Hmm…. some people don’t say much. Some businesses don’t have any support, some say they have random success. Others aren’t sure who does their support.

I was part of a conversation this week between a pair of co-workers. One guy has an issue with his laptop at home and thinks it’s something related to his wireless. He’s been searching for solutions in forums but is still at a dead end.

His co-worker said she used an independent guy to troubleshoot her old laptop. For her new laptop she used the in-house service (geeky) at one of the big stores. I asked how that went. She said there was a big difference using the independent computer guy. The laptop repair went better, she was more satisfied, and felt he did a better job. The geeky guys fixed the problem, but she was more confident with the independent computer guy.

Some businesses use an inside employee to do their computer troubleshooting on the side. I’ve met a few people who use a large local company with all services bundled.

It’s hard to find the right computer help for a business or even with your computers at home. There are new players in the computer support business who buy into a franchise which provides a customer support desk. The support desk may be in the United States, but might be offshore. A computer support franchise also provides their tech tools, marketing materials, and a knowledge base for the technicians.

One of the benefits in using a local, independent consultant is having a personal connection (like Big Dog IT). Even though we talk terms of business to business, B to B, B2B, it’s about working with people. People in a business need to have someone they can trust, ask questions, rely on in emergencies, get good feedback, and most of all help with planning and using their technology.

The old break-fix model doesn’t help with a business’s long term growth. Fixed-costs for computer support saves a lot of money over the old way – both in terms of dollars spent and by reducing related computer downtime.

For a business computers are tools, sure they are entertaining, they offer a cool way to stay in touch, but they can only be useful at work when people understand they are tools. The right computer tech can help a business create usage policies, manage the equipment investment, and train users. A business can’t get that when their computer support is random.

Here are some of the features of the SBS server:

Remote Access for Network and Email

Whether you are traveling on business, working from home or away on holiday the Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) provides you with the tools to access your files and emails whilst you are away.  There are also many compatible remote access tools that can be used to compliment and enhance your remote access experience or remote offices.

Intranet for Document & Information Sharing

SBS provides an intranet (Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services) which is an internal website for your company.  This is useful for providing information and documents to some or all members of your company, such as meeting minutes, schedules, holiday charts even office maintenance lists & suggestion boxes.  Access to each document can be quickly restricted to specific persons, teams or departments.  Staff members can also be restricted to no access, read-only access or modify access.

Shared Calendars

A very useful part of the Small Business Server is the shared calendars.  If required secretaries can view and add appointments for their managers, meetings can be arranged by viewing everyone’s availability at a touch of a button.  Meeting requests can be made which automatically add the meeting to the attendees’ diaries.  Appointments and tasks can be shown on many PDA’s, Mobile Phones etc so that you can make appointments on the move.  The significant benefit over paper diaries is that there is no duplication, we have seen numerous offices where the secretary an manager have a paper diary each appointments are added to both, occasionally one diary is not updated causing embarrassment.  The shared calendars can also be used for appointment, interview or meeting room bookings so that the availability of these shared resources can be easily accessed by all.

Email and Messaging Solution

Centralized storage of emails is provided by SBS and are very useful for security reasons and productivity when working as a team.  For example if required Secretaries can review, print and reply to their manager’s emails which is useful for delegation and absences from the office.  If you have part-time staff or during absences, other staff can ensure that important emails are not left unread.  It also aids data security enabling centralized anti-virus, anti-spam and backups of emails so that if a computer fails all emails are stored on the server.

Desktop Faxing

Fax is still very common in many companies, often inbound faxes are received by the receptionist and placed in the relevant staff member’s tray or the receptionist delivers it by hand.  SBS allows received faxes to be emailed to a member of staff who can then email it to the recipient (or their secretary), they can also be stored on the intranet, printed to a printer automatically or stored in a folder on the server.  There is also software that can be installed to automatically forward faxes to the correct person in the office and delete junk faxes.

The desktop faxing also allows faxes to be sent (with or without standard cover pages) directly from their own computer.  This reduces the need for staff members to print and use a communal fax.  It is very useful for accounts departments where often invoices are faxed to customers or orders are faxed to suppliers, this can be done automatically.

File and Printer Sharing

File sharing is a standard part of server working, it allows all files to be stored centrally for regular backups.  You can also store all employee’s ‘profiles’ which are their “My Documents” and Desktop files so that they can log on to any computer in the office and continue to work (as if it were their own).  This also enables organizations to be safe in the knowledge that if a computer fails all important data is stored on the server and backed up.

Printer sharing is very useful as not only does it reduce the cost of having many printers but it also enables printers with many paper trays to be configured once on the server and ‘rolled out’ to many computers thus reducing the misprints that commonly occur.

Application sharing

Many companies will have standard software packages that relate to their industry, such as Customer Relationship Management, Accounting and Purchase Order Software, Case & Practice Management software etc.  SBS can compliment the majority of these applications (no-doubt many have been built for Windows Servers).

Automated Software updates for Computers

Computer and Server updates that are provided by Microsoft are important to plug security holes as they are discovered; SBS includes an automated method of installing these on all computers at a click of a button.

Premium Edition Benefits

Microsoft Small Business Server is sold in two versions Standard which includes the above (and other features) and the Premium Edition which also includes these two items:

Enterprise Level Firewall

ISA (Internet Security & Acceleration) Server is an enterprise level firewall which is very customizable, allowing you to monitor and restrict internet access.  You can disable and enable access to the internet:

By time – e.g. lunchtime and outside of working hours only Specific Websites – only work related websites can be accessed Type of access – only websites can be accessed, but files cannot be downloaded … different rules for different employees, departments, groups or level of team members

There are almost infinite configurations that can be used to suit your business needs.  Also additional software can provide virus-scanning on the server of all internet access and specific reporting on websites accessed or attempted rule breaking.

Database Server – SQL Server

SQL Server is a powerful enterprise database which many software providers use as their database platform.  It cannot be easily copied from the server (helping to ensure no-one can walk away with your client/customer data) and has many security, speed and customizable reporting benefits.