OK, It’s time to get legal (names omitted to protect the guilty)

We recently met with a school director and their technology provider to discuss a solution that had Microsoft Licensing implications. When we asked about the schools software licensing, there was an uncomfortable shifting in the chair, a bit of hem and haw, followed by a very generic explanation regarding a previous IT provider a few years back and a school agreement. You get the picture….

What we heard was probably quite a bit different than what the administrator understood. And we left it at that. We are not the Microsoft Licensing police and frankly Microsoft Licensing is so ridiculously complicated that it takes a team of New York Lawyers to explain it, and a few CPA’s to calculate the costs. Alright, that is an exaggeration, but not much of one.

Having said that, I submit the time has come, in the world of Education that overlooking your Microsoft Licensing is really quite inexcusable. And frankly, unless you value your time at less than minimum wage, it really makes sense to just sign the agreement, pay the minimal licensing costs, and get on with life.

If you use the correct type of licensing, the process will literally save you time and money; not to mention that warm and fuzzy feeling you will have knowing you are playing by the rules.

Having seen firsthand the hoops that some go through to avoid legal licensing, it really makes no sense. You can now buy an umbrella Microsoft agreement that not only covers all computers in the school with Operating Systems, and core CALS, but it also provides a copy of Microsoft Office Professional Plus. Furthermore there are home use rights to boot.

And here is a little known secret. When you initiate a school agreement, there are a number of additional software licenses that magically appear in your Volume Licensing Center. Take for example the MultiPoint Server license and CAL’s for connecting to it. That’s right, they are included. Just try buying that software over the counter by itself.

Some school agreements also come with subscriptions to Microsoft educational titles, membership in the MSDN Academic Alliance, and Live@EDU services. Plus there are other Microsoft solutions such as the InTune Management software, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and others that are a fraction of the cost when associated with your Annual School Agreement.

And you can literally receive an entire truckload of donated computers, which as soon as they enter your building are also covered. And did I mention any Virtual Machines that you create using Microsoft Hyper-V technology – they are covered as well.

Like most of you, I have a real problem with paying $450.00 for a copy of Microsoft Office Professional Plus in the shrink wrapped box. And that is a challenge in the for-profit world. But educational titles are so incredibly cheap, it takes way more resources to find ways around licensing than it does to do it properly.

Enough already, while the odds of a Software Audit are very, very small; all it takes is the phone call of one disgruntled staff member,  former vendor, or competitor to the software alliance and things could get real ugly.

If you have a software licensing question or need guidance on selecting the right school agreement, please call us. As a freestanding charter school, you have options that are both sensible and affordable. And you might be surprised at all the freebies you get for being legal.

Do the right thing!

Oh, one last thing. You might consider making your school agreement align with the eRate fiscal year. Eligible expenses are more easily allocated and reimbursed when they line up with July 1 – Jun 30 timeframes of the eRate program.

Outlook - The program. Why it's better than Outlook Web Access

You’ve probably heard the (insert your favorite co-ed) joke about an ambitious young person who went to the hardware store to buy a chain saw. There’s some variation in the details, but the punch line is when the co-ed returns the saw to the store to complain about it’s lack of cutting capacity, only to be startled by the noise of the chainsaw when it was started for the first time.

If you are using Outlook Web Access to read your email, you might just be the butt of a similar joke about your email prowess.

Now before you get all offended, there are some very good reasons, on occasion, to use Outlook Web Access. If you are borrowing a computer, using an internet Kiosk, checking an email on your run through the airport, or attending an offsite training;  then of course Outlook Web Access is a great tool and it is surprisingly similar to Oultook on the desktop.

In fact Microsoft went great lengths to create a Web enabled interface that even looks and behaves as much like Outlook as possible. Which begs the question – why spend so much energy on creating a Web interface that behaves so much like the real product? The answer is not because it works as well as the desktop program, it doesn’t!

If you are sitting at one place most of your working day, then you really ought to consider the advantages of a real Outlook experience.
 
Here are 10 reasons why you should be using Microsoft Outlook, the desktop version:

1. It’s Faster – This should be reason enough, but I continue to be surprised at the number of users at our schools who log onto Outlook Web Access instead of using the program sitting right on their desktop.
2. It’s Always On – Even when your internet access is down, Outlook keeps on going. It remembers everything you do while offline and synchronizes your work when you reconnect.
3. It works Automatically – Outlook checks your email even when you are not working in it. And it does so every 15 minutes, unless you change the default send and receive settings.
4. It checks your work better – The Outlook on your desktop is much like Microsoft Word, and has better spelling, grammar, and word/phrase checking.
5. It does profiles – Need to work with two different email accounts? And not just on the receiving end. Outlook maintains separate profiles for separate email addresses, allowing you to work in two organizations with that organization's domain based email.
6. It has add-ins - there are a number of very useful add-in programs, or utilities that enhance the features in Microsoft Outlook. One of our favorites is the email connector that integrates Microsoft Dynamics CRM (see our education resource management solution) and Outlook. This one reason alone makes the case for desktop Outlook.
7. It is much more customizable – Wallpaper, themes, fonts, colors, and design elements are all much more robust in the desktop version of Outlook. But be careful, sometimes your artistic interpretation makes for very difficult reading .
8. It has a much better search function – although you can search in both versions, the desktop version is much more efficient. And try deleting 500 messages in an overflowing OWA inbox. It takes forever!
9. It works with dial up – Okay, this is kind of cheating on the speed front. But you can actually have a reasonably robust email experience with only dial-up internet service. That’s because Outlook decides on what to download and does so in the background.
10. It has a Ribbon – The ribbon contains an amazing number of formatting commands  and features that are not available in OWA. And if you are doing any kind of serious email composition, you will find those features very handy.

Once you begin using the real version of Outlook, you may find features not mentioned above that you really like. In fact you may begin to like these features so much that you actually look forward to greeting your inbox each morning.

OK, so that is probably a stretch.

But, by using the real Outlook you may have more free time to do something other than email. And I can do something other than writing about it.

What’s that noise?

Desktop Security - How to avoid getting the latest bug

I was raised on a small farm in Idaho, where, believe it or not, one of my daily chores was to milk a cow – by hand. It was not a particularly difficult task, but did require a few essential pieces of equipment (aside from the cow), that being a bucket, cleaning supplies, and a wooden stool. The stool had three legs and was crucial to a successful outcome of the task.

Think about that 3 legged stool as we address the topic of desktop security; there is a lesson.

You should understand three important components to adequately address desktop security, trying to provide security with less can be a problem. They are:

1. A Firewall to block all of the ports into and out of your computer’s resources
2. Antivirus software to detect and destroy malicious code that arrives on your computer
3. Spyware/malware protection to avoid being tracked, hijacked, or otherwise taken for a ride

Although possible, it was rather hazardous to milk the cow using a one or even a two legged stool. And no stool at all was a real show stopper.Keep this corollary in mind as you consider how to protect your desktop from intrusions, virus’, and malware. Optimally you need all three, having none of them will eventually stop your computer from working – unless you have no connection to the outside world whatsoever.

What about one of the popular Security Suites?

A number of software companies provide security suites for PC’s. They attempt to combine all of the aforementioned security services into one package, and sometimes throw in some extras. Are these a good use of your resources? Generally, they are not and here is why.

The problem with most of the security suites on the market today is that they are akin to using a Lazyboy recliner to milk the cow (think of the above example).   Most of them just get in the way of getting the task at hand accomplished.

Let’s keep this real simple and cost effective to boot, by reviewing the three legs of the stool in more detail and how to construct them.

Desktop Firewall

Every Windows Operating System today has a built in firewall. It is more than adequate, especially now that most networks are protected by a gateway or perimeter firewall device. Even most consumer class DSL /Cable Modems, which connects you to the Internet now have this functionality.

So, rarely do you need to buy additional firewall software. In fact, part of the problems associated with added firewall software is the inevitable conflict with the Microsoft Windows firewall.  It either turns it off, tries overriding it, or attempts to co-exist with it.

Some of these third party firewalls are so obtrusive, they may actually block current programs or programs you are attempting to install. This in turn requires you to configure the firewall to allow access to these programs. And if you are installing one brand of security software that competes with the security software of another provider, the problem can even get worse.

As conflicts and performance issues arise, the firewall often gets turned off to accommodate running a particular program, defeating the entire purpose of the firewall in the first place.

My recommendation is to turn on the Windows Firewall and use it alone. If you have already purchased one of the Security Suites, simply uninstall or turn off the Firewall portion of that duplicate Firewall.

Antivirus Protection

Antivirus software is an essential part of securing your desktop or laptop. But having tried just about every brand out there, it is my opinion that few difference exists between them. No doubt there are minor differences in function and form, but most provide the same basic protection and nearly all Antivirus Software manufactures share Virus Signatures with each other in a cooperative manner, especially true during a new Virus outbreak.

It really boils down to price, and I mean total price.

Manually installing 100 copies of a free Antivirus solution in your school may be much more expensive that doing a centralized “push” type of installation from a server or management console, using a commercial antivirus solution. In other words, the hidden cost of labor could far outweigh the savings of “free” software.

My recommendation for organizations of 10 or less PC’s is to use one of the free antivirus programs available. My favorite is Microsoft Security Essentials. It is free (currently), reasonably light weight (meaning it is not a resource hog), and effective.

You can obtain a copy at the following URL: www.microsoft.com/security_essentials (don’t miss the underscore if you type that url) If you have a Microsoft school agreement, you can buy anti-virus, (end point ) protection for a few dollars per computer per year.

Spyware/Malware

The difference between a Virus, Spyware, or Malware infection can be very slight, indeed there is significant overlap in the two areas. And while much of the spyware or malware software is relatively harmless, it is a great idea to understand what software on your system may be running in the background without your knowledge or consent.

Common purposes of more serious Spyware/Malware programs are to harvest information from your system, utilize your system for unsavory purposes (such as sending out SPAM), track your browsing habits, and/or taking control of your computer.

There are all types of clever ways you can become infected with these programs, so you do need protection.  A common trick used to infect your system convincing you to install a free “Antivirus Program” or click on “Free Malware Scan”. This is usually accompanied by an unsolicited  pop-up telling you that your computer is infected.

I won’t even try to list the good, the bad, or the ugly when it comes to the enormous variety of programs in this category. I like to keep things real simple and cost effective.

My recommendation, again, for organizations of 10 or less PC’s is to use Microsoft Security Essentials. If you are still running Windows XP, then you'll need to look for Windows Defender, instead; it is still available for computers running earlier versions of Microsoft Windows. For a larger numbers of computers, please consider adding the software for your Microsoft School agreement.

Summary

I am quite aware these are all Microsoft solutions, but I make no apologies. In education, particularly, Microsoft provides a compelling value for software of all kinds. And who better is capable of understanding the real security issue of the Windows operating system than the company that created it.

And in spite of problems that are common to any mega Corporation, Microsoft has a wide variety of software solutions for education that perform as good or better than most other companies (especially in light of the wide variety of solutions they offer),and you can trust a genuine Microsoft product to actually work as specified.

Best of all - the programs mentioned above are free, or very close to it, and work quite happily together; or in larger quantities can be bundled with your School agreement at a fraction of the cost of buying antivirus software commercially.

One final note. You can dramatically improve desktop and laptop security by keeping your operating system up to date. Optimally, that would include a Windows 7 upgrade. As a minimum, be sure your installed operating system has all of the latest security patches. All versions on Windows have an update facility built right into the main menu.

Stay safe out there!

It’s time to upgrade to Windows 7… really it is.

Have you stopped for a moment, between fiddling with your Windows XP desktops, to consider the practical ramifications of running this outdated and no longer supported Operating System? You may be surprised at how much support time and resources are spent retaining it in your organization.

Sure, it still works and runs your existing programs. And yes, it will still work on those 10 year old computers, but at what cost?

The consumerization of desktop/laptop computers continues to bring prices down and features up as manufacturers compete for more business primarily through price. The benefit to you, the consumer, is that a new PC can be purchased for the rough equivalent of about 5 hours of modestly priced technical support. And how many times have you spent more than 5 hours, either all at once or piecemeal in resolving a computer issue.

Economics aside, consider what it really means when Microsoft “sunsets” an operating system, or it plain language, stops supporting it.

It does not mean that the software all of a sudden fails, nor does it mean that it will stop functioning at all in a steady state. In simplest of terms it means that Microsoft no longer does regression testing on new product releases. In other words, all patches, fixit utilities, service packs, hot-fixes, and new version roll-outs are not tested for backwards compatibility.

Due to the near infinite number of hardware combinations, system configurations, and software customizations it is impractical, if not impossible to test for backwards compatibility. Even assuring programs run on current Operating Systems is difficult enough. Furthermore, most new software is written or programmed for the new operating system architecture. Bottom line is you are on your own with Windows XP technical support.
In the back of your mind you probably know the upgrade is coming. But large upfront costs of purchasing and installing new workstations may persuade you to put it off. While that seems a reasonable course of action, the old saying of “Penny wise, pound foolish” really does apply. What you will begin to experience is support cost creep, an incremental, almost unnoticed, but constantly increasing expense to maintain your desktop/laptops.

Sadly, if your support personnel are paid on an hourly (break-fix) basis, rather than a support contract, they may not be motivated to push for the upgrade either.

Do yourself a favor, and do the upgrade to Windows 7. You’ll save money in the long run, and probably even in the no-so-long run. Even if you don't purchase new computers, do the upgrade! Windows 7 performs well on a large variety of not-so-new PCs
Now for some great news! The upgrade to Windows is very inexpensive for education customers. When you enroll in a Microsoft OVS-ES agreement for your school, you get blanket coverage for all computers in your organization. Furthermore, you also get a license to run Windows Office Professional 2010 on all of your computers in the school. Finally, there are many other software benefits you enjoy, such as work at home versions of the same software.

The cost of an OVS-ES agreement is determined by counting your full time staff and multiplying that number by $55.00 (approx.). Do the math and you will find this to be an extraordinary value. Windows 7, Office Professional, Core Client Access, and other benefits for a few dollars per PC.

Why you need a Help Desk

A help desk is a resource which provides information and assistance to troubleshoot problems with information technology equipment or services. It provides a single-point-of-contact for users within your school to report and resolve technical problems.

Our experience demonstrates a dramatic improvement in technical support function when a Help Desk is implemented, because it allows you to prioritize and track support requests, focus your limited support resources, and apply expertise at a level matching the issue at hand.

Help desks can be configured in various ways, but as a minimum should offer these 5 features:

1. Centralized system used throughout the entire school
2. Simplified interface for adding, updating, and tracking requests
3. Prioritized to effectively allocate resources and escalate support requests
4. Separate from you key infrastructure to eliminate your Help Desk from failing
5. Accountable to you in order to report and review technician effectiveness

What does your help desk look like now? Here are some we have observed first hand:

• Sticky notes handed to your IT person as they walk down the hall
• An interruption while in the midst of another support request
• An "oh by the way" mentioned at lunch
• A complaint in a meeting related to another subject

Although very common, none of these improve the performance of your IT staff. And in some cases these informal help desk habits can be very counter-productive.

Take the case of handing a sticky note to your technician as he walks down the hall (presumably on his way to another support request). Your interruption causes a lack of focus on the issue at hand, and the issue at hand causes a lack of attention to your request. This is a double dumbing down of the process.

An orderly help desk system is much more rational. User's generate support requests and are required by the system to categorize, prioritize, and then provide sufficient detail for the technicians. Technicians are notified much more efficiently and an accounting begins for that issue. Both parties, and others, can update information about the request and track the issue to resolution. Administrators can measure the rate and number of support incidents and have a better sense of the value a support mechanism is providing.

A byproduct of a robust Help Desk is the ability to archive resolved issues into a Knowledge Base which in turn provides a growing body of support information for your school. As this body of knowledge grows, the ability of users to self-help increases.

Most schools we observe, and all that we manage (by definition) have no full-time IT staff. A Help Desk in this scenario becomes a necessity. And we have found it very helpful to identify one or two gatekeepers in the school to take the responsibility of entering in technical support requests.The advantages of this arrangement are significant; a full-time support component, a better perspective about priorities, and a single point of contact for clarification and reporting.

Whether your school is large or small, simple or complex with respect to technology, or supported by internal or outsourced technicians you will benefit from a Help Desk.

In these resource constrained times you would be foolish to operate without one.

Important changes to Microsoft academic software licensing

There are two general methods of licensing the core Microsoft technologies running your school; perpetual (single purchase) licensing and subscription (recurring payments) licensing.

But let’s be honest, a perpetual or lifetime software license is an oxymoron!  Disagree? Answer a simple question. How long was your last Microsoft Office suite current? There was Office 2000, 2003, 2007, and now 2010.

The same is true for Windows 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista, and now Windows 7. Of course there is software assurance to protect you, but at what cost? Subscription based software will almost always save you money - not to mention the licensing headaches.
For those of you still buying “perpetual” software licenses for your Microsoft technologies, listen up. It has not made sense for years, and the disparity just grew larger.

Starting this year, Microsoft introduced a new subscription based licensing model called Enrollment for Education Services (EES). Similar to the School Enrollment program, EES provides blanket license compliance for all of your organizations PC’s (desktop and laptops).

EES is different because instead of counting devices (desktops and laptops) you now count employees instead. While the annual cost per license is roughly equivalent, there are no schools that we know of which have more staff members than computers!

Let’s compare a typical license program which would include the latest Microsoft Operating System (Windows 7), Microsoft Office Professional Plus, core Client Access Licenses (CAL’s), and home use rights:

 200 Computers @ $53.00 per year = $10,600.00
     VS.
 50 Staff members @ $60.00 per year = $3,000.00

Notice how much money your school will save by using the new enrollment model, which is accomplished by merely using a different enrollment form. And don’t forget to add any server licenses you might need into the equation, while the savings are not as dramatic they are significant when you factor out ever needing to purchase a server software upgrade.

Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES) is an easy, cost-effective program that provides qualified academic customers a simplified way to acquire Microsoft software and services under a single, subscription agreement. It offers coverage for desktop platform products with one annual count of employees, the ability to easily add additional products in any quantity, self-service tools for simplified asset management, and immediate access to benefits such as product upgrades through Microsoft Software Assurance so you can boost the productivity of your faculty and staff and optimize the return on your technology investments.

Let’s summarize the benefits:

• Easy Compliance:  Count and report  full time employees (FTE) annually
• Customized Solutions: Add software during the subscription term
• Simplified Asset Management: Download and update software online
• Low Administration: Eliminate the need to track software licenses
• Lower Total Cost of Ownership: Reduce the cost of software

Finally, for those not using a Window’s desktop environment, there are also benefits to an EES agreement. Office 2011 for Mac is a great solution.

Contact your Microsoft Authorized Education Reseller today for more information.

Size really does matter

There is a fundamental difference in managing technology resources among organizations of different sizes. Microsoft defines a small, midsized, and enterprise organization as having less than 50, 50 – 500, and greater that 500 computers respectively.

The infrastructure design of these respective organizations is significant and can have far reaching impact on costs, both to implement and then to manage the organization. There are management tools and methodologies for each respective organization size.

Very few Charter Schools fit the Enterprise model of management, yet there is a tendency to build the technology infrastructure on an enterprise level. This tendency stems from the “Best Practice” information found in the education community at large.

Many Charter School managers come from traditional school districts and implement the solutions with which they are familiar.  Furthermore, the state does not provide a different set of data gathering tools for Charter Schools; they are the same as found in all public schools.

So without deliberate and thoughtful planning, a Charter School can start down the road of enterprise level thinking and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on technology solutions, when a fraction of that might be adequate.

One of our goals is to disseminate “Best Practice” information that applies specifically to the small and midsized Charter School. Doing so can have a significant impact on start-up and ongoing costs for information systems.