ExchangeDefender SMBUP Session
Greetings from the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans. Thanks to all our partners for visiting our booth, we are officially out of really good swag!
Earlier today Travis and I held the first SMBUP session for ExchangeDefender. The acronym stands for Smack My B* Up, and gives our partners the ability to dish out all the angst, anger, frustration and impatience they have with our products and processes: both with us and with our other partners. For many years I have done my best to create systems and encourage partners to provide feedback so we can improve the most painful parts of doing business with us.
This may sound unconventional and definitely takes some thick skin, but we wanted to do something new. Traditionally, software is designed on the input of focus groups. Fixes are then applied throughout the production process and tweaked in functionality and features based on feedback.
This is different. I wanted to know what our partners really disliked about our business and our products so that new ones are built to avoid those problems.
Letting the partners vent directly at me and directly with each other could create a potential gang warfare mentality. However, we have worked on cultivating our partnerships long enough to know that our partners have our best interest in mind because we are doing this to take care of them and their clients.
What happened? My partners at WPC came with complaints that were not critical or combative – instead, we got the problem and the proposed solution pathway, mitigation and recommendations based on the other partners who have not (yet) experienced an issue.
Tune in over the next 60 days as we document, disect and provide a solution to the problems we were made aware of today.
In case you’ve ever wondered just what we mean by partnerships this is it. Technology companies working towards pleasing the common client base.
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp
ExchangeDefender at Microsoft WPC
Please visit us in booth #1346 at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans March 13-16th.
Next week we will be sponsoring the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans. If you are attending, please stop by booth #1346. We have a number of new plans that we are excited to discuss. If you are missing the event, we will also be at the CompTIA Breakaway in Las Vegas, MSP University in Santa Ana, ConnectWise Summit in Orlando and a handful of ASCII events and user groups. This is in addition to the many ASCII, MSPU, Autotask, Microsoft TechEd and HTG events we have participated in so far this year.
So the obvious question should be: why go to all these events when the economy is doing so poorly? Over the past year we have seen many companies go under or slow down significantly because they were not prepared to address the demands of the marketplace. Companies that have survived and are now thriving are doing so thanks to solid management, execution and product matrix. I personally feel that we are at the greatest wave of change on the Internet ever since it started being used for commerce and business. Business demands for Internet applications are changing, as are support requirements, making many of the old technology business models obsolete. In order to stay at the front as an innovator in this industry, we have to work closer with our partners and our clients.
My one agenda for 2009 was to convert many of the experimental and community projects into professional services our clients and partners could count on. This involves working very closely with our partners to develop the features the clients are actually working on, not necessarily the ones we think we can sell. This interaction has so far been responsible for our PSA as well as the PSA integrations with Autotask, ConnectWise and Zenith Infotech. It has also resulted in record growth in our revenues and profits, some of which we are contributing to community projects to encourage everyone to work with us more closely.
So consider this an invitation – we want to work with everyone. Feel free to email me to get started.
-Vlad
To download the remainder of the newsletter please click here.
Enhanced SMTP Security requirements now in effect
As noted previously (and discussed in our portal, conference call and newsletters) the enhanced SMTP security policies are now in place. Going forward, all SMTP traffic on our networks (inbound and outbound) will have to pass through ExchangeDefender in order to reach it’s target server. This network change affects all servers and all networks controlled by Own Web Now Corp.
If you have a requirement for plain SMTP connectivity for mail relay please either consider establishing a VPN directly to your server (if you are a dedicated/virtual customer) or upgrade to Microsoft Outlook and use RPC-over-HTTPS proxy available for our hosting customers. If you require SMTP for your client needs (Thunderbird, Outlook Express) please use SMTP-over-SSL (TLS) in your setup.
Despite enhancements in the security products and reduced cost of antivirus products, SMTP based attacks have continued to rise through 2009. We are committed to protecting our customers and limiting exposure that comes with an open SMTP port.
Increased security across Exchange 2007 network
Effective July 1st, 2009 we will no longer accept anonymous or plain text SMTP connections on our ExchangeDefender network. If you are using the SMTP protocol to connect to the Hosted Exchange please switch them to MAPI or RPC over HTTPS. If you have limitations requiring you to continue using SMTP, please note that you will only be able to connect to the servers using SMTP over SSL.
Again: No port 25 connectivity will be alllowed starting July 1st. This change affects Exchange 2007 network only, we will issue separate alerts for Exchange 2003 network, Zimbra network and our Virtual Hosting SMTP mail later next quarter.
This change is a part of our effort to improve the security of the network and eliminate direct connections by SPAM bots. Please stay tuned to this blog, one of the major areas of focus next quarter is improvement of overall security and controls on the ever-growing OWN network.
Spam Show 5: New friends, Old Friends
Spectacular event, nearly everyone showed up and through the magic of social networking we wrapped up some old friends and some new friends.
Joining us from Autotask, CEO Bob Godgart, talked about the upcoming event Autotask Live that OWN/ExchangeDefender will be sponsoring. Bob talked at length about the IT space, Web 2.0 and the control of company information as well as tracking data and availability. This is really the beauty of the SPAM Show, where the leaders of the industry drop in and you never know what they have on their mind that they are willing to share. Bob also discusses a lot of development and investment in Autotask, the community that surrounds it, the value of the SBSC.
Mark Crall walks us through the new Microsoft SBSC program and all the effort that went into getting it put together. Mark discusses in great detail the specifics of the new brand, the new requirements and the new benefits that all Microsoft partners need to be aware of.
Erick Simpson joins us to talk about the success and lessons learned from the first MSPU bootcamp, that OWN/ExchangeDefender was proud to play a part of – we will be sponsoring the entire circuit this year so join us at next one happening in Baltimore later this spring.
Last but certainly not the least, the pioneer of SMB IT broadcasting, my good old friend Chris Rue pays us a visit to talk about social networking and the way to leverage it for SMB marketing. Chris talks about cost control being critical as he tries to take his regional IT Service Provider business nationwide. Chris also goes at length about the personal and social value of Web 2.0, something I unfortunately had to strip from the show because it really did not fit the format, however, you will soon be able to hear it on Chris’s blog at www.chrisrue.com
Kudos to Karl @ www.smbbooks.com for the conference bridge hookup!
So there you have it, SPAM Show #5. If you’re doing great things and want to talk about them, the door is open.
You can listen to it live at www.ownwebnow.com
New ExchangeDefender Client Software Suite
We are proud to announce an upgrade for ExchangeDefender Client Software Suite. You can read more about the software here. They are free and recommended for client interaction with ExchangeDefender service.
Bug Fixes – 03/10/2009
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– Fixed an issue causing some users spam/surespam to not be displayed correctly.
– Fixed an issue where the application would Pop-up each time the application loaded.Features – 03/10/2009
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– Added an “About Form”
– Automatic version checking has been added as a feature upon viewing the about page.
There are several other minor bug fixes. If the current software is working for you there is no reason to upgrade. However, if you do experience an issue our support teams will ask you to upgrade to the latest version before working the case.
Downloads are available at www.exchangedefender.com
Better Support Escalation
Have you ever asked a support question that you regretted a moment later? It happens to all of us, when complexity meets lack of time and a skipped lunch, we tend to ask some of the most obvious questions. Even more frustrating activity is trying to get basic answers that were probably covered somewhere in the wealth of documentation and knowledge base articles.
How about a frustrating system outage on your dedicated server that you needed addressed immediately but didn’t want to pay for escalated support? Even though we fulfill 99% of our support requests within the Urgent SLA window free of charge it still doesn’t seem friendly to get the nastygram about fees required for urgent support – especially when something out of your control is down.
Today, we fixed both of those problems with a small, even elegant, option that you may not even notice most of the time when opening a ticket. But trust me, you will like to know it’s there working for you. Take a look at the new “Service” dropdown option that is available when creating a new ticket:
This dropdown allows you to select the service that you are requesting support for. This helps us route the request to the most qualified individual on the support team that can address your request quickly.
Note that when you select an item you will be presented with a checkbox to tell us if this is a service outage. If the outage affects the entire organization, and you check this box, we will escalate the request for free and bump you to the front of the queue.
Please be mindful that we are monitoring for fraudulent use of this function. So in case your “system down” scenario consists of a single Exchange 2007 mailbox whose password expired, you might find this setting disappears if it is abused. Please be courteous to the other clients and use this feature when it’s absolutely needed, it’s here to save you money and I’m sure that in your time of need you wouldn’t want our support giving priority to something other than a true outage.
But wait, there’s more!
When you select the given category you will immediately be presented with the “Popular Answers” section right on the new support page. These articles are written by the staff that provides ongoing product support and contain a lot of information that you may want to look through and save time waiting for a response.
Hope you enjoy the ongoing improvements and keep on sending us your suggestions so we can serve you better.
This feature will be making an appearance in SM 3.0 for our MSP partners this May.
Come and see us at MSP University Bootcamp
We have the pleasure of sponsoring the MSP University Bootcamp this week and supporting our friends Erick and Garry who have given this event to attendees free of charge in this tough economy. Over 100, very professional looking folks, in attendance going through all aspects of developing and managing an MSP practice.
If you are out in the beautiful Orange County, stop by and say hi! We have shirts, pens, iPods and all sorts of swag to get you through the weekend. We’re also here to make you money and get you a jumpstart on the hosting services that are selling like hotcakes 😉
Important: We’re doing the biggest event promotion we’ve ever done, considering the current economy, so make sure to stop by and talk to us about it as it expires this weekend.
Spam Show 4
If you are good enough in business you get to develop great relationships with some impressive people. If you succeed at that, you make some remarkable friends that enrich your entire experience. I believe we’ve demonstrated that to a great degree with this weeks SPAM Show. As I originally stated when we started doing the show, it is all about friends joining and talking about the trends in our business. This week we were lucky enough to get Joe Panettieri from MSP Mentor to discuss MSP business trends and developments.
In particular, we addressed many of the developments and the surrounding economic state we find ourselves in. We all discussed where we are seeing growth and where we are seeing shrinkage, opportunities and threats.
This has by far been the most entertaining podcast I have ever heard or been a part of. If you don’t agree and don’t laugh along there is no hope for you – but if you’re busy, overwhelmed, concerned or anywhere in between – listen to the show #4 and let us cheer you up!
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp
Notes: Podcast submitted to iTunes and will be available this week on your iPhones and iPods. In the meantime, you will have to use the feed directly or listen straight from our web site. Second of all, huge thanks to Karl @ SMBBooks for hooking us up with a conference bridge!
Note 2: The SPAM Show now has it’s own landing page for longer show notes, sponsorships and better distribution. Check it out, let us know if you’re interested in sponsoring us: http://ownwebnow.com/spamshow
Blackberry Discounts
We are running a new promotion on Blackberry services, courtesy of RIM. You can choose from two options:
$99 setup, $10 /month.
or
$49 setup, $15/month.
This is in addition to the fees related to Exchange hosting. As usual, volume discounts apply, if you have over 100 seats we can reduce the pricing significantly.
This is a limited time promotion courtesy of RIM for new BES accounts only.