anyone click on the link and use Windows Live to open the document and work on the live, with all parties seeing each others’ changes.
2. Outlook 2010 will have a new feature which will allow users to ignore email threads, deleting everything in that conversation, including existing messages and any new ones that come in.
3. PowerPoint 2010 will have a Broadcast feature will create a URL that users can share via e-mail or IM. Clicking on the link will let other users see a slideshow streaming directly from the author’s desktop.

To find out more about these new features, visit the Microsoft WWPC website.

Related articles:

• Microsoft Office 2010 in Videos [Video Demonstration]
• Office 2010 revealed in great detail via Microsoft videos
• Microsoft Offie 2010 to have free online version like google docs

I have just returned from the Microsoft World Partner Conference in New Orleans. It’s fair to say there is a lot of excitement brewing around Microsoft’s new desktop operating system, Windows 7 (it’s still in release candidate, you can’t actually buy the final product yet). However, I’m pleased to say it isn’t just Microsoft blowing their own trumpet – much of the excitement stemmed from the Microsoft partners. Most of these guys are the “geeks” that know their stuff, so if they are genuinely excited (and I remember them applauding a demo!) then maybe Windows 7 is the real deal.

So what does this mean for your average, non-geek, change-averse small business owner? Why would I want to move to Windows 7, I hear you ask? Well if you are a business that uses technology as a key driver for success, here are my top reasons you might want to adopt Windows 7 on its release:

>>Read the rest of this post on Small Business Daily

Microsoft Windows 7 will be in stores October 22, but surprisingly few details of its features have been released. Thankfully, Ed Bott, a ZDNet blogger, researched it for his readers. We now know that, like its predecessor Vista, Windows 7 will ship with different editions: Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate/Enterprise, and the new Starter Edition, specifically for Netbooks. All share the same enhancements in speed, performance, and security, as well as many UI enhancements and new applications such as Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Media Player 12. The entry-level editions lack support for business-specific features such as encryption, virtualization, and the ability to join a domain, and limited customization options (lack of support for the Aero interface, for example). The premium editions feature interesting new add-ons such as support for Touch Applications. Vista customers will be happy to know that Microsoft announced an upgrade program for customers who have purchased Vista before Windows 7’s release. Want to know if Windows 7 will benefit your business? Give us a call today and we’ll help you decide. Related articles:

• Windows 7: The Complete Guide (Now With RC1!) [Windows 7]
• Microsoft: Lots to turn off in Windows 7

Windows 7 – It’s like Vista, only less annoying

Last April 14, Microsoft officially announced the end of mainstream support for Windows XP, seven years after XP originally shipped. Non-security patches, fixes, and updates are no longer available free from Microsoft, and phone support for security and non-security related issues and change requests are no longer provided. Any future bugs found in the platform will not be fixed without a fee.

This new development affects all versions of XP (except for Embedded): Home Edition, Media Center Edition 2002, Media Center Edition 2004, Media Center Edition 2005, Professional, Professional x64 Edition, Tablet PC Edition, and Tablet PC Edition 2005.

About 63 per cent of all internet connected computers still use Windows XP, according to March 2009 statistics from Hitslink, while Windows Vista makes up about 24 per cent. Businesses are in no hurry to move to the forthcoming Windows 7, either. A survey released by appliance vendor Kace revealed that 83% of businesses have no plans to upgrade their PCs to Windows 7 within the first 12 months of its availability. Microsoft is expected to release Windows 7 later this year or early next.

However, companies enrolled under Microsoft’s Premiere customer program have no worries, since Extended Support is available for them until April 8, 2014. Unfortunately this program is typically only available to large enterprise customers who enjoy volume licensing. Small businesses may be out of luck, unless they can work out a deal with a Microsoft channel partner for non-security related support.

Microsoft emphasized that security-related patches will still be issued for all legitimate XP users at no charge. This includes fixes for vulnerabilities inside Windows that worms such as Conficker exploit.

Those planning to upgrade, take note: while Windows 7 users will be able to downgrade to Windows XP, the reverse will not be true. Microsoft said in its Engineering Windows 7 blog that XP users will have to perform a full install to have a smooth experience with Windows 7.

Concerned?  We can help you sort out how these new policies affect you. Call us today.

We all know that when you want to find information on the web, you Google it. Be it product information, information on competitors, business reports, research, whatever…you feed some key words to Google and it spits out a bunch of relevant links. Easy.

But what about when we want to find information within our own organisation? When we want information from within our own four walls? You want some info on a product you sell, you chase a guy in the sales team. Looking for a financial report? You call Bob from accounts. Services brochure in PDF format – call marketing. And so it goes on. God forbid, you might even right click on your main shared network drive and choose “search” then wait for 3 hours and still get no useful information…

What if you could have a familiar web based search facility to find information in your enterprise, just like you’ve been doing for years on the web? How much easier would it be to throw is some keywords and get a result virtually instantly? Rather than calling marketing, you just search for “company profile brochure” and up comes a bunch of results, ranked by relevance and with metadata to give you as preview of what the resource is.

This is all possible with Microsoft’s free release of Search Server 2008. The free express edition may be all many companies will ever need, whereas other companies that fully adopt enterprise search and wish to integrate it with other applications will want the full blown enterprise version.

Download the release candidate of Search Server 2008 Express edition and give it a go – it’s straight-forward to configure!

Microsoft have released this fantastic assessment tool, the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Tool 2.0, that allows you to quickly scan your network and produce a comprehensive report showing if PCs are ready to run Vista or not.

It will also assess a PCs readiness for Office 2007 – a feature I’ve personally found very handy as many of our clients are ready to move to the new Office.

It’s free of course – if you’re interested in the reports it produces, download it and give it a go!

• Automatic Backups: The server can automatically back up data from PCs/notebooks within your home network automatically.
• Data Protection with Previous Versions: A standard feature on Windows 2003 Servers, Previous Versions allows you to easily roll back individual files, or entire directories, should you accidentally delete them or mess them up somew how.
• Network Monitoring: Home Server gives you the ability to monitor the health of all the workstations, and will automatically push out Windows Updates.
• Remote Access: A great feature – allows you to easily access your PCs at home, as though you were sitting in front of them.