Now that Office 2013 is available for purchase, what if you have recently purchased Office 2010? Does this mean that you missed out and have to purchase the new release if you are looking for the latest features? The good news is that for a limited time Microsoft is allowing people to upgrade their Office software for free. All you have to do is go online and download the new software after validating your recent Office 2010 purchase.

To be eligible for this upgrade offer you need to have purchased your existing Microsoft Office 2010 software after October 19, 2012. For any licenses that were purchased after that date you will need a copy of the software product key which will need to be entered into the website offer page. Once that has been done you will be able to download the new software and install it on your computer. We would also recommend that you save this download file and the new product key in case you ever need to reinstall the software in the future. One thing to note is that this free upgrade must be redeemed no later than May 31, 2013.

For complete details see the following page on the Microsoft site http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/offer/ Feel free to contact us with any questions or assistance with this upgrade.

As we approach the end of another year we wanted to take a moment and send season’s greetings from all of us. Wishing you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and all the best in the coming year.

Ed & Henrietta VanderLaan, Adrian VanderLaan and staff:

Pattie Atherton, Hette Feenstra, Mark Kottelenberg, Alvar Vandenbeukel and David VanderMeulen.

In lieu of mailing out cards to clients and friends we have again decided to send donations to various local charities this year. Donations will be made to Mission Services of Hamilton, Streetlight Ministries and Anchor Association. During this season of joy and giving we encourage everyone to remember those in need.

Working with many different small businesses we often get asked this question. Frequently purchasing a new computer is left to the last minute and at first glance is seems easier to run out to the nearest retail store and pick up a shiny new system. In addition these same retail stores are often advertising systems at great discount prices, but is it really cheaper in the end? What’s really the different between the consumer models found in retail stores and the business models available through resellers or directly from the manufacturer?

When comparing different computer models the conversation quickly focusses on the technical specs. The speed and type of processor, how much RAM and storage the system includes, among other details. These technical details are definitely important items to consider, however the total cost of the system also has other considerations. Three other considerations often overlooked are: operating system, warranty and install time.

Consumer model systems come with the Windows Home operating system which is not designed for business environments. The Windows Pro operating system is required to connect to servers, it also has remote connection capabilities and built in management tools that are needed to properly maintain a business computer. While Windows Home can be upgraded to Windows Pro after the fact, this costs an extra $80 – $150 for the software upgrade license, in addition to the labour to have this installed.

Warranty is the next differentiator between consumer and business models. Brand name business computers sold by HP, Dell and Lenovo all offer full onsite warranty coverage. Retail systems most often are sold with depot warranty. In the event that the computer needs to be serviced, a retail system has to be brought back to the store, or a repair depot. Businesses typically prefer to have a technician come onsite and repair the system versus packing up the system to be shipped away for repair which can take days or even weeks.

Install time is another cost that is often not considered when purchasing a new computer. If you purchased a consumer model, now you have to upgrade the Home operating system to Pro, install all the latest patches, install Microsoft Office and then finally you are ready to start configuring all the other data and line of business applications. The business computers save time by having Windows Pro already preinstalled, plus many of them even include the latest Microsoft Office software preinstalled. This results in shorter install times which translates into lower install cost.

So if consumer models require an operating system upgrade, don’t include onsite warranty and take longer to install is it really cheaper in the end? Often these extra costs can add up to $500 or more, not taking into account the additional stress that this can cause. Looking for a new or replacement business computer? Give us a call and we’ll help you save money and have less stress!

Part of keeping networks healthy and secure is having a good security software application on all the computers and servers. While there are many different solutions available on the market, we have always preferred the Symantec solution from a feature and manageability standpoint. This month Symantec announced a new version of their popular Endpoint Protection (SEP) software, called Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition 2013.

To date most of our managed clients have been running SEP v11 which in turn was communicating back to our dedicated Symantec server for management. This gave us a great centrally managed environment and also meant that our clients didn’t have to install and maintain any management software on their local server, reducing their resource load.

Recently we have been switching our clients to the new Symantec.cloud service which means all devices now communicate to a Symantec data center for updates and reporting rather than the PCM server. This new solution also offers a monthly license model that ties in nicely to our service structure and doesn’t require purchasing licenses in advance for annual agreements.

One of the main drivers for this change was that we have been extremely impressed with the new Symantec Endpoint Protection solution and also see a lot of advantages to using their new centralized cloud service. Since installing the new software on some test sites we have been seeing an increase in the malware caught and removed over the previous edition. Another advantage is that this new release also does a lot more processing in the background and doesn’t need the monthly full system scan on the desktop side. As a result we have decided to recommend that all clients move to this new cloud model as soon as their existing agreements expire.
This means we can now offer expanded protection for a similar cost as the previous software licenses. Interested in getting on board with the latest “best of breed” security software? Feel free to contact us for more information on how this new solution keeps networks clean and running more efficiently with less downtime.

The summer was a busy time for PCM and it quickly became apparent that more resources were needed to serve the growing client list. As we switch over to the fall season we are excited to announce that our team has expanded again with another experienced consultant.

Hette Feenstra joined our team at the beginning of October and has been busy getting up to speed on our support tools and best practices. Previously Hette worked for a school board and was responsible for a network that included 35 different locations with over 600 computers. We look forward to having his expertise on our team and expect that the extra capacity will help us to be more responsive to our client support needs. Our expectation is that Hette will be both on the road and working in house on client networks as the need arises.

Did you know that PCM currently looks after over 650 computers and 70 servers? It’s something that we take seriously and by adding experienced resources to our team we hope to maintain the service level that our clients expect.

At the last Microsoft conference we were intrigued by the Windows Phone platform and decided to purchase some for our business use. It’s one thing to see devices at a show, however the only way you really get to know a device well is by actually using it for a while. After reviewing the devices available I purchased the Nokia Lumia 900 smartphone running the Microsoft Windows 7.5 operating system. I’ve been using this phone for a couple of months now and wanted to write about my experience.

The Nokia Lumia phones have been turning heads for a while now, and my experience with it was no different. Everyone I showed the phone to was impressed with the design and feel of the new phone, especially the amazing screen. It’s also proven to be a fairly durable phone, even sustaining a number of drops on concrete which is never a good experience for any smartphone.

Since it was built with a Microsoft operating system it was no surprise that the integration with Exchange and MS Office was extremely robust. The email interface is also very intuitive, giving access to all mail folders and even organizing email threads into conversations to help clean up the inbox. Another useful feature was how the Windows phone integrates all contacts into one list, merging contacts from any service you subscribe to (Exchange, LinkedIn, Facebook, Windows Live, Google etc). So a contact could have the work name and address from Exchange, picture from LinkedIn, birthdate and home address from Windows Live or Facebook which all merged together to form a contact profile in a simple consolidated screen.

Having used a BlackBerry device for so long I was concerned about losing the physical keyboard, however I found the Windows on screen keyboard to be very good. That said, I must admit that the BlackBerry devices have more advanced features from a phone perspective. I also missed having multiple sound profiles and configurable alerts for each type of message or notification.

Another big win with this Windows platform was that we could now integrate our SharePoint site to the mobile devices. I could now easily and securely access all files from our SharePoint site using the native phone interface. This allowed me to open and edit Word documents, Excel files, PDFs and many other files that we use on a daily basis. The same interface also tied into my Skydrive account for personal data that I store in the cloud.

Apart from work related items, was the device fun to use? Definitely! There are so many features that made this phone a pleasure to use: fast browsing, great camera, excellent video quality, good quality speaker, lots of available applications and an extremely fluid and responsive interface to name a few. We also really appreciated the customizable start screen that allowed each of us to create a unique look and theme that suited our personal tastes and preferences.

Given all the power and capability of the current release we are really looking forward to the new Windows 8 phones due out this fall. Is this a mobile platform that’s going to become more popular moving forward? We think so. Microsoft has created an operating system that capably blends the needs of both business and individuals alike.

Interested in learning more about the Windows mobile platform? Go to http://www.windowsphone.com/en-ca or give us a call to discuss our experience in more detail.

Last month we attended the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto (WPC 2012). At this event we received our annual dose of Microsoft information and were able to get an update on their future plans. One of the key items that received a lot of attention is the upcoming release of the new Windows 8 operating system. Microsoft is making preparations for its biggest ever software launch which is scheduled for October 2012. From what we saw this new operating system will certainly turn heads once it’s released. One of the appealing things with Windows 8 is that it will be released on multiple device platforms, meaning desktop, laptop and tablet devices would all share the same interface. With Windows XP support stopping soon Windows 8 should provide an excellent platform for businesses in the next few years.

Another highlight at the conference was the new Windows Phone 8 device that is also scheduled to be released later this year. It presents a user interface that looks similar to Windows 8 with built-in robust integration with Exchange, Office 365, SkyDrive, Lync, OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and many other business applications. Combine this with some really powerful hardware by companies like Nokia we feel this may very well be the next standard in business ready smartphones.

The conference also showcased the next server operating system called Windows Server 2012, due out this fall. With its enhanced virtualization and storage performance Windows Server is sure to remain as the industry standard choice for most business servers.

Interested in hearing more about the latest Microsoft technologies or how some of these can benefit your company? Give us a call. We would be more than willing to discuss this with you.

As we transition from spring to summer we also went through some changes at PCM. Earlier this year Jake left PCM to take up a new position in an enterprise IT department which left us a little short-handed for a month or so. Since that time we interviewed various people and are happy to announce that we are back to a full staff with even more robust experience than before.

Many of you have already worked with him, but I’d like to introduce our newest member, Mark Kottelenberg, who joined our team at the end of April. Mark comes to PCM with over 6 years of IT help desk experience, so while he’s new to us, he’s not new to supporting clients. Mark has been busy learning all of our support tools and has already helped out many of you remotely. Have an issue with your computer? Send your request into our office and you’ll most likely get to speak with Mark and see for yourself how good he is!

Did you know that PCM currently looks after over 590 computers and 65 servers? It’s something that we take seriously and by adding experienced resources to our team we hope to maintain the service level that our clients expect

Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) back in March of 2011 as an updated version of the popular internet browser. This new software was initially available as an optional update, however Microsoft has recently announced it will be pushing this updated release out through the automatic update process to all Windows Vista and Windows 7 systems.

At PCM we have been using the IE9 browser for some time now and have found it to be a nice improvement over previous versions. That said, we have held off pushing this upgrade out to our client networks in case there were issues with legacy applications that only worked with the older browser versions. Starting in February we are also planning to approve the IE9 release and have it automatically push out to all client desktops running Vista and Win7.

What’s so great about the new release? Well for starters, this release is the most secure yet with various built in protection mechanisms to stop software from automatically installing itself without a user knowing. IE9 also detects when add-in software is not loading or running slow and notifies the user so these problem applications can be disabled. All of this results in faster browsing and more secure computing which is something we really appreciate.

Apart from being more secure the IE9 browser is also faster and uses a cleaner interface creating a better browsing experience for users. Will there be changes to the layout and some new things to learn? Yes, while all of your favourites and preferences will be retained, there will be some changes to the screen. Most notably is the absence of the favourites bar at the top of the screen, instead people are encouraged to use the new “pinning” feature that allows you to pin sites to the Windows task bar just like other Office applications. Should you prefer the old favourites bar at the top this can still be enabled by right mouse clicking at the top of the screen and turning it on again. For a complete list of all the new features of IE9, including some videos demonstrating the new technologies, please go here.

Due to the security and performance updates we have decided to upgrade all desktops to the latest version available for your version of Windows (IE9 on Vista and Windows 7, IE8 on Windows XP). With today’s internet threat landscape, there’s no question that using an outdated browser is a fool’s errand. Feel free to contact us with any questions about these new releases or concerns you may have about the upgrade process.