February 2008

Greetings!

OurTech Solutions is please to offer a new low cost email recovery and archiving service which has been combined with our new Spam filtering service.  If your business absolutely relies on email to operate efficiently you can’t afford to be without these new service offerings from OurTech Solutions.

Our new email archiving and Spam filtering Service will provide your business with a complete, searchable email archiving solution that can be accessed at any time, from anywhere via the Internet.  Additionally, this new service will provide our customer’s with email continuity should your local email server experience an outage.  Our new email disaster recovery solution will automatically queue your incoming email and resume delivery when your server returns to operation, and more: 

Email Archiving:

With this new archiving feature you now have a rapid means of responding to discovery requests for legal proceedings governed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  Likewise, with this new service we will be able to retrieve any email received or sent through our service, even if it is no longer on your in-house email server. This service will also allow our customers to keep their local exchange server mail box sizes smaller, so that your exchange server runs more efficiently, without worrying about your ability to retrieve an older email even if it is no longer stored on your local server.

Outbound Email Auditing:

Outbound email auditing automatically blocks viruses from leaving your network and alerts us if you have an open relay condition where a potential compromised or "zombie" desktop has been established.  This feature helps us to stay a step ahead of problems that could cause you to be blacklisted and to keep you from inadvertently spamming your customer contacts with viruses.

Quarantine Folder:

Spam can be delivered to a Web-based quarantine folder for periodic inspection by the intended recipient.  Users may also elect to receive a daily summary of the new mail diverted to their quarantine folder. The summary includes the sender, subject line, date and time, and links to either release a message to one's inbox, or release the message and add the sender to the Allow List, so that future mail from the sender will be delivered directly to the recipient's inbox.

Basic Security (Default):

• Set it and forget it protection
• Optimized Content Filtering
• Enable Whitelist on first outbound message (Intelligent Whitelisting!)
• Vaporize Messages From Unknown Users
• Quarantine spam with daily quarantine summary
• Anti-virus Protection
• Email Archiving

• Windows Tips & Tricks, Tweaking Your Vista Desktop.
• Seven Things You Must Do  Protect Your Network from Disaster.
• The Best Aren't Looking Expand Your Potential.

Windows Tips & Tricks
Tweaking Your Vista Desktop
Cindy Troyer, Vice President OurTech Solutions

Do you work for an office with locations in multiple time zones? With Windows Vista, you can keep track of time anywhere in the world by adding additional clocks to the desktop. To add a clock to your desktop, right click in the gadget sidebar and select "Add Gadgets...". Select the clock. Once the new clock appears in the sidebar, you can change its appearance and the time zone by right-clicking and selecting "Options." After setting your options, click "OK".  If you later decide to remove a clock, right-click on the clock and select "Close Gadget."

Have you noticed the larger icons on your Vista Desktop? Getting them back to a more reasonable size is as close as your right mouse button. Right click any empty area of your Desktop and left click the word View, then the words Classic Icons.

Personalize your computing experience: Right click any empty area on your Desktop and choose Personalize. A new window will open with all your choices available. Change the background of your desktop by left clicking the "Desktop Background". Choose one of the options presented or click the Browse button to navigate to where an image or your own is located. Click once on the image, then click the Open button to select it as your new wallpaper.

The Best Aren't Looking
Create circumstances to expand your potential.
Wade Burgess, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, OurTech Solutions

Is it accurate to say that the best relationships are formed by happenstance? Probably not exactly but it is certain that they weren’t forced either. Your business and personal life are best cultivated by knowing who you are, what you want, and creating the right circumstances to expand your potential.

This month’s article can actually function as a mini workshop if you choose. Bring your team together and discuss the questions at the end of each paragraph. I’d love to hear your results.

One of the most unfortunate stereotypes in our culture is the car buying experience. From the moment the Model T hit critical mass in the market the American dream included riding through the landscape in a beautiful automobile. Whether you drive a minivan or Maybach, Honda or Hummer it’s exciting to buy a new vehicle. Or better stated it’s exciting to own a new automobile. Somehow the buying experience is one similar to visiting the dental office. This should not be so. The dealership sells cars. You buy cars. This is a match made in heaven.

• Where does the disconnect occur?

• Does your industry experience similar problems?

• Does it ever feel like you’re forcing your solutions on your customer or do they feel like they are buying them? What are you doing right or wrong to create this feeling?

My wife loves shopping at stores with a live piano player and latte stand (and I don’t mind accompanying her there since those are the only two items in the store I can appreciate). She can browse the latest and the most time tested. She can ask for help or be left alone. In the end, it’s a pleasant experience because these establishments realize an open dialogue combined with expertise in your field will help your customers find the right solution and increase your closing ratio (and margins). It’s entirely possible that the prospect will not buy today but if the experience is exceptional enough she will remember the emotion and be an excellent customer tomorrow. Once you have established this relationship with your client it’s a rare occasion that a purchase is not made, even if they aren’t actively looking for anything today.

• How can you apply this to your business? Be specific.

• Do your customers love the experience and atmosphere you create?

• Does this atmosphere portray prestige-quality and value? Does it encourage buying today?

Ask any hiring manager who the best candidates are. Without exception you’ll find that it’s the people who are not actively looking. The employee who is dedicated, has the blinders on, and is highly productive is the person we’re all looking for. After all, who wants to hire the person that is always looking and never settled? Take this mentality to your sales pipeline. Are you only pursuing prospects that are actively looking for vendors? Often the companies who are constantly looking for vendors are a big pain to work with once you land them. They cycle through vendors the same way an employee may cycle through employers, always blaming the other party for their problems and lack of performance. What if you looked for solid, loyal prospects that may not be actively looking for your product or service? They don’t have an RFP out, they aren’t calling you, and they may not even show up for your big events. If they are tough to win away from your competition, be grateful. This is a key of a company who understands loyalty and will be a better customer in the long run. The best people, vendors, and customers are worth cultivating and investing in.

• What are you currently doing to develop relationships with prospects that are not actively pursuing new vendors?

• Think of customers you no longer service. Did they have a history of changing vendors or businesses? Can you use this information to better profile the right customers to pursue in the future?

• Are there web forums, community organizations, affiliations, or tools in your industry that you can use to find passive prospects (those that aren’t actively looking)? Consider the tools good recruiters use to find passive job seekers. What else can you do to brand yourself with these prospects?

Remember that people make emotional decisions. Regardless of how much we like to think we are logical, the emotional aspect does come into play. All things being equal, people will do business with people they like. All things not being equal, we still do business with people we like if possible. Be known as an expert, not a know-it-all. Be everywhere but not in-your-face. Be open and honest but in a professional way. There is one topic your prospect cares about more than anything in the world; themselves. If you are a person or company they feel comfortable with you’ll be in the front of the line when opportunity comes along. The best may not be looking today. But they will be. The key is to be there when they are. It’s not about how many people you have on your prospect list; it’s about how many people have you on their solution provider list.