Here at LogicalSolutions.net we recently rolled out an update our own mail server to Microsoft Exchange 2010. Exchange 2010 brings with it many new updates and enhancements, especially for you corporate users who may have skipped 2007 and are still on version 2003. One of the largest leaps forward is enhancements made to the Outlook Web App (OWA) feature.  Outlook Web App, or OWA, allows you to access your Exchange 2010 e-mail features from your browser. This helps eliminate the need to be tied to your personal computer configured with Outlook web client.

One major improvement for OWA is the multiple browser support. Previously an Exchange user of OWA would have to use Internet Explorer. In version 2010, OWA is now supported for not only Internet Explorer, but Firefox, Safari and even Chrome.

 

Click the thumbnail above. You can see that OWA is completely functional in the Google Chrome browser.

Another new feature for OWA is the conversation view. The new conversation view allows you to group multiple threads from a single conversation together. This will make your inbox management far more efficient. If you’re a user of Google’s Gmail email system, you’re very familiar with how this works and probably quite excited to see it come to your corporate email system.

Click the thumbnail above for an example of conversation viewing.

A personal favorite new feature of mine is the shared calendar interface in OWA. In previous versions, you had limited accessibility to viewing calendars. Now with 2010, it’s as if you were on your PC working with the Outlook application. You can even enable sharing with people outside your organization allowing for increased collaboration.

 

Click the thumbnail above for a better view of OWA calendar sharing.

Finally, as more and more enterprise organizations are looking to outsource their IT needs, additional features are becoming available to allow this to become easier every day.  In the past you were restricted to access your Exchange application through OWA or connecting via VPN. Now with Outlook Anywhere, you can use Microsoft Outlook 2010, 2007 or 2003 to connect to your Exchange server outside your corporate network without hassle.   Benefits of using Outlook Anywhere allows your users to have remote access to the Exchange servers from the internet while using the same URL and namespace that you use for OWA and ActiveSync. Also, there’s no need to purchase an additional secure certificate either. You can use the same SSL that you use for OWA and ActiveSync.  For additional information on the long list of benefits configuring and managing Outlook Anywhere and Outlook 2010, contact one of our Sales Engineers today.  

 

I am always interviewing people.  Even when we don’t have a position I like to meet people that peak my interest or have been recommended to me.  I have been meeting and interviewing people for fifteen years and in the last year I have seen a very new twist on the process.

I receive many résumés each week.  Most of them are sent via our web site or emailed directly to me.  Though I still print out the ones I am interested in I usually peruse them digitally first.  The twist I am seeing in the process is the huge amounts of information that some candidates make accessible beyond the typical résumé with references.

More and more résumés I am seeing are loaded with supporting links and web addresses.  These links are to social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, personal web sites, MySpace, blogs and more.  Each of these social media “résumé extensions” is filled with more data, insight and personality about the potential employee than any employer could discover in an interview.  Those people that are carefully organized and strategic create an affective multimedia marketing campaign for themselves using these simple and free tools.

So now when I see a resume I’m interested in, I spend a few minutes reading that person’s blog, I might check out what they are interested in through their twitter and I might click over to LinkedIn and see what else is there to know about that person’s job history.  If the candidate is smart they will know I will do that and be completely prepared for my mini investigation. 

My niece was looking for her first job after graduation last spring and, because she is one smart woman, she gave her Facebook the once over cleaning, knowing that a potential employer would most likely check it out.  There are countless crazy stories about those people who didn’t “clean up Facebook” and we all know where those resumes ended up.

It is interesting to me to see the twist in the process of interviewing grow into orchestrating a full scale social media marketing plan that supports a candidate’s resume and referrals.  While I see more and more people using these tools to their advantage while job hunting, there are still plenty that rely on the limitations of a résumé and references.

When I started at LogicalSolutions.net approximately 4 years ago, our .Net content management system had only recently been put in place and was fairly basic. Prior to that, the sites we built had used an ASP based management system which similarly supplied only basic management functionality. Fast forward 4 years, and logicalCMS, as we now refer to it, has grown into a feature-rich, advanced tool for managing websites and web applications. It is a solid foundation upon which we build most of the sites we implement for our customers. The best part is that it supplies a core set of functionality for every site, while forming the base upon which we can add custom and more advanced features that meet the specific business needs of each client.

There are a few key features of logicalCMS that make it an excellent tool upon which to build a website. These features have been present throughout the evolutions of the product and include:

• Centralized content data stored in a backend database
• Decentralized management of site content through a web browser, nothing to install, ever
• No technical knowledge of HTML or programming required
• Cost savings through increased productivity and less reliance on technical staff
• More timely, relevant content
• No up-front or annual fees for the CMS, includes a full, perpetual license to use the CMS as part of your site, even if you don't host with us
• SEO Friend URLs
• Ability to add new pages to your site anytime, anywhere
• Complete Site Map control - add an unlimited amount of new pages at any level of your site
• Manage admin user accounts and roles, no limits on the number of admin users
• Dynamic generation of Search Engine Friendly menus and URLs
• Complete SEO control from URLs to meta information
• Built in content search

More...

I am 45 years old.  I have never known more than one person at a time to have lost their job.  I now know several.  It is unsettling to say the least.
Here is a stat for you, unique visitors to online job search sites is up 51% since last year same time according to ComScore.  And to put that in perspective that is 18.8 million people conducting job searches in January, 2009 alone.
I look at what is happening out there and see so many rounds of layoffs and wonder if it is all needed and necessary or is some of it just panic and fear.  I am betting it is a combination of all these things.
Maybe the stimulus package will work.  Maybe it will work a little.  No one seems to know for sure.  But I can tell you we (Logicalsolutions.net) are not waiting around to see.  We are not laying people off.  We are working harder, asking more from our people, creating greater value and we fight to keep growing even in the face of doom and gloom.  I see this time as a time to grow our company.  Naïve?  Maybe but inaction never got anything done!
My old friend Bernie said to me yesterday “there is a lot to be concerned about out there, but Terry, there are also opportunities for our companies”.  Bernie owns a few businesses in town and I have always enjoyed his insight.