Collaboration

Through cloud computing employees can share and edit projects simultaneously with real-time collaboration. Our cloud-based customer relationship software lets you collect and manage client information and generate new leads without the headache of having to install software and make constant upgrades on all your workstations.

Increased Security and Availability

Your data is only as safe as your infrastructure. Encrypted cloud storage protects your sensitive business data and documents from virtual attacks and allows you to access them from virtually anywhere!

Savings

Cloud computing will save your business money in different ways. Did you know that a cloud network can reduce your energy use by up to 87%?

We can offer your business a cloud-based service that will improve your work flow. Some of solutions include:

iceCRM – A cloud based customer relationship management. This service is accessible 24/7 from any device in any location! This service is customized and tailored specifically for your business, enabling you to manage your daily business needs!

Zarafa – Our collaborative cloud based email groupware. Zarafa has all the benefits of big name email services such as Microsoft Outlook, but is only half the price!

ASK4Cloud – One of the most secure and reliably cloud drives available to small and medium size businesses. You are enabled to sync files, backup multiple folders and have unlimited access anywhere, even on your mobile device! Your cloud is located on a private cloud server and can be re-branded to your company name. Your name, your data, safe and secured.

ASK4Backup – We provide our clients complete cloud based data recovery and business continuity programs. All of your sensitive and crucial business documents and data can be stored and backed up through cloud computing and you’ll never have to worry about losing a document again!

One of the most inexpensive and effective ways to improve a computer’s performance is to install more RAM (random access memory). This will speed up the applications installed on your computer and allow you to open and run more programs simultaneously.

# 2 DELETE COOKIES

When you surf the web, most if not all sites send “cookies” to your profile. Deleting temporary internet files, system temp files and cookies will prevent slowing down while connected to the internet.

#3 PERFORM REGULAR MAINTENANCE ON YOUR SERVERS AND DESKTOPS

Computers, like cars, need regular maintenance to avoid problems, sluggish performance, and error messages. At a minimum, you should run ScanDisk and Disk Defrag Utility on your machines once a month. This will make your applications and files load and run faster.

#4 RUN A SPYWARE SCAN ONCE A WEEK

One tell tale sign that your computer is infected with spyware is slow, unstable performance. Spyware sucks up your system’s resources to carry out its evil intent, slowing down your computer and even causing it to freeze and crash.

#5 DISABLE OR REMOVE UNNECESSARY PROGRAMS RUNNING IN THE BACKGROUND

Many computers have pre-installed software programs that use up system resources and slow down your computer.

While these recommendations will certainly speed up your system, they aren’t a miracle cure for a seriously out-of-date computer network. If your computer or network constantly crashes, freezes up, or runs painfully slow, then it’s time for an upgrade.

Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have come up with a model designed to show the full extent of cloud’s energy efficiency.

The report, put together by a research team comprising McCormick School of Engineering Northwestern University and Lawrence Berkeley and part funded by Google, unveils the CLEER (Cloud Enery and Emissions Research) model, described as the ‘first ever open-access, fully transparent systems model for energy analysis of cloud systems by the research community’.

What’s more, the model predicts an 87% reduction in primary energy use if companies moved their business software – comprising CRM, productivity and email tools – to the cloud.

Read the full article here

Managing a business looks much different now than it did a decade ago. As the world becomes increasingly more digital every day, businesses must adapt in order to stay relevant to its employees and customers. One way to leverage the potential of technology is to migrate your business to a cloud network. This is a dramatic shift away from how business used to be done, but its benefits are many.

Speed

When documents are centralized in a cloud environment, information can be transferred and shared instantly. Interoffice mail envelopes are dependent on the pickup schedule; this system is antiquated and can be easily replaced with a paperless system.

Cost Savings

The Return on Investment (ROI) is significant when you take into consideration the cost of implementing a cloud-based system over annual expenses for paper and printer supplies.

Eliminates Redundancy

We all know what happens where someone prints a memo or other document and finds an error or a necessary amendment – that paper is thrown in the trash and an updated replacement is printed. This creates excessive printing and can cause confusion when employees are receiving multiple versions of the same document. Since cloud documents are retrieved from a central location, they can be updated instantly without creating redundant copies.

Collaboration

Cloud documents can be easily shared and, depending on the system, can even be updated synchronously by multiple employees. Real-time collaboration can take place even when the project spans multiple offices.

Environmentally Friendly

Every company wants to be environmentally friendly but it can result in considerable financial strain. Purchasing products made from recycled materials tend to be more costly and may be of a lower quality. Also, arranging pickup of recyclable waste from your office may also incur additional fees. A paperless environment eliminates these costs, allowing your company to reinvest in ways that will truly improve performance and customer satisfaction.

Accessibility

Data stored in the cloud is accessible at anytime from anywhere. This is ideal for employees who travel or for those who need to access information from a mobile device. This also makes employees more accountable since work can be easily monitored.

Easy to Audit

No one likes an unexpected visit from the IRS, but a searchable cloud system makes it easy to retrieve invoices, receipts, and reports. This same feature can be used for internal audits.

Security

Once a document is printed, it is only as secure as the file cabinet where it is stored. Cloud storage can be encrypted to protect from virtual attacks while still allowing easy and safe access for those who need it.

Centralized Resources

Organizational management is easy with cloud systems since all templates and related materials can be stored in a centralized location.

Disaster Recovery

If you have ever had the misfortune of dealing with a fire, flood, or other natural disaster, you know how chaotic it is to recover important documents and records. Since cloud data is stored remotely, this is no longer a concern.

Let AE Technology Group assist you with your business’s cloud migration. We provide online common data solutions and business applications that are accessible from a web browser. We can customize a solution that fits your needs. Contact us to learn about the benefits of cloud network migration.

This, of course, can be facilitated not only by qualified staff but by intuitive software that empowers personnel to do their best when handling cases and ideally can be streamlined with existing business processes. Let us look at some of the considerations that go into choosing a customer relationship management software developer.

On-Premise or Cloud

Not all solutions necessarily give themselves over to the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, but CRM certainly does. If a practice falls under an organization’s core competency, then the extra effort spent tweaking and managing software in-house may we worthwhile. However, CRM is generally a common need for an organization, not a specialty. Therefore placing most of the responsibility of data integrity/security, hosting, upgrades, and all other aspects of software maintenance while your personnel focus on their core duties may be optimal.

Scaleability

It should also be noted that many CRM vendors happen to offer a surprising amount of scaleability to their systems via system-specific apps or modules. Open source CRM systems, in particular, tend to have large developer communities that may provide anywhere in the neighborhood of 1000+ projects that meet a specific need related to the CRM platform, all of which tend to be free of charge and open source as well. Of course, proprietary or strictly cloud-based CRM systems also tend to offer a selection of “apps,” usually made by third-party developers, that provide similar extensibility. Examine your CRM needs to see if the “out-of-the-box” configuration is adequate; if not, see which platform has the best available extensions for your particular situation.

Cost and Licensing

A CRM solution is an expense that you can expect to yield a noticeable ROI, but it is important to make sure that it is within budget and not eating up too much capital. The range for CRM solutions is enormous – anywhere from $12/month for some cloud-based systems all the way up to proprietary licenses that can gobble up $1000+ a month. Keep in mind, however, that you may get what you pay for. Consider the sum total of features in relation to total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) when comparing vendors.

Licensing Fees

Though there are situations in which paying a premium for a license may lead to added value in the long run, Microsoft Exchange is not cheap. Exchange Server 2010 with a five-client license costs roughly $1300 dollars. When factoring in hardware and IT professional labor costs, even the entry level of an on-premise Exchange implementation can be a sizable expense.

Tight Coupling with the Windows Environment

Microsoft Exchange, like many of Microsoft’s office products, is not meant to be platform independent and is generally optimized for the Windows operating system. Furthermore, Exchange is tightly woven with proprietary tools such as Powerpoint, Access, and Sharepoint. Though an environment composed of Microsoft products meets the full email needs of many businesses, there are organizations that opt for a more eclectic mix of productivity software.

Archiving Concerns

Microsoft Exchange uses a binary format called the Personal Storage Table (PST) in order to archive messages locally in order to manage storage space on the server. However, .pst files have been known to suffer from corruption. This can be a serious issue for businesses that are required to maintain archives in order to be compliant with certain standards and regulations.

It is worth considering whether these and other concerns have an impact on an organization’s cost of maintaining email communications. Contact a trusted Microsoft Exchange alternative provider to learn about more possibilities when seeking an email server solution.

Providers Are Not All Are the Same

The number of cloud service providers has grown rapidly, with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Rackspace being just a few of the organizations that offer enterprise cloud services. They also all happen to have existing track records of delivering such services, giving a discerning organization plenty of history and information with which to judge the best partner to meet its network needs. Pricing is typically one the main points of consideration when choosing a vendor. Though most cost models are usage-based, rates, policies, service tiers, and SLAs vary greatly among providers. Cost, however, should not be totally overshadow less tangible factors such as how well a cloud provider’s technological direction aligns with strategic vision.

Transitioning Systems in a Simple, Slow, Staged Approach

An organization will often have to start somewhere when moving systems to the cloud. This approach should be phased – cloud migrations that fail tend to do so due to the lack of planning. The guideline for beginning such a migration is to select a system component that has low complexity, lax security requirements, and limited risk of failure to the organization.

Straight Replication of the Existing Infrastructure Never Works

It behooves an organization to not plan on a one-to-one mapping of existing resources into the cloud. Doing so would mitigate the advantages in terms of scalability and better resource allocation that justify the move to the cloud in the first place. Cloud solutions offer many ways to improve tech mainstays such as application servers, DMZs, and database service. Such improvements should be an essential part of any cloud migration plan rather than an afterthought.

Read press release:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/5/prweb10743093.htm

Have you been trying to manage your business IT yourself?

With today’s rapidly changing technology and IT support needs it’s increasingly difficult and time consuming.

Today, more and more businesses are hiring managed service providers rather than having a full IT department of their own to manage their technology needs.

If you don’t want the hassle or expense of dealing with technology issues in house, consider hiring an MSP.

Since most systems today can be managed remotely using the internet, MSPs can monitor, protect and support their customers computer systems and networks from a separate location.

Here’s 5 reasons to use an MSP:

* Receive On Demand IT Support
* Save Time, Money, and Space In-House
* Simplify Your IT Expenses & Billing
* Take Advantage of Expert IT Knowledge & Expertise
* Experience Proactive Management of Your Systems

You have enough to do without staying up nights fixing or worrying about your IT problems.

As an MSP it’s in our best interest to make sure that your systems are up and running smoothly at all times.

We offer a range of services that will save you time, money, and frustration and will help you focus on making your business more successful through better technology.

Contact the AE Technology Group and our experts will evaluate your businesses technology needs and show you how you can benefit by working with a managed service provider.