CrsTechnology

Office 365 Offers Full-Featured Applications For Your Business

crstechnology — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:40:52 +0000

From businesses in Southwest Florida, to U.S. government agencies, to schools and universities in Eastern and Central Europe, more and more organizations are moving to Microsoft Office 365. For this suite of software, it’s all about the cloud.

Office 365 is a subscription service that offers hosted email and all the latest office programs such as Word, Excel and Access. Businesses that want to have immediate access to their data at any time in any place where there is an Internet connection are warming up to it.

Office 365’s full office suite includes many of the same types of software programs that you use every day – word processing, spreadsheet, database, Outlook mail, the instant-messaging client Lync, and publishing apps among them. A small business can sign up for an annual subscription for $150 a year for five users. These are full-featured applications plus “extras” that include a shared calendar, a 25GB mailbox with virus and spam protection, and 10 gigabytes of cloud storage space per user. Other per-employee packages are also available.

Office 365 is also proving to be a prudent tool in terms of a business’s budget. Many of our clients are realizing the economic advantage of having software products working off the cloud as opposed to being on-premise: reduced maintenance time and costs, and transfer of liability. That’s because Microsoft maintains the IT servers, not you. So the real savings is not having to service equipment because there is no equipment when you’re hosting in the cloud.

There are many good reasons to look into an annual subscription to Office 365, but it may not make sense for every business. Give us a call, or send an e-mail now, and we’ll set up a consultation to see if Office 365 is right for you.

If It’s Oct. 26, It’s Windows 8 Debut Day

crstechnology — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 20:53:00 +0000

The biggest Windows operating system change since Windows 95 is upon us, and CRS Technology Consultants has checked it out. Microsoft Windows 8 hit the stores today and will be standard on nearly all PCs sold to consumers. Hang on to your mouse and set some time aside to get schooled on it because Windows 8 is a radical change when compared to all other previous Windows systems. Windows 8 gives us a completely different look and feel, as it is designed to be a crossover OS of sorts to play well across all PC laptops, smartphones and tablets – to tie them all together. It’s an all-new touch interface makes it especially suited for mobile devices.

Perhaps the biggest news is that in place of the familiar Start menu and icons, Windows 8 shows applications as an array of colorful tiles, which can feature updated information from the applications. For instance, an image from a user’s social-media contacts will show in the “People” tile, while a photo from a user’s collection will show in the “Photos” tile. And your” News” tile may show an image from The Associated Press, as Microsoft is licensed to use the newswire’s content.

Here are a few details:
• The tiles are big, making it convenient for touchscreen users.
• Applications fill the whole screen, so it’s convenient for tablet users.
• In comparison to Windows 7, the small buttons that surround applications, like for controlling the speaker volume, are hidden. That gives for an uncluttered look, but you’ll have to figure out how to access the buttons. Clean look, yes, but at the sake of obviousness.
• It runs pretty quickly on tablet-style machines, but there is no real power perk for laptops and desktops that have limited processing power (in case you’re thinking of upgrading from an older operating system).

And if you’re buying anew PC and the thought of the OS change really rubs you the wrong way, there’s good news: Windows 8 has an old-school “classic” feature presented as just another app on the Start Screen so you can have your old familiar look back in no time.

The bottom line? It looks like Microsoft is staying relevant in a world where desktop and even laptop usage are declining, and smartphones and tablets are becoming more dominant. Just be ready to spend some time learning the ins, the outs and the quirkiness of Windows 8. Give it some time. That’s progress, right?

Bing’s New Search Formula Offers More Features

crstechnology — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:59:44 +0000

Microsoft’s Bing search engine is coming out with some big changes in an effort to take a bite out of Facebook and Twitter’s popularity. Plus, Bing is being reformulated to drum up search results that will unlikely be found on Google. The changes also include how the search engine will display results.

IT consultants in Southwest Florida understand the move is considered one of Microsoft’s boldest moves in the Internet search space since the software giant introduced Bing as a “decision engine” about three years ago.

Bing users will get search results served up in three columns. The left column will have the blue links drawn from the search engine’s formula for finding the most relevant results, so it will look familiar to existing users.

The middle section, called “Snapshot,” will be used for tasks such as buying tickets to a movie theater, making reservations for hotels and getting directions for instance. Snapshot will debut at a later time.

The centerpiece of the new Bing is the “Sidebar,” the far right column, where users who are signed into Facebook will get search-query recommendations gathered from their Facebook connections. Bing and Facebook users will like this new feature because they can ask friends questions on their own Facebook pages without leaving the results page. You will also be able to share Bing search results on Facebook. Plus, the Sidebar will serve up tweets that are relevant to your searches, suggest experts on topics related to certain searches along with the person’s Twitter handle, as well as any websites or blogs where their expert advice or insights are already posted.

Bing has been taking advantage of Microsoft’s close relationship with Facebook to make search results more relevant and more personalized for searchers. This has been quite the advantage over Google because Google does not have the benefits of tapping into personal data that Microsoft has. It is, after all, the world’s largest network. Still, it’s been a struggle for Bing to lure people away from the more popular and oftentimes fun Google.

Microsoft Corp. is hopeful that the new format will loosen Google’s grip on the profitable Internet search market. Of course, Microsoft would also like to beef up its online division’s profit margins that have dipped dramatically since Bing debuted in mid 2009.

Want a sneak peek at the new Bing search engine? Visit www.bing.com/new to sign up for an invitation to the testing period that began May 15.

And when you’re searching for the best information technology support and business IT services in Southwest Florida, be sure to type in CRS Technology Consultants. Happy searching!

No, You’re Not Getting a FREE iPad!

crstechnology — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:04:08 +0000

First, there was “phishing” on computers, where many of you probably have received at least one offer of receiving an iPad or other gadget absolutely free if you were one of the first 5,000 gullible people to respond with your personal information.

Now, IT consultants in Southwest Florida are seeing the same scam increasingly being used on handheld devices in a tactic known as “smishing,” which refers to the SMS (short message service) technology that delivers text messages. One example of smishing goes something like this: “Answer this question to win a free iPhone 4S: Which company created the all-powerful iPhone?” which is followed by images of the Microsoft and Apple logos. Click on either one, then enter your email address, phone number, birth date, and home address, and your free phone is on the way!
Not really.
Stop, just stop. Don’t do it. You’re just giving away your personal data and in most cases your permission as well for the company and its “affiliates” to market to you, including calling you and sending you offers. In fact, in one smishing scam, the 3,000-word privacy policy reads, “you expressly waive all federal and state no-call registrations”!
Technology consultants in Naples, Fort Myers and elsewhere urge users not only to disregard suspicious messages but not to respond asking to opt out, which only lets the scammers know the your number is alive and well and a continued target for further fake marketing messages.
Here’s another case of smishing on smartphones.
Recently, mobile phone users across America have been getting a spam text message saying the person had won a Wal-Mart gift card in the amount of $1,000. When they clicked on the link, they ended up on a website that requests personal information. Others look legitimate like they could be coming from your credit card company or financial institution.
This smishing malware crime wave is detrimental not only to personal phones but for businesses. In some cases, responding to the scam could download malicious software to the phone, stealing business-related information or password or account numbers.
CRS Technology Consultants reminds users that smartphones are computers, which means they are susceptible to some of the same problems that we see on computers. If your business has IT security issues, or would like a consultation about computer security in Southwest Florida, contact CRS Technology Consultants at (239) 542-8450, or send us an e-mail now.