Microsoft vs Google: clash of the titans

A question that comes up fairly regularly in the small business world is how to handle email. Most companies start out with a simple POP account, or maybe even a free address from Google, Yahoo, or MSN. It’s an easy way to get started, but at some point you need more – integration with smart phones, shared calendars, links with company software, better security, and more.

Many companies are opting for Google Apps over Microsoft Exchange. It can be a good option in the right circumstances, and in fact we used Google Apps ourselves for over a year. The web portal is easy to use, the search is lightening fast, and I still miss the unique way Google organizes conversations. Google’s built-in spam filtering is excellent, and because they operate “in the cloud,” they manage the servers so you don’t have to. The downside is that if you have trouble, you are dependent on them for support. If you use a free account, good luck – it may take a while.

Microsoft Exchange is still the powerhouse in the email game, and the level of sophistication is hard to beat. It will take more technical skill to maintain your own in-house Exchange server, but if you take that on, you have far more options available to you. You can set security nearly any way you like, you can track down deliverability issues (generally difficult or impossible with a hosted solution), and most software packages that require email and calendar integration work with Exchange by default. Use a spam filtering service to keep your inbox clean, and with most services that layers in the redundancy you’d have with a hosted solution, to prevent lost email if your server or internet connection goes down.

Our Own Email: What We’ve Done

Like many companies, we started with a basic POP account. As we grew, we used some Exchange features but moved to Google Apps as our primary solution. As we continued to grow, it lacked critical features we needed, including security, integration, and ability to easily manage email settings across the company. We moved back to Exchange, and it was absolutely the right solution for us. We are operating far more efficiently, and our software is completely integrated so we can schedule and communicate with our clients seamlessly from our ticketing system.

My favorite (and unexpected) benefit of our return to Exchange? The integration with my iPhone is superb, night and day from what it was with Google Apps. I no longer have to sync my phone because it pulls directly from our server. That means that if someone in the office adds an appointment to my calendar, it’s automatically there next time I check my phone. Email and contacts too.

Reduce spam – don’t be a zombie

Every year spam becomes a bigger issue. People ask me why…surely no one’s falling for the Nigerian scams, right? No one really buys generic viagra from strangers?

Actually, they do. And if 0.0001% of all spam receives a response – that’s 1 in a million – those spammers make millions.

Sadly, the costs of sending all those emails are next to nothing. Spammers use hackers, trojan horses, and viruses to take over “zombie” computers. All the email is routed through these unwitting accomplice PCs and servers. So they send millions, they receive a small but steady flow of responses, and they get rich.

Think this isn’t for real? One time we were talking to a prospective client about their email issues. When we got on their server, we found a dozen spammers connected, with 4,000 emails queued up and ready to send. We booted them off, only to have another dozen reappear within minutes. Until a better firewall could be put into place, there was little to do but disconnect Internet access.

It’s not limited to servers either. We brought in a client PC that had been infected by a virus. While we were working on it, someone accidentally connected it to our Internet connection, and it sent so much spam our very own email was temporarily blacklisted. Legitimate emails sent to clients and prospects bounced until we got that corrected.

The solution? It’s all about security. If you thought a robber was casing the neighborhood, you’d check the alarm system, your deadbolt, your window locks…do the same thing with your computer network. Make sure you’ve got a business-class firewall, anti-virus protection on every single machine, and intrusion detection if you can afford it.

Keep in mind, robbers can break into even the best protected homes if there’s reason; likewise, hackers can break into any network if they really want. Just be sure  you haven’t left the front door wide open.

Not sure if your current IT guy has you covered? Have an independent third party run an external scan. If they can get in, so can the spammers.

Three reasons you should use a service for your ezine

I ran into a colleague recently who was excited about a free email blast program he’d downloaded. With this program, he could send email directly from his computer. He thought it was great that he was going to save $30/month in subscription fees on his email marketing.

That excitement turned quickly to chagrin when I explained key reasons it’s better to use an online service like iContact (this is the one we use).

First and foremost, the good email services work closely with internet service providers (ISPs) to ensure that your email actually reaches your targeted destination. A desktop program is nearly worthless if you’ve been flagged as a spammer and all your emails get blocked.

Another reason a service is better is that many ISPs and mail servers limit the number of emails you can send simultaneously. You may think you’ve sent hundreds of messages only to find out later that just 50 actually made it past your ISP. The tricky part about all this is that you may not get any error messages so there’s no obvious way to be sure what happened. A service is built with mass quantities of email in mind and has reporting built right in. This provides detailed stats on what was delivered, what was opened, what was forwarded, and what was clicked.

Third reason: CAN-SPAM regulations went into effect a few years ago. They’ve had little impact on spam, which is more of a problem than ever, but nonetheless we small business owners must comply or risk governmental wrath. Services generally enforce regulatory requirements, including simple subscription management for your recipients. This eases any worries over legal ramifications.

There are many additional features and benefits which vary by provider. We like iContact because of the easy-to-use interface, great reports, surveys, and multi-message autoresponders (I’ll post later about all the cool things you can do with this feature!).

Not sure whether it’s for you? Most services offer a free trial so you can try before you buy.

Six ways Google alerts can help your business

Google has a really handy service called Google Alerts. Using this service, you can have Google automatically email you whenever it indexes new results for whatever search terms you select.

For example, Google tells me any time my name, Wendy Gauntt, shows up online. I’ve even programmed in a common misspelling, Wendy Gaunt, to be sure I don’t miss anything. I’ve done the same with my company name, CIO Services.

So how can you use Google alerts to give your business an informational advantage?

1. Find out when someone is talking about you or your company
2. Track information on your vendors and new products you may wish to sell
3. Watch for important changes at key prospects that might impact their willingness to buy from you
4. Monitor major customer accounts so that you know what’s going on in their businesses
5. Keep an eye on your competitors
6. Catch upcoming industry changes

To get started, go to Google Alerts, type in a search phrase, select type (“comprehensive” will get everything), and pick whether you want updates daily, weekly, or as they happen. It’s that easy.

If the results aren’t what you’d hoped, you may need to refine your search. For example, when I searched on CIO Services, I got a lot of articles about CIOs. By putting quotes around the phrase “CIO Services,” I now get much more precise results. Here’s Google’s Advanced Search Cheat Sheet for more suggestions on how to refine your search.

Save gas: work from home

With gas prices on the rise, a home office makes more sense than ever. Do you have the tech tools to work efficiently no matter where you are? Here are four options appropriate for nearly any small business:

Remote Desktop: the simplest solution, a remote-login service like GoToMyPC or Windows Remote Desktop allows you to access your work computer from another location. When you start these services, a window will open that shows the desktop of your work computer. You can run programs, open files, and even print documents as if you were in the office.

GoToMyPC is subscription-based, allowing access from any computer with an internet connection, whereas Remote Desktop is built into most versions of Windows but requires a little more complex set-up.

VPN: VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a slightly different method of remote connection. It’s ideal for workers with company laptops, giving them mobile access anywhere they have an internet connection. It works by creating a secure, encrypted tunnel through the internet so that you can access resources on your business network. You can open files on network drives, connect to your Exchange server to get email in Outlook, and more. It requires special setup on the PC you use to connect, and you have to have all the software you need installed on that same PC.

Terminal Server: for offices with branch locations that work closely together, a Windows Terminal Server or Citrix environment can work well. These work much like Remote Desktop, above, except everyone logs into a central server where all the software is installed. It’s quick because files remain on the server and don’t have to be downloaded. The only thing sent over the remote connection is a screen image.

Web-Based Software: many companies use hosted software, which runs on a remote server. That means that everyone, whether at home or in the office, is connecting remotely via the web. In this case, no special setup is involved for telecommuting. Web-based email is a common example; even Outlook has a web-based equivalent that you can get hosted remotely. Major software programs like QuickBooks and Act! have online versions meant for collaboration, and online-only CRM vendor Salesforce.com prides itself on eliminating the need for software downloads.

Find the right combination of these services to suit your work habits. Not only do you save money at the pump and commute time in traffic, you gain the freedom to work whenever and however you like.

Black, white, or shades of grey: the lists that control your email

In the email world, most anti-spam programs use lists as part of their effort to figure out who’s legit and who’s not. A blacklist is the worst and can affect your ability to send email to nearly anyone. A whitelist is maintained by a single person or company, but it says you are approved and can send email to them anytime. A greylist, no surprise, is somewhere in between.

Blacklists are managed by a variety of spam-prevention services. They flag people, websites, and servers that are known spammers. Many anti-spam programs rely on these lists to filter out bad email. If you are caught on one, you will undoubtedly have problems delivering your message. Since different email servers rely on different lists, you may find most email gets through and only a few people have problems. Get on a big enough list – or several lists – and the number of issues will increase.

Even the innocent get blacklisted. For example, a spammer may “spoof” your email, making it appear that you are a spammer even though messages come from a completely different source. If you start getting bounce-back messages as mentioned above, that make it appear you sent large batches of obscene or get-rich-quick emails to people you don’t know, that’s the most likely cause. There’s no way to prevent this; wait a couple of days and it will usually subside.

Another frequent problem arises because small businesses often share email servers via a hosted service. If someone else on your server is a spammer, everyone is in danger of being blacklisted. If this happens, you’ll start getting bounce-back messages with a spam-related error message.

Blacklist removal can be extremely simple or extremely complex – it all depends on the list, but blacklists assume you are guilty until proven innocent.

Greylists are less serious but can be equally frustrating because they are harder to track down. Many large organizations will use these to filter email from senders they haven’t seen before. As long as your message isn’t spam, this will more likely delay your message than completely block it. However, if you need quick response and the email doesn’t arrive for a full day, it creates a significant communications obstacle.

When the delay is a one-time occurrence and your next message gets through, there’s no need to do anything. Keep in mind you may encounter delays with several recipients; it’s only cause for concern if you run into multiple delays with the same person, or even the same company.

If your message never arrives, contact your recipient’s email administrator and request to be added to their whitelist. That’s their list of approved email addresses that always get through.