LANcom Technology Blog

The LANcom button is an exciting new service that will allow our customers to be only three clicks away from knowing everything they could want to know about their IT.

The LANcom button will quite simply be a button that sits on your computer desktop. It will connect you with easy to understand, up to the minute, information on your IT tickets without you needing to log in to anything. It will also provide you with easy access to specially selected training material on the software applications you use.

Here’s a closer look at the features of the LANcom button:

1. See the status of your service tickets – You will be able to quickly see how your open tickets are progressing with easy to understand graphs. You can see when a ticket was created, when it was worked on by an engineer, when we last contacted you, and then when the ticket is closed. You will also be able to fast-track a ticket if the issue has become urgent.
   -
2. Log new tickets – The LANcom button will provide you with the fastest way to log a new ticket. We will already know who you are and what computer you are using, so all you need to do is tell us about your problem.
   -
3. Improve your skills with personalised training – The LANcom button includes a learning centre full of easy to follow training material. We have curated this content to ensure it includes the most relevant information for you. You’ll have access to training on commonly used applications like Word and Excel, and will be able to easily filter the courses to find exactly what you are looking for.
   -
4. No log in –The LANcom button sits on your desktop, and since you are already logged into your network when you use it, you don’t need to login again for the LANcom button to work.

We will begin rolling out the LANcom button to our customer’s computers very soon. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or questions about the LANcom button, please let us know in the comments.

When was the last time you reviewed your telephony, data, and printing expenses? In the last year LANcom has done a number of these kinds of reviews for our customers and has found there is often large savings to be had.

For one of our customers it took us only four hours of work to achieve a $2500 monthly saving on their telephone bill. In another situation, a 120 person company was able to save $5000 a month after we reviewed their printing and telecom costs. We also had a customer that was able to save $11,000 a month after they reviewed their telephony.

If you have more than 10 phones or go through 10 or more reams of paper a month, a review could be beneficial to you. If you would like to talk to us about a review for your business, click here to visit our contact page.

RecoveryPoint Desktop is a backup service that allows you to protect the important information stored on user’s computers from things like hardware failures and viruses.

Most businesses will have some crucial data stored on their computers and with RecoveryPoint Desktop this important information can be easily, securely and efficiently backed up online.

Here’s a quick look at what you get with LANcom RecoveryPoint Desktop:

• Automatic or scheduled - Backups can be automatic, performed when your computer is not in use, or scheduled to occur at a specified time of day.
• Near continuous data protection - This service can automatically detect and back up new and changed files every 2 hours, meaning you have near continuous data protection.
• Back up files even if they are open- With open/locked file support your files can be backed up even when they are open or locked.
• Access to multiple versions - You can restore previous versions of your files from up to 30 days in the past.
• Encryption to protect your data - Your data is transferred using 128-bit SSL encryption and is stored using 448-bit Blowfish encryption.
  
• Windows and Mac support – This service works on Windows 7, Vista, XP and Mac OS X 10.6, 10.5, & 10.4.

If you would like to learn more about RecoveryPoint Desktop please contact us at info@lancom.co.nz

At the end of last year, we sat down with Damian Herrick from Asplundh to discuss a Silverlight development project we had completed for them. You can watch the video of this below.

Microsoft Silverlight is a development platform for creating web, desktop, and mobile applications that allows us to deliver rich media and business applications to anyone connected to the internet.

If you would like to learn more about Silverlight development and what we could do for you in developing your next business application, click here.

Tired of being buried under an avalanche of resumes? HireRoom is a new recruitment web app that helps you find the best candidates for a position without you having to read through hundreds of CVs.

With HireRoom you can:

1. Ask the questions that matter - With HireRoom you are able to ask your candidates the most important questions up front. Testing their eligibility, capability, and passion before you meet them.
2. Go straight to the best candidates - Our automatic ranking and filtering systems make it easy to spot the stars.
3. Communicate painlessly with candidates - Effortlessly schedule interviews and send your ‘Dear Johns’ with just one click.

Want to find out more? LANcom will be hosting a live webinar on this topic on Thursday April 14th at 9am, click here to register.

RecoveryPoint is LANcom’s new and improved remote backup solution, which allows you to have the security of full daily remote backups of your system. With RecoveryPoint you can replace your tape backups with backups that occur over the internet, and store your data in the cloud.

Here’s a closer look at what RecoveryPoint can deliver to you:

1. Fast and efficient backups – With RecoveryPoint full daily backups can occur up to 10 times faster than with a traditional backup solution. This is because we use compression and source-based deduplication technology to greatly reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred. This not only saves time, but also minimises the bandwidth used.
2. Faster and easier recovery – Recovering any lost data will also be faster and much easier than recovering from tape. Your full daily backup will be written to disk, making recovery of any data a far simpler process.
3. Greater reliability - With RecoveryPoint your data is checked regularly to ensure it is in a restorable state. Checks will also occur during the backup process to make sure data is being transferred correctly.
4. High security – All data is transferred using encrypted ‘tunnels’, just like with internet banking. The servers where your data is stored are also under strict controls.
5. Peace of mind – LANcom will manage this entire process for you, so you never need to worry about your backups again. You can rest assured that your data is safe in a remote, local (within New Zealand) location.

If you would like to learn more about RecoveryPoint and maybe ask us some questions, LANcom will be holding two live webinars on this topic next month.

1. Tuesday February 15th at 9am, click here to register.
2. Thursday February 24th also at 9am, click here to register.

LANcom is taking orders for a new service that could quickly and easily move your Access application into the cloud. We will take your server bound Access application and rewrite it in Silverlight,  allowing you to have as many users as you want running the application, from anywhere they have an Internet connection.

Using Microsoft Silverlight to re-create your current Access application online will give you all the benefits of a cloud based application, without the usual expense and hassle.

Software development without the pain of software development

• No costs blowouts – We will quote the job for a fixed price - so no risk of budget overruns.
• No risk – The deposit is refundable if you are not completely satisfied. The balance due only on acceptance of your new Silverlight application.
• No guessing - Try before you buy. You can fully test and run the software before you accept it.
• No hassle - No requirements documents, No specification meetings, No Milestones,  No change management, No vendor management

Four easy steps

1. Just send us your current Access application
2. We will quote to rewrite the application in Silverlight
3. Accept the quote and pay a fully refundable deposit
4. Wait a couple of weeks and it’s done

There is no need for meetings to decide on specifications or milestones, as the project will simply recreate what you already have as an online application.

You can also rest assure that the project is risk free with a fixed price and refundable deposit. You will even be able to view and try out your application online, from your own computer, before you accept and make final payment.

Wondering if you should move your application to the cloud? Here are a few of the main benefits:

1. Mobility – Your application would be available for use anytime and anywhere you have an internet connection.
2. Flexibility – Your users would be able to access your application from Windows PCs, Apple Macs, and even smartphones running Windows Phone 7.
3. Scalability - With unlimited seats, as many people as you like can use your application without you having to worry about licencing.
4. Easy backup, security, and updating – With your application in one centralised location backups, security, and any updates or changes to your application will be easy.

If you are interested in this service and would like to learn more you can contact us at info@lancom.co.nz or on 09 377 8282.

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is a business collaboration platform which allows businesses to manage content and allows users to collaborate and connect with colleagues.

We will soon be using it here at LANcom and thought we would let you know about some of the great features in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Content management –With SharePoint 2010 you will be able to manage all your documents, records, web content and rich media on a single platform. You will be able to tag content to make it easy to find, enforce retention of information, and even create document sets so you can manage related content (permissions etc) as a single unit.

Sites – SharePoint 2010 can act as a one-stop shop for all your business websites. It provides you with easy to use tools that allow even a novice to create any type of site. Whether you would like to create a team site only accessible to a number of employees working on a particular project, an extranet site for your partners, or an internet site for your customers you will be able to do this from within SharePoint.

Collaboration – SharePoint 2010 provides some great tools that let users share information, find people and expertise, and locate business information. There are a number of ways users can work together from wikis to workflows and team sites to social bookmarking.
SharePoint 2010 also has Facebook-like personal sites which allow users to put information on a profile. There is also a newsfeed which helps keep others up to date on what their colleagues are working on.

Search – SharePoint 2010 has some really great search features which make finding information and people really easy. One feature is the ability to refine your search by what you are looking for. Say you are searching for a particular document; you could refine your results by file type, author, and date to speed up finding the file. The search box will also offer you search suggestions as you type, just like a search engine.

To learn more about Microsoft SharePoint 2010 click here.

LANcom has a new service called the LANcom Hosted Phone System which allows you to have all the benefits of an advanced VOIP phone system without a large capital investment. With this service you just pay a small monthly fee per-user and LANcom will set up and run your phone system for you.

Here are some on the main benefits of the LANcom Hosted Phone system.

1. Cost – Switching to a VOIP phone system can save you a lot of money on phone calls, but in the past these savings had to come after a large capital investment to get your phone system set up. With the LANcom Hosted phone system we will deliver and manage your phone system for you, allowing you to have a feature rich system for just a simple monthly fee.
2. Mobility – With this technology you will have access to your phone system anytime, and anywhere you have an internet connection. If users want to work from home they can simply take their phone handset home with them, log in to the phone system from their home internet connection, and take calls as if they were at the office.
3. Flexibility – This system can integrate with Outlook and mobile phones allowing you to make and take calls how you want. You could for example set both your desk phone and your mobile to ring when you have an incoming call, so you can answer your calls no matter where you are. You can also setup rules for how your calls are directed such as ‘whenever I’m out of the office for the day calls go straight to voicemail’ or ‘whenever I’m at lunch calls go to my mobile’. You can also have your voicemails sent to your Outlook inbox.
4. Scalability - With this service you will not need to worry about upgrading your phone system as your business grows. The LANcom hosted phone system can easily grow and evolve with your business. Adding a new user is easy, and whether you have 20 users or 20,000 the LANcom hosted phone system can to support you.
5. Collaboration – The technology in this system makes conference calling easy. You can setup a conference from your computer, creating a number for everyone to call or have the system call you. You can even have the whole conversation recorded so anyone who misses it can catch up. You can also share your computer screen or just a particular document with other computers, meaning you can create and edit documents together.
6. Unified communications – One of the best things about this system is the Unified Communicator Client. It is from this program on your computer you can access everything to do with you communication. From this client you can: see who else in your organization in online and their availability, securely instant message others in your company, see your voicemail and call history, set up audio or video conferencing, and much more.

If you would like to learn more about the LANcom Hosted Phone System please contact us at info@lancom.co.nz or 09 377 8282.

Microsoft Exchange Online is a hosted service based on Microsoft Exchange 2007. With this technology you can have all the benefits of Exchange 2007 without the hassle and upfront costs of deploying it at your premises.

How does it work?

Your Exchange will live on Microsoft’s servers, and your employees will have access to their Outlook information anytime and anywhere there is an internet connection. Microsoft has geographically dispersed data centers, each with reliable redundant infrastructure, which it uses to support this service.

Microsoft will handle all the backend setup, provisioning, ongoing maintenance and upgrades of your Exchange Server infrastructure allowing you to focus your IT resources on the strategic initiatives that move your business forward.

Microsoft hosted services can be up and running quickly and easily and because it’s Microsoft, you can have peace of mind that the experts in this technology are handling everything for you.

With just a simple monthly fee you can have:

• Up to 25-GB of mailbox storage for each user
• E-mail, shared calendar, shared tasks, and contacts
• Spam filtering and antivirus capabilities
• Support for Microsoft Office Outlook, Outlook Anywhere, and Outlook Web Access
• Support for Windows Mobile 6.0 devices and support options for other devices like the iPhone 2.0 and Blackberry (Blackberry support includes additional fee).
• Low-cost “deskless worker” offer for workers who use a PC and messaging services on a limited basis.
• Daily backups and disaster recovery

Free Trial!

We are currently able to offer you a 30-day free trial of all the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite services. This trial includes 20 user licenses for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting, and Office Communications Online. To sign up to your free trial of this service click here.

If you are interested in finding out if Exchange Online or the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite is right for you please contact us.