What’s Mine is Virtually Yours

Imagine wandering into a colleague’s office, one located in another city, turning on their computer and instead of a strangers wallpaper and files appearing on the desktop, hey presto it’s yours.

This is essentially the wonder of the virtual machine (VM). It’s an amazing collaborative tool that is making everything easier for business and global organizations.

A virtual machine is segmented by software to act as a standalone machine. Several virtual machines reside on one physical server. Instead of one Operating System (OS) partition, a server running VM technology can have multiple “virtual” OS partitions on one physical machine.

This allows you to leave your computer in the office but still access your desktop anywhere connected to this server. This virtual world needs a lot less than we’re used to providing. Fewer wires, less hardware, less space needed and less maintenance. And many things such as file sharing, collaboration and communication become easier. VM also increases security.

Some users set up a virtual machine as a group of computers that work together to create a more powerful machine. In this type of setup, the software makes it possible for one environment to be formed through several computers. This makes it appear to the end user as if he or she uses only a single computer, while there are actually numerous machines at work. The memory and other resources of each of these systems work together to create a more powerful machine.

If you’re interested in entering the world of VM, Chill IT can set you up. We’d also be happy to explain the system further. For instance, virtual machines are ideal for testing out other operating systems – like the new Windows 8 or alternative operating systems. You can also use virtual machines to run software on operating systems it wasn’t designed for – for example, you can run Windows programs on a Mac with a virtual machine.

Soon every computer could be your computer and the opportunities the VM provides could help your business and technological capacities expand while your related expenses decrease.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don’t sweat – Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

An Ocean of Application

Technology offers new opportunities every day. New business applications are constantly being released into the online marketplace to help us deal with tedious tasks and improve time efficiency. Unfortunately, many of these products are being developed faster than most people can find them… It’s hard to keep up!

This is a common problem on the internet. Such a large portion of data is available, yet our nuggets of gold are buried within piles of garbage. Sometimes you know what you need, but knowing what to search for and how to search for it is a completely different thing. Finding the right keywords and sifting through the many accounting tools, CRMs, email clients, and calendars can prove to be quite time consuming.

Many blogs, news feeds, and channels promote popular applications, interesting products, and even something that just sounds cool. This can be a valuable source for news.

Being part of the IT industry makes it easier to stay up to date with the latest product releases, updates, and online tools. It allows us to be inspired by new ideas, and helps us develop our own dynamic applications.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don’t sweat – Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

What is cloud computing and what does it mean for me?

Cloud computing has been around for years… It just never got called that before. If you have ever had a Hotmail or Gmail account, or even just downloaded your email from your web site host, you have already used the “cloud”.

Actually the true definition of cloud computing is pretty deep but, as usual, marketing hawks the world over have managed to twist it to mean a whole host of things (forgive the pun).

The cloud is what you use when the applications you use don’t actually live on your computers. More often than not, you rent these applications.

What’s an application? Well that’s the software you use to achieve a particular function. It may be a simple mail system such as Hotmail or a sophisticated enterprise management system such as Netsuite.

It could be your web site customer interface that allows your customers to purchase from you. None of these things need to be purchased any more. The relatively recent quantum increases in Internet connection speeds mean that it doesn’t really matter where your applications live.

That’s the simple definition. It gets more complicated. If you can stand it…read on.

Cloud and virtualization go hand in hand. If you are not sure what virtualisation is, have a look at this.

It used to be that virtualisation used to be just about getting a server or a workstation to run “virtually” on a host computer. Then companies such as VMWare and Citrix really started to get very tricky. How about being able to virtualize just a part of the computer? What if you could get all the bits of software that will run Microsoft Excel, for example, and package that all up to run as a virtual “package”? And if you could do that, could you serve it to more than one person remotely? And if you could do that, could you do that for hundreds? Thousands? If it were to be thousands, would you need to distribute the serving of this application package over more than one server? Would they need to be in the same room? What if you could dial up these servers as you needed them?

Well, if you can answer yes to all of these questions…what would you call that technology?

It’s called the cloud folks, and Microsoft, VMWare, Citrix and others are all delivering this right now. At the moment, the pricing puts this in the reach of medium to large organizations, but the costs are dropping daily. And the cloud capacity builds, larger companies are looking to offset their costs by offering discounts to their smaller counterparts.

Cloud is here to stay….think about that before you purchase your next server….do you really need it?

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don’t sweat – Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know you know what you know?

If your head is spinning from that title, here’s another way of saying the same thing. Your business has accumulated a vast amount of data that can be of value to you now and as your business grows. But if all that data is not in a form that you can easily retrieve and analyse, it is of little use. You may actually be sitting on a treasure trove of information that could improve your customer service and your profit, but how to get hold of the treasure?

Knowledge Management can bring order to this chaos and help you find the nuggets buried in your data stores. Many small businesses simply do not realise that they have been building an unstructured collection of valuable data. Applying knowledge management tools can organize and mine this storehouse, and also make it possible for the information to be shared across the organization.

Too often, customer billing information is in one file, purchasing history is in another and client contact information in another. Project information including the skills needed, who worked on what, how long they took, and how much it cost compared to the revenue, all that is somewhere else. Imagine how valuable it would be to look down into your data stores and discover connections and relationships you might not have noticed before. What could that mean to building and enhancing customer relationships? To your company’s strategic planning? What might you change if you discovered patterns of buying that you had not seen before?

In many ways, knowledge management is a living thing. As humans, we are constantly renewing ourselves. We recognise changing conditions, draw on our memories of what has served us well in the past to deal with change, visualise alternative outcomes, and make decisions about how we will proceed. We carry our database on our shoulders and make connections and see relationships that change continually as we gather new data from our experiences. That’s very much like what a knowledge management system can do for a business.

In today’s increasingly high-speed, competitive environment, businesses cannot afford to waste resources or miss opportunities. I’ve found that a frequent benefit of knowledge management is an increase in internal collaboration and sharing of best practices. As a company, you already know more than you think you know. And now you know that knowing is not enough; you have to be able to share knowledge and eliminate duplication.

Know what I mean?

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don’t sweat – Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Dashboards are Not Just for Cars

Remember the first time you slid behind the steering wheel of a car, gripped the wheel, and saw the instruments on the dashboard? It was exciting to feel that you could be in control of that powerful machine. All the dials and gauges spread out before you told you how fast you were going and how well the car was functioning. You had all the information you needed to go wherever you liked, whenever you wanted.

I can’t promise that thrill each time you look at your business dashboard, but you will find it gives you the same sort of up-to-the-minute readout on how well you are doing on your business journey.

A business dashboard presents visual displays of data pulled from different business systems, and tells you at a glance how things are going. A dashboard can provide real-time intelligence that includes your key performance indicators (KPIs), and can generate ad hoc reports to support decision-making. The display might include red-yellow-green lights, graphics such as bar charts and gauges, summaries, and drill-downs, all to provide consolidated information.

A well-designed dashboard is customizable and usually role-driven, so that the dashboard displayed on the company president’s screen will be different from that of the CFO or the middle manager. The good news is that the source data for a dashboard is probably already sitting in your system right now. With a bit of planning and design work, the information living down in your digital records can be given visible form and made to work for you in new ways.

Employees benefit from having the information they need to do their job right at their fingertips, and dashboards generally allow for customization to the individual’s likes and interests. For the CFO, accounts receivable aging status can be displayed in a bar chart, but the same data could appear as a pie chart for the CEO. The Sales Manager can see the comparison of monthly goals to actual performance, and then drill down to each salesperson’s individual performance. And for the Project Manager who has customized his desktop with widgets for weather and surf conditions, it’s a simple matter to add KPI information to tell him which tasks are on, ahead, or behind schedule and which are running over budget.

In your car you have spread before you all the vital information to get from where you are to where you are going. Fuel remaining, speed, distance traveled, engine function, warning lights, perhaps even compass direction as well as time and distance to destination. On your computer screen, the digital dashboard does the same for your business.

Gentlemen, start your engines!

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don’t sweat – Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

What’s All the Fuss over VoIP?

Sometimes that thing that sounds too good to be true turns out to really be true. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) has turned into one of those techno-promises that has proven its potential, especially as a cost saver for business.

The concept is simple – plug your phone into the Internet, and talk to the world as if it were all next door. And the reality is almost as easy: VoIP service converts your voice to a digital signal, and that can be sent over the Internet. On the other end, it comes out as your voice in a signal that the receiver can process – cell phone, wired phone, whatever. VoIP does require a broadband (high-speed Internet) connection for your computer, but these days you need that just to conduct business effectively anyway.

Since the service starts with your computer, your desktop computer can actually make calls directly from your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. Now, while you talk to a customer you can also be reviewing their information on your computer, entering orders, checking schedules, or even writing a confirmation of your phone conversation. Sure, you could do that before, but what was that phone call costing you?

As simple as the VoIP concept is, the main attraction has always been the potential cost savings. Installing a traditional wired phone system for your office with multiple stations could be an enormous investment. But a VoIP PBX system with up to 16 extensions costs under $2,000. And if that got your attention, how about calling from Sydney to Perth for just 10c? Period. Now your mobile phone can become an extension of your PBX, and a call to a mobile can cost only 20c/minute, regardless of the carrier.

During the early days of VoIP there were stories of dropped calls, just as there were with the early cell phones. But the technology has advanced rapidly, and these days VoIP is highly reliable. You do need to understand how the system works and what services are available, because there will be differences from your old style wired phone system. But that brings us to another advantage of a computer-based VoIP phone system – one service provider can install and support everything for you. That provider will be able to advise you about the best service choice for your business.

So give VoIP a look and a listen. With the cost savings and increased efficiency, I think you will soon be saying, “Now we’re talking!”

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don’t sweat – Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

What is it with these law firm software packages?

We have been providing support to many law firms in the past few years and the one common problem we need to address is their main application software – the thing that is supposed to be driving the firm.

There are numerous systems out there that offer the promise of matter management, precedent searches, document control and time billing – but they rarely work well technically – and therefore cause downtime, equating to frustration and general disasatisfaction with “the system”.

This then translates into frustration with our services – even though we offer the right advice as to what is needed to fix the problem. Things such as better resources, dedicated servers or upgraded workstations. We just want to be able to offer our customers a stable working platform – at a sustainable price.

Is the answer possibly in the clouds? Cloud computing is here now and being taken up at a rapid pace by large and small companies. The large companies are doing it because they recognise that they make significant savings on their infrastructure costs.

The small ones are doing it for the same reason – however a high infrastructure cost was a barrier to entry, rather than a headache to solve. Small firms now have access to enterprise grade systems and no longer have to “make do”.

Our job becomes simpler too. We simply supply you with a working network and a rock solid browser installation. That does not cost you much to have us do and maintainting it means much lower costs to you.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don’t sweat – Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

iPad Revolutionises Real Estate

In a recent article in the Australian Real Estate News, the iPad is represented as completely changing the way the mobile work force does business. Full article can be seen here.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don’t sweat – Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Law firm uses iPad to reach clients

In a first for an Australian law firm, the iPad has been used to release a legal update for clients. Full article can be seen here.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don’t sweat – Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Cradle Your Customers in a COTS Solution

When customers call for help or information, does your system make them feel like welcome guests or annoying pests? From the first contact, whether by web or voice, the systems you have in place should be helping you capture and keep clients.

Of course you and your staff are courteous. But if you don’t know that the same customer called a week ago, and what the call was about, a cheerful voice and frequent apologies will not erase the fact that you didn’t care enough to make a note. Is a client celebrating a business anniversary? A greeting card takes seconds to send and can pay dividends for years to come.

Ah, but how to capture all that important information, and be able to find it in seconds? That’s where your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system pays for itself over and over. And, you don’t have to spend a fortune either.

CRM has been around for years and many very effective software packages have been brought to the market. But just as “one-size-fits-all” never does, so a straight off-the-shelf package is not going to suit everyone. Full custom development is a huge investment, but there is a middle ground.

COTS can be your answer: Customised off-the-shelf brings the best of both worlds to your business with a system that will collect, store, report, and help you analyze the details of your customer relationships that matter to you. You will have the features needed to manage your business your way, and still have the benefits of off-the-shelf economy.

Starting with the base of a fully functional application, the integrator will tweak the system to meet your specific requirements. Snap-shot views help you see what’s in your pipeline of sales, reports help you understand how well your sales staff are doing, and client records help you collect and organise information on every contact your customers have with the company. Score card reporting allows you to visit or call customers with full confidence and preparation.

Knowledge is power, and the data collected by a well-designed and implemented customised off-the-shelf CRM system can put that power in your hands. The payoff will be a more efficient process and happier, more loyal customers.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don’t sweat – Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.