Alliance Solutions provides help and advice to new and existing clients in order to help them choose the correct business platforms to suit their requirements. There is a lot of terminology used in the ever changing world of the IT industry and sometimes it is difficult to understand what is actually required for your business.
There are a number of Microsoft business software and tools, the most common ones are itemised below:
Windows Server – is the main computer network operating system that provides the necessary tools to construct a secure and operational network. The latest version Windows 2008 R2 allows for more efficient file replication between servers.
File replication - This is particularly useful for clients that wish to backup their data to another server, whether the server is at a branch office, home office or hosted at a co location centre see Server Hosting .
Virtualisation - (e.g. using Microsoft Hyper-V) is a process of housing multiple virtual servers on one physical server where they can efficiently run multiple different operating systems in parallel. It is a way of optimizing your hardware investment although you do need to have adequate RAM to run the separate virtual servers.
Exchange Server – is commonly known as the email server although it is a collaboration tool that is accessed via Outlook. See Exchange Server tab for more information.
SharePoint – Is a web based collaboration tool that can be used to share information with others, manage documents from start to finish, and help people to work together. It can be used to set up a company’s intranet site.
SQL Server – This is a powerful database that is used to run many commercial applications, ecommerce sites and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions. Our Software Department writes SQL based solutions and has delivered a number of cl
Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) 2011 is the long awaited release of the latest SBS Server suite. It contains the most recent software versions, Microsoft Windows Server and Exchange Server. There are three versions of the software suite available:
SBS 2011 Standard - is an all in one solution that provides features such as e-mail, Internet connectivity, internal websites, remote access, and file and printer sharing. Designed and priced for small businesses with up to 75 users. SBS 2011 Standard provides automatic local backup and restoration of all your business critical data on the server, helping you to focus on your core business objectives rather than worrying about the status of your IT.
SBS 2011 Essentials – this is the most recent release (May 2011) of SBS 2011 and it is designed for small businesses with up to 25 users. The main difference is that this is a hybrid solution combining “on premise” and “cloud based” service with Add-ins, which can be online and on-premise, or a mixture of both:
- Online Service Add-in - Software that integrates Essentials functionality with a hosted online service, e.g., Cloud backup, Office 365, Hosted Email, Online CRM, etc.
-On premise Add-in - Software that enhances the intranet functionality of Essentials, e.g., Server Power Management tools, Security & Group Policy, Anti-Malware, etc.
SBS 2011 Premium Add-On - gives small businesses a flexible and cost-effective solution for deploying additional servers on a network running Windows SBS 2011. It provides a platform for running line-of-business (LOB) applications that are based on the SQL Server operating system,
An additional license for Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, which allows you to deploy another server on your Windows SBS 2011 network. The SQL Server 2008 R2 for Small Business has exactly the same capabilities as SQL Se
Exchange 2010 offers an impressive new feature that allows users’ mailboxes and Public folders to be automatically replicated between servers and between sites. In the event of a server failure, users can continue to use email on the backup server with full access to their inbox. Depending on the exact configuration and the nature of server failure, the switchover from one server to the other can be automated with a downtime of just minutes.
In the event of the Email Server being off line for maintenance or because of server failure, this solution allows an alternative route for email traffic and, in-bound and out-bound email flow will continue using the offsite server.
Email archiving on the server is now supported. This allows users to file emails in a server based archive mailbox. Many archive processes can also be automated. In addition searching archives is now much faster. To achieve this functionality in previous versions of Exchange required expensive third party products. This option is not included in this proposal but it can be added at any time in the future.
The new Outlook Anywhere connectivity allows Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 to securely connect remotely without the need for a VPN and is much faster than in previous versions. Copies of emails are normally stored (cached) on the local desktop or laptop so that they are still available when the computer is not connected to a network. This system also works if the user has access to several computers all running Outlook. Each copy of Outlook will remain synchronised with the server.
Outlook Web App is a new web based version of Outlook that can be used where Outlook is not available (such as Internet cafés here and abroad etc). This now offers a full feature set (unlike OWA on Exchange 2003). The new OWA also allows users to access their archive mailb
We have extensive experience in software development and work in two main areas; Microsoft Dynamics CRM development and bespoke software development with a strong specialisation in SQL server database applications in a number of industry sectors.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a powerful Customer Relationship Management software package. It is available in a vanilla “out of the box” state that is ready for use. To get the full potential for your business will require customisation. Our in-house software department will be able to discuss, plan and customise a bespoke solution for you.
The standard solution focuses mainly on the Sales, Marketing, and Service industries but Microsoft has been marketing Dynamics CRM as an XRM platform and has been encouraging partners to use its proprietary (.NET based) framework to customise it to meet many different demands, which is what we specialise in.
Dynamics CRM is a server-client application. It is primarily an IIS-based web application which can be accessed via Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 6 or later) or other web browsers such as Firefox, although results can be mixed and are not all browsers are supported by Microsoft. Outlook can also be configured to access Dynamics CRM but this again will require customisation.
For more information contact Alliance Solutions Software Department on 0800 292 2100.