Denver Business Journal Technology Section

Give your business high-performing tech gifts

December 15, 2006 - by Gene Smith (general manager) of Mission Critical Systems

Improving the reliability of your information technology is one of the best gifts you can give your business this holiday season.

Some businesses adopt early and often, trying out new technologies as soon as they're available. Other businesses shy away, fearing that newness and lack of reliability go hand in hand.

In reality, reliability is as much a function of how your business uses the technology as the technology itself. Establishment and

enforcement of comprehensive policies to govern its use can radically affect how seamlessly and securely a particular technology operates.

That said, there likely will be two technologies on your radar screen (if not in use) soon that merit critical examination: Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) services and the Microsoft Vista operating system.

VoIP uses a high-speed Internet connection to convert your voice into a digital signal that travels over the Internet.

Depending on service provider and type of VoIP technology, calls can be made via computer, special VoIP phone or a traditional phone connected to a special adapter. Business systems requiring more sophisticated setups typically utilize a separate server to control an internal digital phone-based network, which includes voice mail and associated telephony services.

Benefits:

• Less expense. VoIP can save 35 percent to 40 percent in voice and data service costs, and taxes are lower.
• Feature rich. Most VoIP companies provide free caller ID, call waiting, call transfer, repeat dial, return call and three-way calling.
• Call filtering. Some carriers enable you to choose how calls from a particular number are handled (e.g, forward to a specified number or send to a "rejection hotline").
• Mobile office capability. VoIP may be accessible on the road just like at the office, subject to high-speed Internet connection access.

Limitations:

• Call quality may not be as clear or consistent as traditional phone service.
• VoIP is only as dependable as the Internet provider. Call reliability may suffer when Internet browsing and calling occur simultaneously or during peak subscriber use. If power goes out, calling ability often does too.
• Not all VoIP services connect directly to emergency services through 911. (To learn more, go to www.voip911.gov.)

Before making the move:

1. Assess provider quality of service and performance track record. Talk to present and former customers with similar challenges.
2. Determine what training the provider offers.
3. Determine what options exist for porting your existing numbers.
4. Establish what VoIP technology to use. Options include an analog telephone adapter (ATA) allowing use of regular phones, special IP phones and computer-to-computer.
5. Confirm computer and VoIP combined needs (e.g., being able to use the computer and VoIP at the same time).

microsoft vista operating system

Touted by Microsoft for its improved security and productivity-enhancing bells and whistles, Vista is the biggest operating system overhaul since Windows 95.

Vista requires extensive retraining of IT personnel and users. Industry experts predict a slow but sure adoption. A survey by computer reseller CDW shows 20 percent of organizations upgrading in the next year. Gartner Inc. predicts 15 percent adoption by year-end 2008 and parity with XP Professional by the end of 2009.

Benefits:

• Enables easier implementation and monitoring of user privilege levels (translate: less unauthorized use or unwitting security breaches).
• Vista's configuration options will easily interface with a company's own in-house and third-party applications.
• New "previous version" options will allow easier recovery of earlier file versions and "lost" files.
• Vista's Windows Meeting Space will allow easy setup of meetings (including chatting and file/application sharing), with up to 10 participants.
• BitLocker hard drive encryption prevents access to intellectual property on stolen laptops.

Limitations:

• Setting privilege access levels will cause conflicts with certain commercial programs, such as QuickBooks 2006. Only high-level users will be able to run such programs (this conflict is resolved with QuickBooks 2007).
• Increased memory requirements will require extensive hard-drive storage capability. Eighty percent of PCs will need additional memory to run premium features.
• Roughly half of North American PCs operating today don't meet Vista's minimum system requirements of 800 MHz processor, 512 MB of RAM and Direct X 9 graphics card.

What you should know before making the move:

1. Check out your computer status. Go to the Microsoft Web site, download, install and run the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor, which will assess needed upgrades and preferable edition for your computer(s).
2. Expect a long adoption cycle, since it will take time for much business software to work properly on Vista.
3. Understand Microsoft volume licensing policy changes with Vista. Instead of a blanket annual fee, Vista requires a customer and Microsoft year-end reconciliation based on software actually added or subtracted. This will require a separate server and may lead to miscounting (e.g., installation of an operating system as a temporary fix).

VoIP and Vista are two of many technology advances that can simultaneously delight and confound. With either, create and execute a detailed rollout plan.

Then, get ready to experience the gift of technology reliability for many holiday seasons to come.

Gene Smith is general manager of Mission Critical Systems, a Denver-based IT management firm. Reach him at gene.smith@mcstech.net or 303-383-1627.