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November |
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Newsletter | |
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Issue 04 |
| As Easy as 123 |
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Google rebrands Gmail |
| Part of my daily routine is to evaluate new software that would be applicable to our customers. Sometimes this is done when upgraded products such as MS Office are released and other times by customer request. On the whole it is fairly mundane. It is rare that I find something that I could call revolutionary, easy to use or a must have but these are the words I would use for a product called 123MRP.
If you know what an MRP system is then I recommend you take a look. For those that don't MRP means, Materials Requirements Planning. An MRP system is designed to manage the day to day functions with a manufacturing business. If you make a product then MRP systems were designed for you. My background is manufacturing so I have worked with a number of MRP systems all of which I have found clumsy and difficult to use. The biggest problem with MRP systems is that they have a great deal of tasks to manage and users to please. By nature they are complex and this often restricts the user from experiencing the systems complete capabilities. 123MRP have re-engineered MRP, it keeps all the functions, all the complexity but most of it is hidden when not needed. The user interface gives you what you need and layers the complex parts. Much of this user experience builds on features you would be familier with from other products such as MS Excel. The other revolution is no big expenditure and no long contracts. You rent 123MRP on a monthly basis, no contract, no ties. I can not do this product justice in this short article but if you have considered buying or replacing an MRP system then I recommend you look at MRP123. Book yourself on a free workshop where you can evaluate this product yourself, for details on how to book or more information call or email me. Contact us on feedback@firststopit.com |
Users now given GoogleMail addresses Google has announced that it is to change the name of its email service in the UK to GoogleMail following a trademark dispute over the ownership of the 'Gmail' name. New registrations will receive email addresses as 'name@googlemail.com', although existing users will keep their current gmail.com addresses for the time being. Google is in an ongoing dispute with UK-based financial services firm Independent International Investment Research (IIIR) which claims that a subsidiary firm ProNet Analytics had been using the Gmail name since mid-2002 for its own webmail application. Talks to resolve the issue broke down a few months ago amid reports that IIIR had valued the name at £25m. Despite Google's denying IIIR's trademark claim, the search giant said that it was moving new subscribers to the new name to "avoid any distraction to Google and our users". |
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Exchange SP2 Released |
BSkyB buys Easynet for $375m | |
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Its only been a few days since Exchange SP2 was release and we are now fully underway testing deployment and feature benefits of this release from Microsoft. The main user benefits will be easy deployment of Blackberry style push email devices to new Windows Mobile 5 devices, even Nokia are considering building this functionality into their future products.
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BSkyB has acquired Easynet. Not long ago British Sky Broadcasting Group, of which 37% is owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. had announced that it was going on a $1.8 billion spending spree, and in its sights was a high-speed Internet provider, Easynet. Offering BSkyB its ticket to broadcasting on the internet with "triple play" service, the company was hot property. Finally on Friday, BSkyB (nyse: BSYB - news - people ) announced it had obtained its holy grail for $375.1 million. Now the U.K.'s number one pay-TV provider will be able to quench the multimedia thirst of its viewers with a combined package of high-speed Internet access, pay TV and phone calls. And with the "new revenues" BSkyB is looking forward to bringing in "new customers." | |
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The push functionality of this update means the server tells the mobile device when there are updates. This causes the mobile device to initiate a synchronization pulling the information from the server. It can be argued that this isn't push technology as deployed by Blackberry Services but to end users the results are the same.
There are also other security updates and functionality improvements and we will be recommending to all clients that they are updated as soon as possible. Small Business Server 2003 users will need to wait a little longer as the service pack for this platform will be released in another month. | ||
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New Feature Packed Service from Voicenet |
Mobile workers take to widescreen laptops | |
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One of First Stop IT business partners Voicenet have this month launched an updated and much improved Voice over IP (VOIP) telephone service.
Voicenet Solutions VOIP business services offer the next generation of cost-saving telephony, with zero investment. Their Voice over IP business products enables all employees to make and receive calls using an office broadband connection. Calls within company broadband networks are free and calls to other parties including non-broadband users on standard lines are greatly reduced. One of the most significant improvements to the service include CTI (computer telephony integration) software which allows users to manage calls and features of the phone system from there computers and not from the phones which makes most tasks like dialing, looking up numbers and checking missed calls along with many other tasks very easy. Another significant advance is TAPI (Telephony Application Programming Interface) this allows users to dial contacts from applications like Outlook or Act as simple as looking up the contact and hitting a dial button in the application. For more information on these packages contact us on info@firststopit.com |
Computers with a widescreen display are set to outsell traditional models by 2006, analyst firm IDC has predicted. "Wide screens on portable PCs will be become a more common feature not just on consumer mobile units but on units aimed at the corporate market," said Richard Shim, senior research analyst with IDC's Personal Computing team. A wide screen has a ratio of 16:10, whereas a traditional screen has a 4:3 ratio similar to a normal television. Consumers are drawn to the new form factor by their experience with widescreen TV sets, according to IDC. And computer makers are pushing the units because they allow them to stand out in the increasingly competitive laptop market. | |
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