If you are having trouble sending email from your iPhone but you can receive email make sure your username and password are entered in the outgoing email server settings, this is not optional even though apples says so…
Just encountered the problem while working with a client. If you see this in your dealings this may help you out.
To resolve this problem, follow these steps to restart the SharePoint services and to complete upgrade:
- Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
- Locate the following folder:
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\BIN
- At a command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait –force
If the upgrade does not complete succussfully, type the following commands at the command prompt, and press ENTER after each command:
net stop MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE
net start MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE
psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait -force
This should resolve the problem for you.
In this post I would like to cover in some detail Microsoft Office 365, the features available in the new cloud based suite, and taking a small or medium sized business to the cloud. Since the announcement was made on October 19th a lot more information has hit the web and the Office 365 site has gone live. We are going to look at a number of compelling reasons that Office 365 and working in the cloud may be right for your organization. Some will be obvious like cost and availability but some of the other options you may not even know exist. Some of the cloud options are available to businesses today and these options are part of the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS) but they will be integrated into Office 365 when it goes live and the information available says the integration will be seamless and free of charge.
So let’s start by taking a look at some of the key reasons the cloud might be right for your company. To begin let’s look at the available and upcoming technology solutions.
Whether we like it or not every business needs email, it is a mission critical feature. Whether you’re using it to do sales, send invoices or communicate within your organization every employee needs email. With Microsoft Exchange Online you can have company branded email. You will no longer need to use a third party resource for email, no more acme@gmail or comcast dot com. Each employee can have their own business email with the company name after @. Using Exchange Online you can get your email from any browser from anywhere with an Internet connection and from any smart-phone mobile device.
The technology for Exchange Online is based on Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and will be upgrade to Exchange 2010 when Office 365 goes live. It will deliver to your business a feature rich email solution that meets today’s necessary regulatory requirements. It also helps deliver the messaging protection that your company needs.
The Key features of Microsoft Exchange Online:
- 25-gigabyte (GB) mailbox allocated for each user
- Shared calendar, contacts, and tasks
- Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 and Outlook 2003 connectivity, including Outlook Anywhere
- POP client connectivity
- Browser-based Outlook Web Access
- Cost-saving “deskless worker” licensing for employees who use a company PC on a limited basis
- Virus/spam filtering via Microsoft Forefront™ Online Security for Exchange
- Push e-mail, calendar, contacts, GAL integration, and tasks for Exchange ActiveSync® enabled devices, including Windows Mobile® 6.0 and above, iPhone 2.0, and many Nokia phones and Android based phones
- Multiple support options for BlackBerry users
- Built-in business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities
- 99.9% scheduled uptime with financially backed service level agreements
- HTTPS connections to help keep Internet access more secure
- 24/7 Web form and phone-based Tier-2 support for IT administrators
- Sign In application for single sign-on capability
- Directory Synchronization tool to synchronize on-premise and Microsoft Online Active Directory directory service
- Email coexistence enables customers to maintain both on-premises Exchange Server mailboxes and Exchange Online mailboxes in an integrated email environment.
- Migration tools to help move your current mailbox data into the online environment
- Available in 20 countries
SharePoint OnIine is probably one of the most exciting features available to businesses right now. If you are not familiar with or never heard of SharePoint think of it as social network for your business. But it can be much more than that. It can be a powerful tool for any sized business. The uses of SharePoint can be endless. Teams of workers can collaborate on documents and projects and have all the material and resources available to them anywhere at any time. It can be used for making company announcements, for human resources to supply documents, enrollment forms and handbooks online to all employees. It can be utilized as a forum so users can post and answer questions within the organization to find answers that may not be available elsewhere. You can also use it to communicate more efficiently with your customers and vendors. It can be used for employees to share in both an informal and formal structure. You can post pictures of events that have been held and company outings. Really the possible uses and scalability of SharePoint are endless, it really is only limited by your imagination. Let’s take a quick look at some of the possible uses.
Document Management
SharePoint is one of the best document management solutions on the market today. It is ideal for managing manuals, policies and procedure documents as well as anything you or your employees may need anywhere at any time.
Record Keeping
With easy to create and customizable columns SharePoint can be used to keep electronic records of customers, employees or suppliers.
Inventory Management
SharePoint can be used to quickly keep track of equipment or supplies. You can share this information with employees in the field, vendors and customers alike.
Customer Service Systems
Easy and cost effective way to manage and monitor customer service requests both internally and externally. These could be service requests from customers, vendors or employees.
Websites
More and more companies are using SharePoint to not only manage content of their websites but also to be their website.
Electronic Forms
Forms can be quickly created with SharePoint making it easy to automate systems like expense claims, travel requests, holiday requests or purchase orders. All of this can be created, shared, and managed right from within the SharePoint site.
Reference Centre (Wiki)
SharePoint can help store and share information. Information that an employee found helpful can quickly be available to other employees.
Reporting
SharePoint can take data from many different data sources including SQL and Oracle databases. This means it is easier to compile reports that any employee can quickly understand.
Contact Details
An easy way to store as much information as you need about either internal or external contacts. These contacts databases can be used to help generate new leads for your business, keep vendor records up to date and maintain a directory of available contacts for all company employees.
News Distribution
The announcements section in SharePoint lets you easily share company or department news. Quickly inform your employees about upcoming company events, trade shows, sales meetings and even birthdays or vacations.
Surveys
To get feedback from a training course or the performance of a department SharePoint can create surveys that can be distributed in seconds. It can even be used to gauge the overall satisfaction of customers, vendors and employees. Think of it as a better suggestion box.
Appointment Management
The Calendar feature integrates with Outlook and Exchange Online which allows you to have shared calendars. It can be used to display weekly movements of key members of staff, when employees are on vacation, and when people will be out of the office and unavailable.
Catalogues
SharePoint allows you to list items and view them in customized ways. As it can also include thumbnail pictures in the list it is ideal for cataloguing.
Discussions
Employees can use the discussion boards to chat on various subjects and share ideas.
Storage of Digital Media
SharePoint can be used to store many forms of digital media including photographs, videos and podcasts.
Information Searching
Every word of every document on SharePoint can be indexed meaning that suddenly it is much easier to search and retrieve company information.
Projects Management
SharePoint can be set up to monitor and track multiple projects. Making for easy collaboration between team members and for better management.
Time Management
To record time taken on individual projects or to manage contractors.
Meeting Management
With its Meeting Templates you can use SharePoint to plan agendas, create minutes and check on follow-up actions.
Blogging
Blogging is becoming more and more popular with an increase in internal business blogs. SharePoint allows site members to easily comment on these blogs.
As you can see the possibilities are endless which is what makes SharePoint Online such a compelling solution for any sized business. The technology is based on SharePoint Server 2007 and will be upgraded to SharePoint Server 2010 when Office 365 goes live. This technology can be a powerful asset to any company.
The key features of Microsoft SharePoint Online:
- Shared document and meeting workspaces
- Content management features for documents and Web content
- Document libraries with version control
- Seamless integration with Microsoft Office 2007 and Office SharePoint Designer
- Standard templates including wikis, blogs, and surveys
- E-mail alerts when documents or other items have been changed or added to a site
- RSS feeds for SharePoint libraries and lists
- Low-cost user licenses for “deskless workers” who use a PC on a limited basis
- Language support for English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese
- Use of HTTPS to help keep Internet access secure
- Antivirus scanning with Microsoft Forefront™ Security for SharePoint
- Sign In application that provides single sign-on capability
- 99.9% scheduled uptime with financially backed Service Level Agreements
- Web form and 24/7 phone-based Tier 2 support for IT administrators
When used in conjunction with Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Microsoft Lync Online can be a powerful tool for your business. Let’s be honest, we all receive email we don’t read right away for many reasons. But with Lync you can send a message to someone and get an instant response. Lync goes a lot further however. You can have face to face meetings using the video conferencing option, gather small or large groups of people for meetings and collaboration. You can even use it to see if a colleague is available for a conference or make yourself unavailable so everyone in the company knows you are not to be disturbed. There are a number of other capabilities Lync can offer any business, it is all in the way you utilize the technology.
Lync is the new name for Microsoft Live Meeting and Office Communications Online. It is a unified communications platform delivering instant messaging, video conferencing and screen sharing across your organization. Microsoft Lync can make every engagement a virtual face-to-face meeting, because any interaction can include video and audio conferencing, application and desktop sharing, instant messaging, and telephony. Lync has been designed from the ground up to work with Microsoft Office, SharePoint and Exchange, which helps reduce end-user adoption hurdles and increase return on investment. People can also stay connected to others on a wide range of devices while away from the office and manage their communications and calls in new ways, such as easily moving a call from a PC to a mobile device while leaving the office without disrupting the conversation.
The Key features of Microsoft Lync Online:
- Connect with others through Lync contact photos, activity update feed and interactive contact card in Microsoft Office
- Move easily from instant messaging into ad-hoc online meetings including audio, video and screen sharing with just a few mouse clicks
- Conduct online presentations to customers and colleagues including audio, video, screen sharing and a virtual whiteboard
- Invite external contacts to easily join online meetings via a native or web-based client
- Connect with customers and partners through instant messaging, audio and video federation
- Reply to an email with an instant message or an audio call for quicker and more effective resolution of issues
- Instant message with Windows Live contacts right from Lync
- View presence status and click-to-communicate from within Outlook, SharePoint and other Office applications
- Financially-backed, guaranteed 99.9% uptime Service Level Agreement
This is exactly what it sounds like and exactly what you and each of your customer, vendors, employees and even mother, aunts and uncles are used to. It is Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote all online and accessible anywhere anytime from any Internet connected device. Office Professional is the standard for companies worldwide. Nobody says “I need that spreadsheet” they will say “I need that Excel doc”, if you want to make an impression at a sales meeting you use PowerPoint. If you send a customer any kind of document created in Office you know they are going to be able to open it. If you send them a document created in any other product the chances are you are going to receive an email saying that it can’t be opened. There truly is not much new in Office Professional Plus Online, it is what you expect it to be. But instead of having it be tied to only one machine and the files stored locally, they are stored in the cloud and accessible to you anywhere, anytime. There is no longer a need to have a copy of Office installed on every machine in your organization; the license is tied to a user – not a piece of hardware.
The key features of Microsoft Office Professional Plus Online:
- Master your Inbox and calendar with Conversation View and other advanced management tools in Outlook
- Leverage the power of business and social networking right within Outlook with the Outlook Social Connector
- Collaborate with control and confidence with co-authoring
- Instantly share slideshows, across town or around the world with PowerPoint Broadcast Slide Show
- Create presentations that are as brilliant to watch as they are easy to create with new video and photo editing tools in PowerPoint
- Quickly work with hundreds of millions of rows of data in Excel. Transform enormous quantities of data into meaningful information
- Work from virtually any place and any device with the Office Web Apps
The Key Benefits and Why Working in the Cloud May be Right for You
Now that we have covered some of the technology and available options to your business let’s take a look at why you may want to make the move to the cloud.
First let’s take a look at the cost. We all know that doing any kind of business is tough and expensive. When working in the cloud there does not have to be any on-premise server hardware. How would you like to scale back on those servers you already own? Don’t own any servers, well now you don’t have to worry about buying any. With no servers to run in your office you lower your overall cost of doing business. You will no longer need a dedicated space, hardware or the infrastructure for those costly servers. There is no need to replace, maintain or even worry about the hardware that powers your business. All you need are workstations and an Internet connection.
Let’s look at cold hard numbers; working in the cloud is much cheaper. Go to Amazon and check the price of Office Professional. If you were going to have every employee in an office of 15 people using Office Professional it would cost you $6134.85. With the cloud version it will cost you $6.00 per user per month or $1080.00 for all the users for the entire year. That number is just for the users, it does not factor in costs for someone to maintain the servers and keep the software up to date. That number also does not include the other software, hardware and technology included in Office 365.
We have touched on this a bit but its worth noting in more detail. Office 365 is always available. No longer will you have to remote into your office computer, take your files with you on a flash drive or even have to bring a laptop everywhere you go. You will be able to just log into any computer that has an Internet connection and get your documents, files, and important information. You will be able to check your email from anywhere and from any Internet connected device, if you choose you can always be connected and in-touch with your company. You can even work in real time on documents or projects anywhere at any time; you will no longer be tied to your desk or office. If you need to reach someone within the company to get updates or have something changed on the fly; it can be done quickly and easily.
Another key benefit that most people will overlook is that your customer base is most likely already using Office. You are most likely already using Office as well. Making the move to the cloud will require very little learning curve and no need to update your existing documents. They will all be compatible with Office 365. When you send or receive a document either internally or externally the document or file will available in a recognizable format.
Overall Office 365 will offer hosted productivity applications that can help move your company forward in a more cost effective manner. It can help you organize your company and streamline the way you do business. It comes with a 99.9% up-time guarantee and is accessible via a variety of browsers, computers, and mobile devices including Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7.
If you do not wish to completely abandon the servers you have now Office 365 has been designed to work with an on-premise version currently in your office. Are you working in an Active Directory structure now? Office 365 easily integrates with your existing Active Directory structure and Group Policy.
There are other technologies and options available to you as well that were not covered above. When Office 365 goes live you can also have your own company branded website. With a website you can reach more potential customers and drive more people to your business. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online will be another option available to your business. With CRM Online you can find, keep and grow customer relationships while streamlining business processes within a system that will adapt to the unique needs of your business.
Top 10 Office Questions and Answers
These questions and answers come from the Office 365 Blog which is authored by Clint Patterson, Director of Communications, Microsoft Office Division
1) What happens to BPOS? How do I move to Office 365 from BPOS?
Office 365 replaces BPOS (and Office Live Small Business and Live@edu), but BPOS will be available until Office 365 launches next year. And, BPOS is still the best path to get in the cloud now.
Existing BPOS customers will able to transition during the year following Office 365 global availability. We know our customers do not like surprises, and so we’ve taken a very deliberate approach to rolling out Office 365. That approach is designed around the customer and ensuring they are ready for the transition and can get the most of the significant new capabilities we are introducing. Check out our blog today and the new Office 365 transition center for more information and ongoing guidance and discussion about transition.
2) Will Office 365 replace Office Live Small Business (OLSB)?
Yes! Office 365 includes the most compelling elements of OLSB – email, public web sites, and more. While nothing will change for OLSB customers now, the transition to Office 365 will likely begin in late 2011 or early 2012. Customers who choose to have their accounts transitioned will get Office 365 for small businesses for free for three months. More information on Office 365 and Office Live Small Business is available here.
3) Does Office 365 work with Office for Mac?
Yes! If you currently have Office for Mac 2008, you can use that seamlessly together with Office 365. However, Office for Mac is not available as part of Office 365. Customers can also get Office Professional Plus desktop software for PCs as part of the service today.
4) What do you get in Office 365 for enterprises?
You get a lot of options. We believe that one size does NOT fit all, and customers want choices. That’s why we offer a range of options from basic e-mail for $2 per user per month to a complete solution for $27 per user per month that includes full Office Professional Plus desktop software, along with Office Web Apps; the most advanced versions of Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Lync Online; 24/7 phone support; advanced IT controls; and on-premises use rights for voice – in short, the most complete solution for business productivity available in the cloud. More info and examples of plans is available in the Office 365 Fact Sheet.
5) How do I sign up for beta? What does “limited beta” mean? Is the beta sold out? Should I be getting a confirmation after signing up for the beta?
Beta sign up is available on office365.microsoft.com. We are initially testing with a few thousand organizations globally and expanding from there. After you sign up, you’ll get two e-mails. The first will confirm that we are reserving your place in line. The second will let you know if you’re in the first round. If you don’t get in the first round, we do plan to expand the beta to more organizations over time. So sign up to reserve your place in line today.
Earlier today, visitors were clicking “submit” on the beta sign up form, and the page was refreshing mistakenly. This will be fixed shortly. Please look for your confirmation e-mail to confirm that your registration was received.
6) Do partners have to sign up for the beta? How are beta slots allocated?
Yes. Slots are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, but we may also select customers to ensure the beta includes a diverse population from companies of all sizes, partners, and different regions around the world. And, of course, we pre-invited some of the customers and partners who have been helping us test alpha versions of Office 365 and our services.
7) Is your web site having issues? Why can’t I get to office365.com?
The web site went live at 12 noon pacific today, but it takes time for URLs to propagate across the net around the world. If you experience issues, go straight to the site at http://office365.microsoft.com/.
8) Will BPOS resellers automatically be able to resell Office 365?
Yes! We have awesome partners who are getting ready to help our customers get the most from Office 365. You can find one here.
9) Is this – offering Office as a subscription – going to cannibalize your revenue?
No! With Office 365, we can provide our technology to customers on a more frequent basis, while customers save money at the same time – typically anywhere from 10-50%. Today, the average mid-sized company only upgrades Office every six to seven years. With Office 365, they can always be on the cusp of the next wave in productivity-boosting technology.
10) Do you have an offer that competes directly with Google Apps?
There is really no comparison between the two. Office 365 does more for your business and offers enterprise-caliber applications you can trust. This is one of the key reasons businesses, governments and schools worldwide are choosing Microsoft’s cloud solutions today, and why we think they’ll continue to do so in the future. Tim Harmon at Forrester Research said it well in this article – “[Office 365] leapfrogs beyond current offerings like GoogleApps and IBM’s LotusLive”.
So I was just checking my RSS feed from Gizmodo and came across this neat little tidbit. We all know that when the zombie apocalypse happens food will quickly be in short supply. Well thanks to McDonalds the uninfected will be able to survive a little longer. Just got to this link to see how McDonalds will help you survive…
http://gizmodo.com/5662271/watch-six-months-of-a-happy-meals-eternal-life
If you are loooking for a new awesome phone, check this one out. The best part is the are offering a R2-D2 version.
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DROID 2 Pre-Sale Starts 8/11, Officially On-sale 8/12 | Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog
No matter how big your company is, maintaining platform parity — that is, keeping all of your apps functionally identical across multiple smartphone platforms — is tough work. Even Facebook can’t seem to get their Android app quite up to par with their iPhone app.
Later today, PayPal will be introducing version 2.0 of their Android App, which seems to be aimed at bringing it up to speed with its iPhone counterpart.
Now, PayPal has had an Android app for about a year and a half. That app has always supported the most crucial feature: sending money. It wasn’t exactly pretty, but it got the job done.
Along with a visual overhaul which makes it a more-or-less one to one match with the iPhone version, today’s update brings over a handful of tools:
- Bump support: Remember Bump? It’s an app that lets two users swap contact info by fist-bumping their smartphones together. Back in late 2009, Bump opened up their API to allow third-party iPhone developers to swap just about whatever they wanted between bumpers, and PayPal was one of the first to hop on that train. Bump’s API has since been ported to Android, and now the Android app offers up support.
- Split the Check: You and your friends just ate your way through 200 bucks worth of Sushi, and the restaurant only takes one credit card per table. Oops! PayPal’s Split The Check feature lets you tally up everyone’s total, and then send out a payback request from anyone who didn’t have the cash.
Expect PayPal to be dumping a considerable amount of effort into mobile in the coming months — according to the company, they’ve handled twice as much money over mobile in the first six months of 2010 as they did in all of 2009.
| Website: | paypal.com |
| Location: | San Jose, California, United States |
| Founded: | December 1, 1998 |
| Acquired: | July 8, 2002 by eBay for $1.5B in Stock |
PayPal is an online payments and money transfer service that allows you to send money via email, phone, text message or Skype. They offer products to both individuals and businesses alike, including online vendors, auction sites and… Learn More
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