Link: http://www.centrend.com

I have encountered this a few times in visits to my customers. Users will put an email into the trash, but say, “Well, I‘ll just leave it in there until I am sure I don’t need it,” or, “I’m going to go through all of these and clean them out, because there are some in there I might want to keep!” Think of the rationale here and apply it to your real trash at work or at home. You wouldn’t put anything in the garbage and say, “Boy, I just might need that later; I’ll just put in the trash here!” People do this all the time with their email, thinking that they will get back to it, but in a world of today’s busy lifestyles this is probably not a reality. There are many ways of curing you from this bad habit. We are going to specifically talk about Microsoft Outlook here, but this could apply to webmail as well.

Creating folders under the Inbox – This is probably the easiest method. You need to keep email received from Fred? Create a folder called ‘Fred’ and put it in there. This will keep you organized and on task, and even if think you may want to get rid of it, it’s in there and you can delete it later.

Archive mail – Done with your email from 2006, but you may want to refer back to it? You can archive this email, and this will have a couple of great benefits. Once again you can refer to that folder very quickly, but you can also take some of the file strain off your Outlook by creating an archive. You can even create the archive on you server ready for backup (if applicable).

Auto Archive – Outlook has a great feature to Auto Archive your email for you. It will set up to clean out your inbox all by itself, sending the email to an archive. I have mine set to clean out every 14 days. This will take the cleanup out of your hands, you can even set it to delete emails that are X months old, but dealing with the core that this is geared to, you would probably rather have root canal that delete old emails!

Create an “almost trash” folder - This is really the same as creating a folder, but it is specific to this issue. It’s an “I’m not sure I will need it - and I don’t think I do - but let’s put it here for now” folder. This is not ideal, but will keep you in better habits. You could archive this folder as well, taking the weight off of the bulging email file ready to burst!

Empty deleted items folder upon exiting Outlook – I know scary…right? After we have done all the things we can to organize and streamline our email, we want to get rid of that trash every time you exit Outlook. Some users also think that when they put items in the Deleted Items or once they hit delete that is it gone…not true. The Deleted Items is merely just a folder waiting for you to empty it. If we turn the switch on for emptying Deleted Items, it will prompt you every time you exit Outlook!

With older Outlook clients users are restricted to 2 gigs worth of space. It sounds like a lot, but if you are one of the many email hoarders of the world, and are not using some of the practices above, this will add up quicker than you think, especially with email with loads of attachments. Once its goes past this 2 gig mark, you are putting yourself in a position to lose some or all of your email.

Still not sure how to do all this? If you have any questions, at Centrend we are always willing to help…just let us know.

- Hank
 
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Hank Lockwood
Technical Consultant
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550
 

Link: http://www.centrend.com/93h_compliance.html

A Written Information Security Plan or “WISP", is required by new regulations of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, effective March 1, 2010. Any individual or entity which receives, handles, stores or transfers personal information about Massachusetts residents must have one.

If you or your organization hasn’t already started the security plan, the best place to begin is with a determination of what personal data is collected throughout the organization, and by whom, where, when, how and why. Make a comprehensive list of all points within the organization where personal data will enter or exit, and where it is sent, noting also the amount and frequency. It’s important to document not only who collects or handles the data, but also everyone who may have access to it.

All of this is related to MA 201 CMR 17.00 - Information Protection, and Centrend is offering help and free guidance to any organization challenged by this government mandate.

- Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

The Daytona 500 - the “Superbowl” of Nascar - was this past Sunday and I don’t know about you but I’m a big fan! The roar of the engines, the packed in crowds, it’s all good to me. While the Nascar Sprint Cup series is considered a stock car series, there’s not much stock about the cars that are racing around the track today. Technology permeates the sport and not just in the cars themselves. For the past couple seasons, Nascar has been developing a 3-D viewing technology called Raceview, that lets fans watch the race virtually on their computer. (See screen the screen shots, below).

I’ve been following the technology for a few years and the improvements made in this current version of the software really creates a powerful racing experience. When you watch the race on TV, you have to listen to the announcers to see what is going on. They may or may not talk about your favorite drivers and they focus their commentary usually on the top 10 positions of the race because that’s where the camera is mostly focused. With Nascar Raceview I can watch any driver at any time and from any perspective I choose. For example, I can see the birds-eye view like in the large image above, the rear view to see what cars need to be passed (image at right), and flip the camera around with the click of the mouse and see who’s coming up from behind! (see image below, right.)

With the Raceview technology, you can choose to watch the race from the perspective of any driver at any time. You can also click to hear in-car radio communications between any driver and his crew chief streamed in real-time! Nascar promotes Raceview to those that aren’t watching the race live on TV, but it’s fun to use the tool while watching the race or to keep up during commercials. Hearing the drivers rant after they’ve been involved in a wreck or watching the telemetry of the car from someone toward the back that is now running faster laps than the current race leader really gives you insight that it seems even the announcers don’t have!

One thing you can’t do is see the live action crashes, blown engines, etc. You still need the TV for that but you don’t really watch the race for the crashes, DO YOU!?!?

Link: http://www.centrend.com/93h_compliance.html

As defined by the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations, personal data is the combination of a person’s first name and last name, or first initial and last name; along with a social security number, driver’s license number, state issued identification card number, financial account number, credit card or debit card number. Personal information under new Commonwealth of Mass. Regulations does not include information that can be lawfully obtained from publicly available sources.

This information is related to MA 201 CMR 17.00 - Information Protection, and Centrend is offering help and free guidance to any organization challenged by this government mandate.

- Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

Link: http://www.centrend.com/events.html

The Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations has issued a compliance date of March 1, 2010 for the new regulations, MA 201 CMR 17.00 - Information Protection.

Over the last year, Centrend has been conducting compliance audits and participating in various panel discussions and will continue to lead workshops on compliance. Although the new regulations are more widely known by business leaders, we are still observing a large number of organizations that need to take action for compliance. Whether the concerns are administrative or technical, these organizations need to formulate action plans now.

This is important. In addition to holding ourselves responsible for protecting the personal information of potentially millions of citizens, organizations will face heavy fines for non-compliance.

Centrend is offering help and free guidance to any organization challenged by this initiative. Click here for more details and to register for a free webinar on compliance presented by Centrend. Additional dates and times will be added as needed.

- Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

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While there are some things we can do to help a communications upgrade or new service turn-up go well, we are still mostly at the mercy of the communications providers to do what they say they will do on time.

Let me share with you a recent case study one of our customers experienced this past week. The events are true; only the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.
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One of our clients had been planning an office move for months. It is a small office in the Worcester area being relocated to a small suburb outside of Boston. The project manager called me about 6 weeks prior to the move and told us what they were planning. I explained to him the process of getting the phones and data circuit up and running and tested prior to the move so they would experience no downtime. I encouraged him to call his communication provider, which I’ll refer to in this article as None-Comm, which he promptly did.

A smooth, reliable turn-up needs about 4 to 5 weeks to plan and install so there should have been time to get everything in place and tested prior to the move-in date.

The problems started when the vendor missed the original date and did not quickly return calls to advise of a new date. Bear in mind that the office is moving out of their old location so there are lease contracts that have to be held. None-Comm finally called back with a new promise date, a full week past the original date.

The project manager and the Centrend Technician began asking for the technical details of the circuit such as the IP address, so we could get their equipment preconfigured and ready to quickly slide in place when the circuit was finally turned up. It’s now up to None-Comm to provision the equipment.

It wasn’t until the day after the rescheduled date, the very same day our Centrend technician was scheduled to arrive, that None-Comm finally called back and blamed Verizon for not putting the circuit in until late the previous day. Because it was so late in the day, None-Comm did not have a chance to place their equipment yet. Without None-Comm’s equipment in place, the project is at a standstill.
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Communications vendors need to be held accountable for how much their failure to execute a planned installation causes major problems for their customers:

• Our customer is hurt because they can’t move in on time and violate their lease termination agreements.
• The customer potentially experiences down time because their old circuit is still terminated on schedule.
• Centrend’s technician loses a productivity day because of the canceled appointment, and the schedule has to be shifted quickly to fit the equipment configuration back into their schedule without breaking other customer commitments.

Come on providers, get it together and service your customers! If we can find a communication company that can smoothly turn up phone and data services on schedule, I promise you’ll have our loyalty forever!

-Paul
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Paul LaFlamme
President & CEO
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x115