ExchangeDefender Billing Change
As many of our partners may have noticed, there have been some recent changes to the normal ExchangeDefender billing system. This month was the first month we ran billing through the new system and some things were a little different. For one, you will now receive a receipt confirmation of the charge that has been processed. We did experience some issues with invoices going out, but we have resolved that and everyone will receive their invoice for March as usual on the first. So moving forward, beginning in March, you will receive two emails, one being the invoice and the other, the receipt of a successful charge.
The invoices may always be accessed from the support portal and now you can choose to view the invoice, or print the invoice. We have also changed the way that ExchangeDefender accounts are listed on the invoices. Previously, the domain would be listed and the price per account. We have now changed it so that it lists the domain name, the number of accounts, and the price per user. Lastly, when you click on the Invoice tab in the portal, you will see a status beside the invoice. The status will either be, paid, past due, or processing. If the invoice is listed as processing, please give us a call because there may be an issue with your account.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Billing Department directly at: 877-546-0316 x 739.
-ExchangeDefender Billing Department
Why Industry Awards Are Important for IT Solution Providers
There are many industry awards throughout the year for IT Solution Providers to get involved with. Some IT Solution Providers may look at awards as pretentious or self-promoting, but the reality is awards can help to drive a business to the next level.
There are several ways awards help business growth.
Recognition
Awards can help bring a spotlight on an IT company. With recognition comes easier access to vendors, media outlets, and distributors. Recognition can also lead to event participation, speaking engagements, and even lead to being recognized as an industry expert.
Validation
Industry awards can help validate or give credibility to IT companies. By listing industry awards on materials and the company website, potential customers are able to easily see involvement and participation, providing them with more information to make an easier decision.
Promotion
Awards provide an easy outlet for promoting the company. It is easy to get local or national attention through industry awards. Press releases are a good way to promote through the web and many local newspapers and TV stations will jump at the chance to run a local interest story.
Receiving industry awards can easily boost company moral and can spark new interest from customers.
Award season is currently underway and there are many awards for IT companies to seek out. One to check out is the Looks Cloudy Channel Choice Awards. Nominations are open until February 28th, 2013 and the award provides a great opportunity for IT industry personnel to get involved.
Most industry awards have an easy nomination process and taking the time to get involved can really pay off in the end…
Frank Gurnee
VP, Channel Services, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x4777
frank@ownwebnow.com
Face-to-Face Communication
I am going to forgo my normal blog post today and talk about an article I read recently. Over the weekend while cleaning up my office, I was thumbing thru last year’s magazines and came across an article titled, “The Importance of Face-to-Face Communication at Work” by Chuck Martin. Mr. Martin cited a survey that shows “67% of senior executives and managers say their organization would be more productive if their superiors communicated more often by personal discussion.” With the advent of technology in the work place, email has proven to be the leader in communication.
However, further reading uncovered that many respondents to the survey stated that, “Personal discussion is the foundation of communication.” While Mr. Martin states that the majority of business leaders say their organization would be more productive with more personal discussion, most slip back into the easy, and sometimes impersonal, technology communication such as email, instant messaging, and texting. The article did then go on to state that technology communication is not all evil – it just has a place. It explained that if personal discussion is not warranted, then electronic forms of communication can be used as a choice. The article closes with stating that in the long-term, face-to-face communication assures a clear and concise message coming across.
While sitting at my desk, reading this article, I personally think this article deals straight to the point of what I believe is lacking in small to medium businesses today: Proper Communication. I also think that it is up to upper management to establish proper forms of communication within their organization and to make sure that their employees know these acceptable forms. Every organization should have an outlet for both managers and employees to engage in open and honest face-to-face communication. And while the article primarily discusses the communication relationship between management and the employees; it is important to expand this further into the role of partner and client.
Technological communication such as email, IMs, and texting all require that the technology is working properly when you press the send button. However, this is not always the case. And many people shirk situations when they have to talk to another person directly. This is because they have lost their basic communication skills. I am not saying we should frown upon using technology as a form of communication. What I am stating, or rather agreeing with, is the premise of this article: Know when to use technological communication and know when to use face-to-face communication to mutually benefit both parties.
Michael D. Alligood
Partner Sales & Support, ExchangeDefender & Shockey Monkey
michael@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x707
Balancing the Controlled Burn vs. the Forest Fire
This week I have had bouts with managing my time between scheduled items that are improvements to our infrastructure and the “Hey, this is the single most important thing in the world to me” items. I know it’s the nature of the beast. So, I guess I have to figure out how to balance the politely ignore unimportant request versus putting a DND sign on my door.
So this balancing act gets extra tedious in non-ownership management roles. Because in this case, you have items falling on you from above, sideways, upwards, and diagonally. They will come in all levels of importance and from seventy different directions. They will come far and wide, from your boss, from employees, from clients, from vendors, from fellow managers. All while in the middle of a fire. How do you say? “Not now”. That part is easy, but how to say it without sounding like a complete subhuman species of ill manners.
Here’s my concern, folks will appear to be ok with pushback but most deep down feel like they are getting blown off merely because you don’t want to do what they ask. When in reality, however big you perceive your problem to be, the one I am working on instead, is just ever so slightly bigger. And not only that, I find myself in this pattern: If I stop what I am doing, then my controlled burn can quickly turn into a forest fire that I then have to put out myself!
How do you handle this?
Carlos Lascano
VP Support Services, ExchangeDefender
carlos@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x737
It’s That Time Again!
It’s that time again…Promo Time!!! Check your mailboxes! We are running a promotion for Valentine’s Day that will be active throughout the entire month of February!
We love our partners so we are going to “Spread the Love” and offer our wonderful partners yet another great discount this month!
We are quickly approaching the switch to Exchange 2013 so this promotion will reflect the LAST chance to get our Hosted Exchange platform at this great price. Each account that is created within this promotional period will be grandfathered in at that price for the duration of the account.
The promotion will be valid from February 1st – February 28th! Get the coupon code from the promo card that you will be receiving or contact me directly and I will give you the code! Always stay tuned to the ExchangeDefender Promotions page for the latest promotional offerings.
DON’T MISS THIS PROMOTION!!!
Stephanie Hasenour
VP Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com
The Disillusion of Business
Let’s start out with a very simple question: By observing the image below, which line is longer?
Most of you recognize this as the Müller-Lyer illusion and know through education that both lines are the same length. However, you would be wrong. If you notice in the image below, you will see that I changed the length of one of the lines.
I would venture to guess that the majority of you didn’t notice the change and proceeded to answer the question they way you were indoctrinated. You did not stop to think that a change could, or would, or should be made. You saw what you thought was the Müller-Lyer illustration and answered accordingly. However, if you would have stopped and preformed a quick calculation, you would have noticed the change in line length. This leads me to my second, and more important, question: Are you making the same uncalculated decisions in your business?
Business, technology, and education are all constantly changing. It is important for you to realize these changes and adapt to them in order to maintain relevance in today’s market. By going on what you have always believed to be correct, you will inevitably be incorrect. Although from a fictional movie, a line from Men In Black can easily sum this up: “1500 years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was the center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago, you knew that people were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.” The business world will change the rules on you every time—and at any time. Learn to recognize these changes and adjust your business accordingly. Retrain your mind into performing quick calculations on items it already believes to be evident. Because if you don’t, you could go from reading a blog about measuring lines to standing in the unemployment line.
Michael D. Alligood
Partner Sales & Support, ExchangeDefender & Shockey Monkey
michael@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x707
Rescaling & Redesigning Services
Sucks! <end of blog>
I touched very lightly on the fact that we are making a lot of backend changes in the coming weeks and months. Things are moving in an excellent direction. But every time we step back and look at what we have and find glaring holes here and there. Holes that don’t cause problems but if they are not changed one day they may. These things pile up. Think of it as important Windows Updates piling up at the same as you “fixing” your registry, but in a much a grander scale.
So this makes you reassess everything in front of you. And it gives you the a moment of clarity. Before you become an engineer, you should really put in some time as a janitor. The root cause? We love our customers and as long as what they’re asking for doesn’t break our entire platform, we will try to squeeze in their requests. So what’s left? A trail of crumbs that somehow turned into a feature, but now these features should probably get a good face lift for the sake managing the entire platform with ease. Otherwise you get stuck with the old “I know this code in here …. SOMEWHERE.. “.
We will continue to push hard to ensure that we’re ready to deliver quality services to your current clients and scalable enough to service your future clients.
Carlos Lascano
VP Support Services, ExchangeDefender
carlos@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x737
Driving Customer Loyalty and More Sales through Testimonials
Testimonials have always been a great way to feature your product or service while providing validity to your company. You can typically see customer testimonials on marketing materials and websites to provide the biggest impact for potential customers.
It is always great to get an outstanding email or letter to use as a testimonial, but waiting for that to happen is no longer necessary. Video testimonials are one of the most effective testimonial strategies and are easier than ever to get.
As an IT professional it is imperative to visit your managed customers on a scheduled or regular basis. When visiting a client it is as easy as saying to a customer, “I would like to feature you guys on our website and was wondering if you can say a few words to describe your experiences with our service?”
You might be surprised at how easy this is and how many people will oblige with great things to say about your business, especially when put on camera. It is no longer necessary to hire a video production staff or cameraman to get candid shots of your customers to feature them on your website.
Most everyone in our industry carries some type of smart phone that includes an HD camera. All of these cameras provide video recording capability with a high quality output. Getting a short testimonial whether you are at a customer’s site, they are visiting your office, or a scheduled visit is a good way to gain additional customer loyalty and sales.
Sites like Youtube and Vimeo allow you to easily upload your footage which can be embedded in your website, providing links to both your company as well as to the company of your customer. This is a win/win situation for everyone as it provides an advantage for all.
The next step is to get out there and get some testimonials!
Frank Gurnee
VP, Channel Services, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x4777
frank@ownwebnow.com
It’s That Time Again…
Over the past 6 months our growth pattern has exceeded all of our projection figures by a wide margin! While this is good news for the “Vlad Ferrari Fund” and the business as a whole, for us folks in the Support side of things, it means “It’s That Time Again…”. So over the next 60 days we will be doing a ton of infrastructure updates, upgrades, and build outs.
Thankfully, the way we have designed things in the past year or so, we are built for pretty much painless scaling. So we will be adding a ton of infrastructure for our Exchange clusters as well the hardware to roll out the new 2013 cluster. ExchangeDefender will be getting more power! We will also be improving our failover plans across the entire portfolio, spread around the globe.
We will be providing NOC updates for everything as we move along including expected client impact, which again on paper should be minimal to none. But, I would be a liar if I never saw a plan fail in some way. You will be kept updated if anything has even the slightest chance to impact your clients.
Carlos Lascano
VP Support Services, ExchangeDefender
carlos@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x737
Don’t Forget About Managed Messaging!
With the recent introduction of new features like ExchangeDefender LocalCloud and the release of Shockey Monkey v.3.0 our ExchangeDefender Managed Messaging product hasn’t been receiving the attention it deserves! The New Year is now here and we would like to do everything we can to make it your most profitable year yet.
Earlier this year we introduced a brand new product called ExchangeDefender Managed Messaging. Our Managed Messaging product comes with our full Hosted Exchange platform plus the SharePoint offering, which also includes ExchangeDefender, ActiveSync, and a copy of Outlook 2007 or 2010. As part of the Managed Messaging service we handle the clients’ email migration, Outlook deployment, and SharePoint setup. Support for Hosted Exchange/ExchangeDefender and email is also included. You will not have to worry about billing either; we will be responsible for billing as well; making it nice and convenient for you.
So how does this benefit you?
You maintain the current relationship with your clients and provide them with additional services and support, we handle their email. We will NEVER take on the client directly or interfere with your relationship with the client, in any way. Managed Messaging is a standard flat rate per month and as the referring partner you receive a 25 percent commission from the deal. The goal of Managed Messaging is to help our partners lighten their workload so that they can generate additional business from existing customers while also being able to generate new business!
If you have any questions at all about our Managed Messaging service please contact me directly: Anastasia@ownwebnow.com or 877-546-0316 x739.
Anastasia Wiggins
Partner Communications Manager
(877) 546-0316 x4739
anastasia@ownwebnow.com