One of the key revolutions over the past 30 years has been the slow death of proprietary, closed systems. Building on an earlier theme I’d like to explore just exactly how far we’ve come in the technology world.

30 years ago most people worked with computers strictly on mainframes. The personal computer explosion hadn’t begun yet, save for a few hobbyists. If a company purchased “A” computer, it was an extraordinary capital investment. Furthermore, choosing one vendor over another meant locking in to not only the hardware, but the software and all the programs moving into the future. On the telephony side, systems were similar: you’d choose a vendor first, and then take what the vendor offered you. From financial systems to HR to filing, proprietary solutions dominated the field, and single-purpose equipment (e.g., a fax machine that just faxes, a calculator that merely does simple calculations on paper, no overlap between a “copier” and a “printer”, etc) was omnipresent. (more…)

A time-tested way to improve performance of business processes is to increase transparency. A process that everyone can watch is a process people can comment on, suggest improvements, and determine if it even makes sense to be doing in the first place.

One of the ways New Signature can help your organization increase the transparency of its processes is to conduct a through process review with key stakeholders. In it, we will:

1. outline the cyclical processes that take place each day, week and month;
2. identify the review points, potential bottlenecks, and areas that are ill-defined;
3. go over the existing documentation (as well as the process to update said documentation); and
4. suggest potential changes (both on a technology and a process level) to speed changes.

The last point is important.  Often the problems with a process are not simply a technology problem. Some vendors might come in and say “Purchase SharePoint Server!” as a potential solution without fully understanding all the facets of the challenges.  At New Signature, before we make a recommendation we want to ensure that we know all the facts.  Although Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (and soon Microsoft SharePoint 2010) are great solutions, if the real flaw in the existing paper-based process is an overloaded manager, or an ill-defined review system, simply converting that system to a computerized model won’t solve the problem. Instead, we focus on the heart of the problem, and once solved, provide real recommendations for the best problems to fix. (more…)

Continuing our Microsoft Office 2010 exploration, we come to Microsoft Outlook 2010, the most used application during the day.  Some of the new features include:

• Conversation View
• Multiple Mailbox Support
• 64-bit Support
• Online Archive Folders
• Mail Tips
• Search Folders
• Enhanced Calendar Functionality

For users of Google Mail, Conversation View may seem like a feature long overdue. By allowing multiple emails to be combined into a thread, reading large quantities of emails can be done in a much quicker manner. (more…)

There are so many new features in the Microsoft Office 2010 suite, it’s difficult to narrow them down to a few highlights. But moving beyond the consistently cool Backstage view, here are some of the great new features in Office 2010 that work across all the products:

• Same File Format
• Customizable Ribbon
• Save Screenshots
• Save to SkyDrive
• Co-authoring

(more…)

The most popular product in the Office suite has been PowerPoint. With PowerPoint 2010, the number of new features has grown significantly. Some of the more popular ones include:

• Advanced Image Editing
• Embedded Video
• Video/Audio editing and formatting
• Multi-window support
• 64 bit edition
• Broadcast Slide Show

With advanced image editing, users can import images into PowerPoint decks and do a number of new tasks, including removing the background from images, and cropping photos in any number of new shapes. (more…)

Here at New Signature we’ve been testing the Office 2010 beta for several weeks now, and BackStage is single-handedly the best feature.

First a bit of background on what led to BackStage. Microsoft has emphasized “customization” in its software packages, which allows users to drag toolbars to their hearts content, and often resulted in changes each time an application has been upgraded. Few would see any resemblence between Office 2007 and the original Word for DOS or Word for Mac. By far, the biggest change occurred with Office 2007’s decision to introduce “the ribbon”, a much larger menu system designed to allow users to quickly reach the features they need. (more…)

It’s holiday season again and all that cheer comes with a downside: an increased chance of weather emergencies such as snow or ice that can stop employees from safely getting to the office.  Some of New Signature’s clients find that where possible and practical, letting employees work remotely can ensure that staff don’t have to take the day off just because they can’t travel to the office.

As mentioned before, the introduction of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 couldn’t come at a better time.  There are several key technologies we’re using to enable greater numbers of people to work remotely.  These include: (more…)

For many small businesses automated information technology (IT) management can appear to be an expensive proposition.  This is because the software found in larger enterprises to perform these functions aren’t typically offered in a way that is affordable or useful for small businesses.   New Signature has long worked to make automated and comprehensive IT management more affordable and accessible to small businesses.

For example, New Signature provides hosted solutions for messaging, collaboration and telephony. For many clients, this eliminates much of the costs associated with managing their own infrastructure for these services.  However, this leaves a gap in an important area: desktop maintenance. Without a server onsite, desktops may not apply security patches or antivirus updates. Having a great hosted solution does no good, if one’s laptop is infected with malware or needs a new patch to increase performance. (more…)

Spammers like to put fake information in their e-mail messages in order to sneak the message past e-mail spam filters.  Because e-mail filters reject messages that come from nonexistent domains, the spammers like to make their messages look like they come from real e-mail addresses.

A spammer finds your address somewhere on the Internet, or sometimes just guesses it, and then puts it in the “from” line of his/her messages, sending them out to hundreds of thousands of recipients.  When the spam gets sent to an address that is no longer active, the recipient’s email server can sometimes send you a response message (because the email server sees your email address as the one to reply to).  This creates what is called “backscatter spam”. (more…)