Website Design and Hosting for Small Organizations

As part of my duties as IT Manager for NSI Partners TechConnect, I also oversee our Hosting services.

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In today’s marketplace, the Internet, and the Web, are everywhere.  From desktop and laptop computers, to tablets and smart phones, to TVs, other home electronics, and even some cars, the ubiquity of the Web is enormous.

Whether you are a for-profit or not-for-profit organization, a web presence is essential to draw attention, provide services, get new customers, and communicate with constituents.

Many places today offer simple, easy-to-configure, bottom-dollar priced do-it-yourself site design and hosting.  Some of these sites, such as our own NSIHost, offer such services and additional features you can easily add in (e-commerce, SSL certificates, various Social Media plugins, etc.).  This is a great option if you are willing to spend a little time getting comfortable with the interface, tools and walk-thrus available to build your own site.

Another option is to contract with a provider (NSI Partners provides these services as well) to design a site for you, often using images and graphics you provide, with a layout design you have input into, and features / add-ons that make sense for your goals and organization.  This, of course, is more expensive, but gives you the luxury of a no-hassle site designed by experts without having to spend much time fiddling with the site design yourself.

There are other choices to make, such as the registration of domain names (e.g. www.mycoolsite.com), whether or not you want email accounts for your registered domains, and whether you want your website in a shared or dedicated hosting environment.  In addition, Search Engine Optimization is very important if you want to be found.  Many online marketing firms offer services in these areas, including NSI Partners, and money spent on various forms of online marketing usually means more visitors, links from others, and ultimately, customers.

The main point here is that if you are part of a new small business, a non-profit or ministry organization, or represent some other organizational interest, you need a website, and it’s not as complicated or intimidating as one might think.

If you are ready to get started, follow one of the links in this post, or fill out our contact form, and one of our Design and Hosting experts will reach out to you and assist you in the next steps for your agency!

Reasons to Choose Microsoft Exchange Online for Email Hosting

Traditionally only larger organizations and companies have utilized Microsoft’s Exchange technology for hosting email servers, which linked to Outlook clients provide some significant feature sets and productivity benefits not found on POP and IMAP email servers. A few years ago, companies started offering shared Exchange server hosting environments for monthly fees so that small-medium businesses that didn’t want the extra cost and hassles of their own in-house Exchange server could still benefit from the technology and utilize Outlook the way it was designed to be used.  Even more recently, Microsoft took that over themselves, providing the servers and improving the features and costs with Microsoft Online Services.  I have written about this previously in its’ several forms, from Exchange Online only up to and including the full Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).  I have yet to publish a simple list of the advantages and features small and medium businesses can expect when transitioning to Exchange Online for email hosting….Here is that list!

1.  More than email: Exchange adds a robust Contacts database, Tasks/To-Do Lists, Calendaring, and Public File Sharing

2.  Access methods:  from any web browser with Outlook Web Access, from smartphones with data and ActiveSync, from Microsoft Outlook

3.  Advanced scheduling tools, the ability to see multiple calendars within your organization, the ability to edit other’s calendars, the capability to share documents with others online easily, complex task database and task management, categories

4.  Reduced costs and complexity with all the productivity enhancements of a traditional in-house server

5.  Built-in backup of data, enhanced spam filtering and security tools compared to many other email hosts

If you add Microsoft Outlook 2010 to the mix as part of the email solution, there are additional benefits: Task Delegation (create and assign tasks to others); Enhanced Scheduling and Calendaring Features (Overlay mode for multiple calendars, scheduling assistants to suggest meeting and appointment times, plugins for services like GoToMeeting); and now the Social Connector (see updates from social networks like Facebook and Linked In for your contacts right inside Outlook).

At prices per user per month that are only a few dollars more than POP and IMAP email options, and new features coming with Office365 in 2011, there is little reason for any small to medium business NOT to give Exchange Online a try.  You may find it changes the way you do business and enables some exciting changes for your organization.

Contact tech@nsipartners.com if you’d like to work with NSI Partners for a free trial of any Microsoft Online product, or for support in transition from your existing solutions.

Using “Social Media” for Computer Purchase Decisions

So…it was time for a laptop upgrade.  I had a lot of requirements this time around.  I wanted a desktop replacement on a budget.  I also wanted a good processor, hard drive, and networking performance.  Large screen, multitouch keypad, good sound were all pluses.  Decided I wanted to use Best Buy, since I have a Silver membership to their Reward Zone.  This meant a few things.  One, I had up to 45 days to return or exchange the product.  With my experience with Windows laptop builds, I figured this would be a great bonus.  Second, I still wanted to be able to physically test the laptop before buying it.  If I was going to get a desktop replacement that I would be using regularly, I wanted something I would be more-than-OK with interacting with physically on an ongoing basis.

By now the question is…where does social media come into all this?  Well, like many online shopping sites, even those that are online versions of brick-and-mortar establishments, bestbuy.com has a customer review section for their products.  The data is overwhelmingly in favor of us “consumers” trusting each other’s experiences far more than most advertising or marketing around a product.  This trend has grown so much that company’s are now wisely diverting large portions of their traditional advertising and marketing budget into Social Media Marketing, using “listening platforms” to understand how and where us “consumers” are talking about their products and brands.  But online customer reviews around products are really where this roller coaster began.

The time I spent reading the experiences of other users with their laptop purchases became rather addictive.  I changed my mind at least 5 times based on the experience of other customers, and ended up choosing a laptop brand I never would have believed I would selected otherwise: Samsung!  Even though I had follow-up experiences involving the return of my initial purchase and 4 subsequent exchanges and second-guesses (hence, the value of the Silver Reward Zone Membership), I ended up a very happy camper with a laptop chosen in large part because of the high marks given by other consumers, and less because of any advertising, marketing, or brand loyalty.  And it may be my most favorite portable computing device yet!

Moral of the story:  all else being equal, it really pays for technology manufacturers, distributors, and even retail point-of-sale facilities to include social media as a centralized portion of the buying process.  Now, I’ll find it hard to consider buying technology elsewhere for all these reasons.

Small Business IT Support Colorado Springs

Today’s small business or organization needs cost-effective, competitive IT and technology support and solutions. That’s where NSI Partners TechConnect comes to the rescue. On-demand, as-needed technical expertise to help your business or nonprofit with:

-computers     -software     -operating systems     -printers     -scanners

-smart phones     -mobile devices     -networks     -routers     -switches          -file sharing     -data backup

-application choices     -databases     -training and tutorials

-cloud services

When you’re looking for just-in-time IT staffing that will help technology work FOR you rather than the opposite, choose NSI Partners TechConnect.

CONTACT US now at 719-328-0042, ext.810 or email tech@nsipartners.com