I was having a conversation with a customer prospect the other day about the volume of spam they are receiving and the things that Centrend can do for not only helping reduce the annoyance, but make e-mail systems more efficient. She was curious to know why we get spam in the first place, and why is it called, “spam,” anyway?

The naming of Internet “spam” has not so much to do with the luncheon meat, produced by Hormel Foods, as it does with a television skit recorded by Monty Python’s Flying Circus. In the skit, a restaurant patron found that everything in the restaurant was served with SPAM, whether the customer wanted it or not. The proprietor and the other patrons couldn’t believe their ears when the customer claimed he didn’t want any SPAM. A chorus of, “SPAM…SPAM…SPAM…SPAM…” then eliminated all other conversation.

The earliest form of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) was actually unsolicited advertising on message boards. In the early 1990’s the Usenet (newsgroups) was a relatively pristine environment for giving and receiving ideas and information on thousands of topics open for discussion. That is, until some individuals figured out that it’s also a great place to send cheap bulk advertising to millions of people at once.

Although posting irrelevant messages to message boards is considered taboo and annoying, offenders began to realize the potential return on investment was huge. Vast numbers of postings of unwanted messages being downloaded to local PCs was unstoppable, and soon became known as “spam", in reference to the famous Monty Python skit.

Hormel Foods, Inc.’s official position on the subject is that the company doesn’t mind if you call it “spam", just remember that the real SPAM is a registered trademark. The people at Hormel Foods believe that the use of “spam” as a slang term will not hurt their product marketing. However, the company does not allow the use of its product’s likeness in reference to UCE.

We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE, although we do object to the use of the word “spam” as a trademark and to the use of our product image in association with that term. Also, if the term is to be used, it should be used in all lower-case letters to distinguish it from our trademark SPAM, which should be used with all uppercase letters.

- Hormel Foods Corporation

In my next blog posting we’ll discuss E-mail best practices - things you should know.

-Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x135

Do you use Outlook Express or Outlook to manage your personal email or business email? If so, you need to be aware that both systems have limits as to how large the data file(s) can be. The latest version of Office Outlook 2007 gets around this by allowing for files larger than 2gb but it is still recommended that files are not allowed to exceed two gigabyte.

The technical reason is that Outlook and Outlook Express store email in an indexed format. If the file stores get too large, the indexing system fails causing your Outlook to stop working. You will not be able to send and receive email. The recovery process is different for Outlook Express and Outlook but the prognosis is not good. You will lose some data if the crash is allowed to occur. There is no warning.

A good backup system will reduce the risk but if the internal system pointers are allowed to corrupt, going to a backup that is a few days old may not be enough to recover the data.

At Centrend, we believe in preventing problems from occurring to begin with. Here’s how you can find out the size of your data file. Follow the instructions in the appropriate section for your system.

For Outlook Express Users:

Part 1: Locate the store folder.

1. Start Outlook Express
2. Click Tools, and then click Options.
3. On the Maintenance tab, click Store Folder.
4. In the Store Location dialog box, copy the store location. It’s long and you’ll probably have to scroll in the window to make sure you have the entire path to the files.

Part 2. Determine Total size of store folders

1. Click Start Run and paste in (or type in) the string from Part 1, step 4.
2. Click OK
3. Right click on each folder and choose properties in the menu that pops up. This will give you the size of each folder. The sizes added together must not be allowed to exceed 2gb

For Outlook Users:
Part 1: Locate the store folder.

1. Start Outlook
2. Right-click on Personal Folders. Click on Properties. (Make sure the Tree View is enabled you won’t be able to see “Personal Folders")
3. Click on the advanced button
4. Under Filename: you will see the path and name of your personal file folder. Copy the filename so you can refer to it in Part 2, below.

Part 2: Find out the size of your store folder

1. Click Start Run and paste in (or type in) the string from Part 1, step 4. Backspace to the “\” to erase the actual PST filename.
2. Click OK
3. Right click the PST filename you will see in the folder. Usually this file is called outlook.pst or personal.pst but the one you are using is the one identified in Part 1, step 4, above. If this file is approaching 2gb, you are dangerously close to an email crash!
4. If there is an archive.pst file in that same folder, make sure it doesn’t exceed 2gb either.

I’ve tried to make these instructions as complete as possible without being too long. If you find these instructions too difficult, or have any questions at all about how to reduce the size of the files and avoid a crash, please contact me and one of our technicians will walk you through.

Special Note for users running in an environment with Microsoft Exchange: if you are running MS Exchange on your business network, you can still run into problems if your local copy of email gets too large. If you’re MS Exchange administrator is following best practices, they have an email policy programmed on the Exchange server that will make sure you are warned well in advance of this problem.

-Paul
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Paul LaFlamme
President & CEO
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x115

So how do you do it? Do you use ACT!? Goldmine? MS Outlook? MS Excel Spreadsheets? with an online solution such as salesforce.com? A fully integrated ERP system?

Centrend has helped customers decide and implement many of these and other solutions. It’s a very important, strategic decision that you can’t afford to get wrong. Whatever solution you choose, make sure it meets the following criteria for YOUR needs. Here are a few important considerations:

1. What information needs to be stored?
2. How will the information be used? Telemarketing, traditional direct mail, email blasts?
3. From where does the data need to be accessed? Will you need these contacts in your cell phone while on the road?
4. Will the contacts be shared? If so, what are the security considerations? Read only, full read/write, completely private?
5. How long will the system serve your needs? This is important if you’re looking for a new system and/or if you have a system that you are outgrowing.

My best piece of advice regarding contact management: always keep in mind what your objective is and keep only the data you need.

With some analyis, Centrend can help you figure out what the best solution is for you to optimize your contact management and maximize your sales efforts. Please contact Bill or I for a free consultation.

-Paul
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Paul LaFlamme
President & CEO
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 (LiveCall:508-347-9550) x115

Please check out my response to a blog entry by Rick Roberge, a trusted friend and networking referral partner. The story is, Rick has a successful bloggin web site: www.therainmakermaker.com and he is thinking of moving it to be one of the BLOGS within the site www.omghub.com. He says in his post that he is pretty sure he is going to move the blog, but he asked his readers to comment on whether it would be a good idea to move and what else should change if he does. You can read the advice I gave him by clicking here.

He titles the post “Resistance to Change.” No doubt, resistance to change; the idea that the individuals within an organization resist the changing of business processes and technology, is an obstacle that must be overcome for any project to be successfully implemented.

However: Prior to deciding whether to change a business process or implement a new technology, resistance to change is GOOD if you don’t have GOOD reasons for the implementation.

So in my response to Rick, I explained that there are a whole lot of questions to ask before a decision like this should be made. Here are the few I game him as an example to get started with in considering whether to switch his blog:

1. What is the objective of switching?
2. Are there personal benefits?
3. Are there career/business benefits?
4. From a search engine ranking perspective, you and Dave and others he hosts from his site benefit from being able to link and refer to each other. Will switching hurt either of your search traffic?
5. Unless the existing blog can be imported to the new space, you are losing a lot of archived articles that are valuable to your readers.

To apply this to your own projects, first determine what are the business reasons for switching. Then ask, what are the possible negative outcomes. All too often, those attempting change will run form blinders for the negative ramifcations of a project. Plan for the worst so you an expect the best.

Here are the take away messages I want to leave you with…

When considering technology changes: Don’t implement technology for the sake of implementing technology. Have strategic business reasons justifying the technoology change or system upgrade. Don’t change simply because it looks good on a resume or because it’s the lastest trend in technology.

When considering business process changes: Don’t change for the sake of change - for the sake of owning a business process. Business process changes that are not strategic, well thought out, and well implemented and trained with everyone’s buy-in will only leave you owning a headache.

Please be sure to reach out to me if you need help determining the true value of a project.

-Paul
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Paul LaFlamme
President & CEO
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x115

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations (MA OCABR) has responded to area businesses voicing concern over meeting the May 1st deadline for tough new information security regulations. In a press release issued on Thursday, the date for compliance has now been extended to January 1, 2010.

That gives us all more time to help get everyone up to speed on what the new regulations are all about, and what needs to be done for compliance. The new regulations, aimed at protecting the personal information of every resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is said to be the strictest in the nation, and will require every legal entity to have a Written Information Security Plan.

Centrend is currently offering free compliance interviews to help local businesses determine how they stand in relation to compliance today.

-Bill

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Bill Bowman
Senior Technology Advisor
Centrend, Inc.
888-558-9550 ext. 135