1. Not everyone likes Times New Roman like Google does!

When sending unformatted email, GMail decides to format it as Times New Roman anyway, thereby overriding the font settings at the receiving end. So, no matter what the receiver’s email client settings are, your emails are shown in the old fashioned Times New Roman font (leaving your client to wonder why you use email software from ancient history). We would like unformatted email to be really unformatted (fontwise anyway) so the font settings at the receiving end are respected!

The proof. We have sent an email with the SMTP test program Wormly and send it to our email account, it looks like this in Outlook 2010:

When we send a simple message via GMail it looks like this:

And finally, when we change the Outlook default font to Harlow Solid Italic (go to File – Options – Mail – Stationary and Fonts – Composing and reading plain text messages), the Wormly test email looks like this in Outlook 2010:

Whilst the Gmail test email still looks like this:

2. Gmail Signature style and position

Looking at the sample email message again we see that the email signature starts with two hypens (- -). But why this old school look? If we like hyphens surely we can put them in the signature ourselves. Please remove the hyphens!

Also, and maybe even more annoying, when we reply to an email message GMail places the signature at the very bottom of the email, below the original content. Why not place it just below the reply text we have just written so it is easy to see for the receipient, especially in longer emails (the way it is done in most email software, like Outlook)?

These two issues kan be resolved using the unsupported Google Labs feature ‘Signature Tweaks’. But really, should we have to rely on unsupported add-ons (“Some crazy experimental stuff” as Google refers to it…) to get our business email working properly? Let alone that we would have to implement it for each user separately, an admin’s nightmare!

3. Display organisation contacts and group membership

In Google Apps we can use Contact Sharing (Domain Settings – User Settings). This enables users to search for colleagues within the organisation and colleagues will be displayed in auto complete fields:

It is not possible to browse the list of organisation users and groups that are available. Especially for groups this can be an issue as users do not necessarily know how groups are named: management-team, mt or perhaps org-management?

Further more, even when we know the name of the group, we don’t know who is in the group, we can’t expand the group and see it’s members. The only place where we can see the group members at present is via the Calendar application where we can invite a group and see its members:

Our request: include all organisation contacts in the contacts list, preferably in a separate group and make it possible to expand groups to see its members.

4. Deleting email from mobile devices

When deleting email from your iPhone, Android, Windows or Nokia mobile it gets archived in GMail instead of deleted. This means that all the rubbish that you have chucked in the bin isn’t actually gone but still sits in your archive. A pretty serious form of mailbox pollution we would say! We would like Google to at least give us a choice in what the default behaviour should be (via the mailbox settings) or just outright make the setting Delete instead of Archive.

5. Telephone or email support

Okay, this won’t be an overnight change but nevertheless one that Google should really work on in our opinion. Even as a user of the paid Google Apps Premium Google only offers telephone support in case of service outage. For anything less severe you will have to rely on online help and support forums. Also, telephone support contact details are craft-fully tucked away and it is clear that Google really don’t have the appetite (and probably the resources) to deal with any questions directly (via telephone or email).

For a business solution we would like to see timely and personal support even if it has a corresponding price tag, just leave the choice to the customer and we’re pretty sure that a lot of them will pay for support that matches Google’s Premium Apps edition.

- -

These issues have been reported on Google’s support forums but not been actioned yet. Whilst fixing them won’t make the world a better place, we do think they deserve some attention. Sharing this post might help gather some momentum. Peace :)

Installation

When starting with Office 365 you are politely being asked to Install Lync 2010 and to set up and configure your Desktop Apps.

The Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant is being installed as a service and not as an application like in BPOS. It doesn’t even have a system tray icon or configuration option.

After the wizard is done we still have to manually create a profile in Outlook (the BPOS Sign-In app did this for us) but this is a breeze with Outlook finding all the necessary settings automatically.

We were having some problems signing in to Lync but setting the server settings to sipdir.online.lync.com:443 for both servers did the trick for us (this is a beta after all!).

Launching

Microsoft have created an Office 365 portal page which can easily be launched from the start menu:

You are required to sign in to the portal with your userID and password (which you can choose to be remembered).

The portal provides easy access to common functions and information such as Outlook, Team Site (sharepoint), Shared Documents and creation of new documents (using Web Apps):

Note how this is different from the Sign-In Client in BPOS which served as a portal, from where separate Outlook and Sharepoint instances where launched. The Office 365 portal provides seamless navigation between its components.

System administrators will love the fact that they can access the admin console from here as well without the need to login to yet another separate web page.

At the bottom you will also see the Website option which brings you to your own public website based on Sharepoint (if you choose to use it). More on this later.

Outlook email, calendar & contacts

Working with the Outlook Web App, it all looks very familiar to previous versions, be it a bit cleaner and fresher. It offers the kind of functionality and ease of use that makes you wonder why you would want to use the desktop Outlook version. I’m guessing that for 99% of Outlook users the Web App offers all they need and more.

When navigating the options panel it becomes clear that Microsoft aims to make Office 365 more self-manageable by users: they can create and request to join groups, wipe their mobile device and there are little help wizards everywhere guiding users through common tasks like connecting a mobile phone, connect Outlook (the desktop version) or import contacts.

Mail

Some noticeable changes are under the hood. For example, it is now possible to pull mail from a POP, IMAP or Hotmail account into your Exchange mailbox via ‘Connected Accounts’, very convenient for linking personal or orphaned mail accounts.

A nice to have is the option to customise the looks of your Outlook Web App by choosing a Theme:

It is now possible to add another user’s mailbox in the Web App just like you can in MS Outlook which is great for working with a resource mailbox (an info@ mailbox for example).

Calendar

Not too much news here although we like that it is now possible to connect to other people’s Calendars and show them side-by-side.

Contacts

This is where innovation stopped ;-) The layout and workings are similar to BPOS, we would have liked some social media features such as the ability to enter facebook, twitter or linkedIn accounts. But hey, there is always tomorrow.

Team Site

This is where the Sharepoint power kicks in. There have been quite a few changes from BPOS. The default Sharepoint page is a blank Team page which has been setup with announcements and documents library ‘Web parts’ (pre-set building blocks).

It is easy to add and edit Sharepoint pages and sites for specific purposes and users. It is possible to create a site template from the extended site gallery which includes web databases such as a Contacts Database:

With the built in Office Web Apps it is possible to create, edit and view Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote documents via the web browser even without Office installed on your desktop. A great feature although this won’t work for documents with advanced layout or graphics.

Any Office document can also be edited in your local copy of MS Office with changes being synced back to the online document.

Other great Sharepoint features include syncing lists and libraries to Sharepoint Workspace and Microsoft Outlook on your desktop. Sharepoint Workspace (part of Office Professional Plus) offers the ability to sync documents and lists to the local computer and work with it off-line. As soon as the computer is back online documents get synced automatically.

It is now possible to share sites with people outside the organisation by selecting Site Actions – Share a Site, and inviting a visitor (read only) or member by entering their email address. The recipient receives a link to which they have to sign-in using either a Live ID or Hotmail ID. This ID is then added to the respective group for permissions.

Build your own Website

This functionality is new in Office 365 and a good solution for smaller businesses that want to manage their own website without paying a good deal of money for someone else to do it for them.

It is really easy to build a professional looking (note that I’m not saying good looking :-) website quickly and it is easy to add ‘gadgets’ like a map, contact form or slide show without a single bit of technical knowledge.

The number of design and layout options is quite amazing with many themes, styles and color schemes and the ability to set a custom background, borders etc.

What’s missing?

We would like to see a personal document space (SkyDrive) for users and ideally even with the option to sync files to the Desktop (using Microsoft’s Live Mesh functionality).

Cross-browser functionality. Though Microsoft is friendly to browsers like Firefox and Safari, it is still not very keen on Google Chrome:

Having said this, when continuing all seems to be working fine, but hey, no guarantees! We also tried to run Office 365 on the iPad which was reasonably successful but ran into problems when trying to edit team sites.

2-Factor authentication. With more and more of our data online we would like to see built-in strong authentication with a soft-token on our mobile phones (like Google Apps 2-step authentication).

Although MS Outlook supports iCal, we would like iCal support for importing calendars into the Outlook Web App as well.

Calendar overlay. Where MS Outlook support overlay of multiple Calendars this is not supported in the Web App.

More Apps. Where the Google Apps marketplace is riddled with useful (and less useful apps), Microsoft has some ground to cover.

Conclusion

Office 365 is a major improvement on the already great BPOS product. It can offer a smooth web-only experience and an even better experience with use of Microsoft’s desktop Office products. It also promises a great mobile experience (especially with Windows Phone 7, surprise, surprise.. ;). I think it is an excellent product for knowledge workers and would be extremely surprised if Office 365 wouldn’t catch on BIG time with organisations of all sizes!

Choosing a password

1. Pick a random set of pronounceable characters and mix upper and lower case letters, for example: osHiToki . (Note: Some people advise to use sentences or other tricks but we personally find it easier to just make something up and remember it)
   
2. Put some numbers in it. You can replace characters with similar numbers such as 1 instead of i, 4 instead e, or 6 instead of b (be creative) or you can insert or append numbers randomly, in our example we replace the i with 1: osH1Tok1
   
3. Don’t use the same password for every site, either use different passwords for different levels of security (i.e. use different passwords for online banking than for a software trial) and/or attach initials for the site to the password, for Facebook we would use: FBosH1Tok1 or osH1Tok1Fac
   

DONE!

What makes this password strong?

• It is random. Attackers use password dictionaries to try common passwords and existing words.
• It is long enough, 10 characters in this case, after the FB insert. Think of it this way, each character increases the number of password options exponentially. If you would use only lower case characters each password position would have 26 options. A 2 character password would have 26 x 26 = 676 options, a 3 character password would have 26 x 26 x 26 = 17,576 options. Quite a difference but don’t stop there! Computers can do millions of password guesses in a second so you need a MUCH stronger password.
• It is mixed case. By introducing upper case letters the entropy of the password increases dramatically, for each position of the password there are now 52 instead of 26 options. As a result we now have 52^10 options instead of 26^10. For the 2 character password we now have 2,704 options (52^2) and the 3 character password 140,608 options (52^3)!
• It contains numbers. The same principle here, by introducing numbers we increase the number of options per position from 52 to 62 so the number of password options becomes 62^10.

Supercharge your password

You can supercharge your password by including special characters as well such as !#%& etc. The only drawback is that a small minority of sites and applications doesn’t support special characters.

Password managament tools

Do you have too many passwords and access codes? Then a tool like Password Safe might be the answer for you. It stores all of your passwords safely in an encrypted database  in a structered way. Access to the database file is protected with a password so make sure it’s a strong one (one password to rule them all – sounds familiar?).

Single Sign-On

Luckily there are some initiatives to ease the password pain. More and more applications are able to use your existing online ID without the need for you to create a new one for each application, also when you need to changes your details or password you only have to do that once. A good example is OpenID supported by many applications (such as Facebook and WordPress) and ID’s which are provided by the likes of Microsoft, Yahoo and Google.

Microsoft has been active in the CRM space since 2003 and that Dynamics CRM is already a popular CRM in enterprises. It is a comprehensive CRM system, easily customised and ready to integrate with existing IT systems such as financial systems.

With the online version of Dynamics CRM 4.0 introduced in 2008 and Dynamics CRM online 2011 in January this year, Dynamics has now come within reach of smaller businesses with no user minimum and a discounted price tag of £22.75 user/month.

Usability

Dynamics CRM can be accessed in three ways, via the web browser, via Outlook or via a mobile browser. The Outlook integration means that you can access all CRM features from within Outlook itself without having to go back and forth to the web browser. A great feature for Outlook addicts although we have had some reports of this integration slowing down Outlook use as well…

Despite its size we found that Microsoft Dynamics is still easy to use and that the web interface is extremely polished. It can be stripped from functionality that isn’t needed to make it even easier to find your way. Those of us using Google Chrome or Firefox are out of luck as only Internet Explorer 7 or higher is supported.

Dynamics has a nice, fully customisable dashboard showing the sales pipeline, leads, cases and open tasks by default, see image (click to enlarge). Overall performance seems okay although some screens seem to take a few seconds to load. Dynamics used 100% of our screen width which is good.

We also liked the mobile web interface which is simple but quite usable.

Functionality

Microsoft Dynamics is an extensive CRM with a service management and marketing module, sales forecasting, extensive reporting and the option to integrate with existing IT systems.

Account management

The account overview provides a lot of information and allows for creation of contacts, accounts, sub-accounts and definition of relationships. You can also link the account to a Sharepoint document location. The account pane also provides direct acces to related information like tasks, notes, opportunities, cases and campaigns.

Task Management

Tasks in Dynamics are implemented through activities which can be assigned to persons or queues. Activities can be both a recording of an interaction with a contact or an outstanding task with a due date and an owner. Activities can be added to a queue or assigned to another person. The Workplace calendar is just for appointments and service activities.

Opportunities & Sales forecasting

Dynamics CRM has extensive options for sales forcasting. The simplest option is base on estimated revenu, probability and a due date, but it is possible to specify revenue on product level. Unfortunately, it seems that the sales value can only be entered as a one off, not a recurring value.

Reports can be run on the sales pipeine with weighted revenu on sales person, territory etc.

Other

Dynamics CRM users have the choice of using the sales literature catalogue, knowledge base and role based access control. The service module is very usable as well with priority and contract support and a service calendar. There is also an easy to use mail merge feature for the not so paperless office where you can create a letter to your contact on the fly. Reporting features are also extensive.

What’s missing

What we missed are tagging of account and contacts. We personally weren’t too keen on the fact that many windows were opened in separate pop-up screens. We also found the limited browser choice (IE7 or higher) a bit annoying.

Is it suitable for SME’s?

We feel that the suitability for SME’s depends on how you will be using the system. Dynamics CRM is ready to use out of the box and SME’s with dedicated salespeople/teams (if only just one) will be able to get a lot out of the system without too much training and customisation. For incidental use however, Dynamics CRM would be overkill and we would advise you to look for a simpler CRM system such as Capsule CRM (see here for a more information).

Worth noting is that Dynamics CRM will be available as a bolt-on to the online productivity suite Office 365 (more on Office 365 here) later this year, which is likely to bring additional integration and single sign-on.

Tasks and Notes

If you are a fanatical user of Outlook Tasks and Notes you might want to stick to Hosted Exchange as Google does not support Notes at all and Tasks only in the Gmail web interface (not in Outlook via Apps Sync).

Outlook support

If you live and breathe Microsoft Outlook and hate web interfaces then Hosted Exchange is your thing. It will support advanced Outlook features such as server side rules, open other user’s mailboxes, set granular permissions etc. without the need to install any plug-ins.

Mobile support

Both Hosted Exchange and Google Apps mail support mobile devices via ActiveSync. We have noticed however that Google Apps has some limitations in that it archives messages that you delete from your mobile device instead of moving it to the trash. Also, it doesn’t allow you to change the ‘From’ address when sending email from the mobile device (there is a workaround).

Strong authentication

If you are paranoia like us then stick with Google Apps as it offers extra security with 2-factor authentication via your mobile device.

Link extra email accounts

Google Apps email allows you to manage any additional/private email boxes from one place. Note that hosted exchange as part of the all new Office 365 will be supporting this too (more on the new Office 365 features here).

Fetch email from up to 5 external email accounts such as hotmail, yahoo or any POP enabled account. It also allows you to set the ‘From’ address to any address that you own.

GMail quirks

We find that GMail doesn’t always format email as it should. Email that is send unformatted is often formatted in the Times New Roman font no matter what font settings the receiving end has. We also find the default signature behaviour a bit annoying not helped by the fact that you have to install a labs (=unsupported) feature to change the behaviour.

Integration with additional applications

If you love web applications then you will love that you can extend Google Apps with applications ranging from CRM to project management and accounting. It allows you to share data between these applications and offers a Single Sign On to them. For example, all your CRM contacts can be added to your Google Apps address book which in turn can be synced to your mobile phone. Nice and easy.

Get local telephone numbers

Did you know that you can link up to 10 different telephone numbers to your Skype account? This means that your customers can call a ‘normal’ telephone number and you can either answer your calls on Skype or forward the calls to a land line or mobile at attractive rates. You can choose between multiple area codes for your Online Number.

You can also request a number in another country so your customers there can reach you on a national number and rate. For some countries you must be a resident to request an Online Number, for others such as the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand this is not required.

Make low cost International telephone calls & texts

Besides free calls to other Skype users it is also possible to call regular phones and mobiles using Skype Credit or a Skype subscription. Rates are comparable to those of the well known telecom discounters with calls costing from 1 pence per minute with a subscription or 2 pence per minute for pre-paid Skype Credit.

You can also use Skype to send text messages home and abroad at reasonable rates, from around 5 pence per message. Easy to use and less fiddly to type! And you can set your Caller ID so replies to your message will be send to your mobile.

Skype to Go number

Need to make the same international calls regularly from your mobile? You can dial a Skype-to-Go number in the country you are in en have this automatically forwarded to an international destination number. You will only be charged the usual local mobile rate (probably already included in your mobile calling plan) and the low Skype international calling rates (see previous paragraph).

Mobile (video) conversations

Skype is available as a mobile application for iPhone, Android or Symbian mobile phones. This enables you to use your handset as a Skype phone over a WiFi network or, for some operators, over a 3G connection. Skype for iPhone now also supports the front-facing camera on the iPhone 4 making video calls from your iPhone reality.

Skype on your mobile (or laptop) is ideal when you are overseas where you can use any WiFi network to make free or low cost international calls avoiding hefty roaming charges!

Screen sharing

Ever wished you could share your screen with your peers to show them something? Skype to the rescue. After you have set up your conversation, go to the Skype call window and click the Share button. This will allow you to share your whole screen or just one window.

The technology sector is extremely dynamic and where you would pay big bucks for professional software 10 years ago, nowadays affordable and fully functional IT is within everyone’s reach. Yes, there are still painfully expensive software packages like Microsoft Office, but even Microsoft is changing course.

Our suggestions will include online applications (web-hosted/cloud applications). They are typically subscription based with no large upfront costs, much like utilities. You don’t have to buy any hard- or software, there is no need to upgrade every few years and there is no risk of theft, loss or breakdown.

Hosting providers can buy and manage cheaper through economy of scale, they also minimise idling of machines so they can offer the same functionality with less machines. Online applications are also cheaper to develop through development paltforms. All these cost savings are passed on to the end users. In addition, the relative ease of switching providers makes the online application market very competitive (like utilities).

Email & Calendaring alternatives

Sure, in-house mail servers have their place, for most businesses however it might be worth checking the online alternatives Microsoft BPOS / Office 365 or Google Apps Premier. Expect to pay between £2.80 and £3.75 per user/month. Both offer much the same Email and Calendar functionality and also include enterprise class anti-spam and anti-virus. Something that you could expect to pay for separately (around £2 per user/month) with the in-house alternative.

Free email Anti-Spam and Anti-virus

Many businesses are paying for an external scanning service that scans and cleans email before it gets delivered at your in-house email server. Excellent idea, but be aware that on-line alternatives (as mentioned in the previous paragraph) already include this functionality for free.

Free workstation Anti-Virus

Smaller businesses with up to 10 users may use Microsoft’s Essential Security package for free. Microsoft Security Essentials is a good and easy to use product and offers very good detection and cleaning rates, using the same core scanning engine as Microsoft’s enterprise security products. Microsoft refers to it as a ‘set and forget’ solution, it will pick up daily updates, offers real-time protection and it does a weekly scheduled scan when the computer is not in use (configurable).

Microsoft Office the affordable way

Microsoft Office is a great application and extremely powerful. But do all your staff really need all the features? Much simpler alternatives are Google Docs and Microsoft’s own Office Web Apps. They are slimmed down versions of Microsoft Office delivered as a web application. Google Docs is integrated into the Google Apps online business suite and Office Web Apps is part of Windows Live Skydrive and the business suite Office 365, to be released early 2011.

Online meetings

There are many commercial products out there for online meetings with prices around £30 per month for up to 25 participants. It might be worth checking out Microsoft’s Live Meeting / Lync as part of BPOS and Office 365 where they are heavily discounted. Also, let’s not forget good old Skype for 1 to 1 meetings, with unmatched video and audio quality and wide use all over the globe, oh yes, and its free!

Backup your data – or not?

Whilst backup of your data is a great idea, why not store your data online and let someone else take care of backup hassles and costs? There are many applications out there that allow you to store your data online and sometimes also synchronise it with mobiles and workstations. More convenient and more affordable. Well known examples are Dropbox, Box.net (see here for a comparison between Dropbox and Box.net), Google Docs and Microsoft Skydrive with all of them also offering a free allowance.

A manageable website

For most businesses a bespoke website is overkill. A website based on a Content Management System (CMS) like WordPress is much easier to build and maintain. A WordPress expert can build a full blown website using templates without the need for bespoke development. With a CMS like WordPress it is easy to add functionality through plug-ins and make changes to web pages yourself instead of paying someone else to do this simple task for you (this website is build in WordPress).

Do you have suggestions? Let us know!

My IT linked to the big bad outside world, how is that secure?

Chances are that your IT is already connected to the web via your good old broadband connection and router/firewall (when is the last time you updated it?). In addition, with in-house IT you need allow inbound connections into your network to enable remote access to data.

Also, because data is easily accessible on the web there is less need for copying documents to memory stick or laptop, with less chance of it getting in the wrong hands!

My data is in someone else’s hands, help!

We are not saying you should dump your data with just anyone but it is worth remembering that, much like for a bank, hosting companies would be out of business in no time without watertight security. Be assured that security will be very high on their priority list!

Also, hosting companies have a lot more resources available for protecting data than you or me have, i.e. geo-redundant data centres, tiered firewalls, secure data centers, hourly back-ups, disaster recovery etc.

On top of that, hosting companies keep their applications and infrastructure updated at all times, something that is essential for data security and something that gets overlooked easily when managing your own in-house IT.

Check your host

You should always seek data security assurances from your hosting provider, any good provider will have a list of security controls on their website or, at the very least, should be able to answer your queries on the spot. Ask for any Service Level Agreemenets (SLA’s) and, as a minimum, look for guarantees on:

• Data centre location
• Data centre certifiication
• Safe Harbor certification (for systems hosted overseas)
• Back-up regime (including off-site backup)
• Data encryption (for both transport and storage)
• Data access by employees and employee screening

It is worth asking about the past performance of the hosting provider with regards to up time and security incidents.

Authentication

It is important to choose good passwords (a minimum of 8 characters, mixed case and with at least one digit).

The next step up is 2-factor authentication, which means that in addition to a user name and password, you need a piece of hardware to authenticate you. This can be a hardware token, USB key and increasingly, a software token generated on your smart phone.

It is possible to use Single-Sign-On (SSO) so that you will only have to login once for access to multiple applications.

Office 365 will replace Microsoft Business Productivity On-line suite (BPOS) and will be based on their 2010 series of server components (Exchange and Sharepoint), offering new and improved functionality and integration with the Office productivity suite. See here for a walkthrough of new Office 365 features including Office integration.

It is clear that Microsoft is committed to their online offering and that it is throwing a lot of resources at it, they are developing at breakneck speed with new initiatives and websites seemingly popping up on a daily basis.

Comparing the offering

Google Apps belongs on the web. Yes, you can use Outlook email and install an Outlook Sync plug-in for email but it’s clunky. Google Apps’ strength is it’s open character with the benefit of many add-on applications offered via the Apps Marketplace. The mail and calendaring applications are okay but they are not as refined as the Microsoft offering.

Microsoft’s strength lies in the maturity of its products, the ease of use and the polished interface. Office 365 promises excellent functionality and familiarity to existing Microsoft shops with a seamless MS Office integration for Outlook email and editing and synchronising documents and notes.

More differences

Office 365 benefits:

• Organisation contacts and group membership are visible at all times in the Global Address List
• It is possible to include external contacts in the Global Address Book
• Much better intranet/extranet functionality

Google Apps benefits:

• Works similar with ALL browsers (although Chrome is getting more and more preferential features)
• No need for ANY desktop installs if you are looking to go all-cloud
• Users have a personal document space
• iCal support for connecting to external Calendars
• Calendar overlay for multiple Calendars
• Native support for 2-factor authentication
• Many add-on apps available (with Single Sign On and Universal Navigation)

Support

Google only offers telephone support for critical issues, non critical issues can be raised on their support forums only. With Microsoft on the other hand you get old fashioned telephone support or you can use the service portal. Note that in the new Office 365 small business plan Microsoft will only offer forum support as well.

Pricing

Google Apps comes in 2 flavors, the free Standard Edition and the $50 (£32) user/year Premier Edition. Microsoft has made it slightly more complex prices for Office 365 ranging from $72 (£46) user/year (for a comparable offering to Google Apps) to $288 (£183) user/year which includes a license for Office 2010 Professional Plus.

Other decision makers

Innovation

We can’t help but feel that Microsoft is developing their on-line collaboration offering at a much faster pace at the moment. Where Microsoft is announcing Skydrive, Office Web Apps, Live Mesh, Office 365 and Lync, we feel that Google’s main updates are around small improvements in their suite.

Recent updates included unthreated view of email, Google sites themes, new graphs and just a few more significant updates such as the support of two step authentication (which we love!).

Focus

Google is sometimes accused of too little focus with products ranging from search to video to on-line payments and 3-D modelling. Microsoft also has a wide of roducts as well but has always had a focus on (business) productivity and also employs a workforce of over 90K as opposed to Google’s 20K.

Microsoft’s vast experience in corporate IT infrastructures, its supporting partners and the army of pro-Microsoft IT admins and managers are a force to be reckoned and could accelerate Microsoft’s efforts.

A number game

Google reputedly has over 30 million users in 3 million businesses using their Apps suite (but it is unknown how many are using the paid Premier edition although this is estimated to be between 1 and 2 million). Microsoft has over 40 million users of their online services of which BPOS is a part, Gartner estimates that there are around 2 million BPOS users.

Both companies are regularly boasting new high profile clients such as Volvo Car for BPOS (33K users) and Ahold for Google Apps (55K users) but figures do suggest that mostly smaller companies are attracted to their on-line offerings.

The verdict

Whilst we feel that Microsoft has the edge in user experience , we don’t think that they will eliminate Google Apps. Google Apps is well suited to those who live on the web and want a flexible, low cost productivity suite. As long as Google will stay true to its principles of openness and open standards they will attract an audience. The fact that they also offer a free version helps!

Microsoft’s offering is getting ever more attractive. Great file fidelty, directory integration and familiar user interfaces combined with Microsoft’s pretty solid reputation will surely make Office 365 a popular option amongst business owners and IT managers.

We suspect that many larger businesses that are moving to the cloud will be banking on the confidence boosting Microsoft brand to make the move a safe one.

With Cloud Computing data and functions are hosted in large data centres hooked up to the web. These data centres contain thousands of machines running day and night. Obviously, this requires a lot of power with a significant carbon footprint.

However, a new study by Microsoft shows that Microsoft’s efficient data centers reduce per-user carbon footprint with 30 to 90 percent. The largest reductions (up to 90%) are achieved in smaller companies with up to 100 employees.

How does it work?

Small organisations typically have one or a few servers tucked away somewhere in a corner or store room. These servers run day and night and typically just a small percentage of their capacity is used, and only during office hours.

In a data centre however, each server can be utilised optimally by assigning spare capacity to other businesses or processes. Servers can be assigned tasks from different time zones so that they can be used around the clock.

So, in a nutshell, you can do the same work with less servers and less idling.

In addition, the latest generation of data centres are designed with energy efficiency in mind. They use innovative cooling techniques and advanced computer power management to reduce energy consumption.

Wait, there is more!

An often overlooked aspect contributing to the green credentials of the Cloud  is the reduction of travel. Web based IT environments are suitable for remote working per design, lowering the threshold for businesses to adopt remote- and home working to reduce travel and office costs, and to offer employees more flexibility.

There you have it, in addition to reducing IT hassle and costs, the cloud will make you feel good too!