QuikNews July 2002 E-Mail Newsletter




Quality Technology Solutions, Inc. QTS QuikNews – July 2002 – Issue 2002.7 July 31, 2002 ************************************************************************ Welcome to the July edition of QTS QuikNews, our Monthly E-Mail newsletter. In this monthly e-mail, you will receive an update of what's new at QTS - new products we support, new patches and upgrades, solution ideas and promotions to save you money, and information about our company and our clients. As a QTS client, a prospective client we have had discussions with, or a “friend of QTS,” you have been automatically added to our newsletter distribution list. To unsubscribe from this mailing please see the instructions at the bottom of this page, or call your QTS Account Manager. Please do not respond to this e-mail. This is an unmonitored account. ********************************************************************** IN THIS ISSUE ********************************************************************** 1. QTS News 2. Events 3. Patches & Upgrades 4. President’s Corner 5. Partner Spotlight: Lenskold Marketing 6. Special Offers & Featured Solutions ********************************************************************** QTS NEWS ********************************************************************** QTS REORGANIZES TO REFINE SERVICE DELIVERY QTS recently reorganized its reporting structure by naming Christine Bongard as Chief Operating Officer. Christine will retain her responsibilities for the Finance & Operations Support team at QTS, and will continue as our CFO, but now takes on responsibility for operations and service delivery. Now reporting to Christine are John Houston (Manager, Service Implementation), Lou DiTommaso (Manager, Customer Support Center) and Paul Sawchuk (Manager, Network Services), along with their staffs. This change will allow Christine to focus on refining our service delivery and ensuring that our procedures and operations are properly scaleable for long-term organizational growth. This also allows Neil Rosenberg, QTS’ President, to focus on company strategy, key business partner relationships and technology strategy, marketing and business development. WERTHEIM, INC. HAS MOVED QTS’ document management partner, Wertheim Inc., has moved to new office space in midtown Manhattan. Their new address is 70 West 40^th Street, Suite 700, New York, NY 10018. Their telephone number remains the same, at (212)413-8600. MICROSOFT PRODUCT SUPPORT LIFECYCLE Manufacturer support for software offerings typically runs a 3 year lifecycle from initial product release these days – sometimes sooner, sometimes later, depending on the frequency of interim updates. The following Microsoft products are coming up on their end-of-life date: 6/30/2003 – Microsoft Windows 98 and Windows NT Workstation 4.0 12/31/2003 – Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 See http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/ProductInfo/Availability/Retiring.asp and http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle.asp for more information. Note that support for Windows 95 was discontinued effective 12/31/01. +++ FROM THE WEB +++ QTS ANNOUNCES ITS MEMBERSHIP IN THE MICROSOFT GOLD CERTIFIED PARTNER PROGRAM FOR SECURITY SOLUTIONS 7/8/2002: QTS today announced that it is a new member in the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Program for Security Solutions. QTS is only the 11th company in the United States to achieve Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Security Solutions status, and only the 25th worldwide. Read more at http://www.QTSnet.com/stayinformed/l3_stay_pr29.htm ********************************************************************** EVENTS ********************************************************************** No events currently scheduled, but pay attention for our upcoming Fall Seminar Series in the next issue of QuikNews. ********************************************************************** PATCHES & UPGRADES ************************************************************************ Call the Customer Support Center to have us apply QTS-standard patches and keep your systems current. The following patches have been recently released and are recommended by QTS: * Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 * Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Service Pack 3 * Microsoft Cumulative Patches for Excel/Word 2000 and 2002/XP in MS02-031 * Microsoft Cumulative Patch for Windows Media Player in MS02-032 * Microsoft Cumulative Patches for SQL Server 2000 in MS02-034 * Citrix MetaFrame XP Feature Release 2 Also, please check http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/current.asp for applicability of Microsoft Security Bulletins to the products in use at your environment. Contact your QTS Account Manager if you would like our Customer Support Center to monitor these bulletins for you and advise with recommendations for your environment upon release of new bulletins. Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition signature files are currently at version 40802e (8/2/2002). CA InoculateIT 4.x signature files are currently at version 38.29 (8/1/2002) and 6.x signature files are currently at version 23.56.29 (8/1/2002). McAfee VirusScan/NetShield signature files are currently at version 4216 (8/2/2002). Please keep your antivirus signatures, and your scan engines, current! If you do not have your system set up to automatically distribute updates from your server to your PCs, please call your QTS Account Manager or the Customer Support Center. Some patches can cause problems, especially in combination with other software programs or patch levels. Please talk to us to verify whether we see any possible problems in your environment before patching your systems independently. We make best efforts to test patch combinations but cannot guarantee compatibility between software and hardware manufacturers’ products. ************************************************************************ PRESIDENT’S CORNER ********************************************************************** I recently had the pleasure of attending Microsoft’s Fusion 2002 conference, which is an event for Microsoft partners to help them align their businesses with Microsoft’s future direction. The event was extremely useful to me and to QTS from a strategic perspective. However, the thing that was the most important to me, and I believe to many of you, from the event was gaining a greater understanding of Microsoft’s knowledge worker initiative. From my perspective, I think I saw the most significant development in the technology field since the advent of the Internet. That’s a pretty tall order, I admit, but this is powerful stuff. At Fusion, I was able to take in Jeff Raikes’ demonstration of the upcoming Tablet PC, running a specialized version of Windows XP. The demo showed what seemed at first to be a standard, lightweight notebook PC. However, spin the screen around 180 degrees, and close the screen so it is facing up, and now you have a tablet computer. The hardware reference design is currently being tested by numerous hardware vendors, including HP/Compaq, and the targeted release date is November. Add to this a version of Windows XP optimized for this tablet hardware design, along with wireless connectivity, and perhaps you’ll start to see why I think this is so powerful. Digital ink allows you to write on the screen and save the image, but strong, reliable Optical Character Recognition allows the writing to be converted to digital data. Imagine taking notes in a meeting, by hand-writing on the tablet, and having those notes converted to a document automatically. Furthermore, imagine those notes being associated to your Outlook calendar appointment for the meeting, That’s where it’s going. Why is this coming from the Knowledge Workers’ team at Microsoft? Because this team, led by Jeff Raikes, a long-time Microsoft veteran, is charged with fundamentally changing the way professionals use their PCs. The focus of this group isn’t deciding what the latest features are that should be added to Office – they’re looking at what Office should be five years from now, incorporating the latest technology changes but also not limited by the constraints of how we currently use computers. Powerful stuff, and somewhat reassuring for all of you who purchased Software Assurance on your Office licenses. Lots of new stuff will be coming out over the next few years. To me, the power of this device is very clear – just looking at myself and my own work habits, I can see significant gains in my own productivity from having one, not even accounting for convenience. I’m a heavy Franklin Planner user as well as an Outlook user, and this device would combine them both into a tablet that I can easily take with me into any meeting, at QTS or elsewhere. All of the paper documents that I need to currently keep organized are replaced now with electronic documents that are easily organized, and also backed up, so they can be easily found regardless of where I am. Some of you know me, some do not, but those who do know I’m not often taken with technology for its own sake. I’ve seen a lot of technology come and go in 18 or so years in this industry, and many of the failures are because the designers didn’t really think about why the technology was needed, or how it would be used. That’s where I think Microsoft is doing it right this time, and perhaps why I view the upcoming release of the Tablet PC as such a significant event. As always, feel free to email me your comments or thoughts at nrosenberg@QTSnet.com. Thank you. Neil Rosenberg President & CEO Quality Technology Solutions ********************************************************************** PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: LENSKOLD MARKETING ********************************************************************** This month QTS is spotlighting its partner for helping customers with their strategic marketing needs. Lenskold Marketing Group offers marketing strategy and services that help companies achieve more profitable customer relationships. Lenskold Marketing is emerging as a leader in the area of measuring and managing Marketing ROI - publishing and speaking on ways to improve CRM initiatives and eliminate the unprofitable portions of marketing budgets. Marketing ROI services range from basic workshops to detailed data analysis and technology implementation. This specialty area supplements the company's core strength of developing innovative marketing strategies and delivering high impact marketing campaigns. More information is available at www.lenskold.com or by calling 973-984-7018. ********************************************************************** SPECIAL OFFERS & FEATURED SOLUTIONS ********************************************************************** Novell is currently offering distinct upgrade promotions from NetWare 3, 4 or 5 to NetWare 6. Contact your QTS Account Manager for more information. ********************************************************************** To Comment on this newsletter, send an email to QuikNews@QTSnet.com. ********************************************************************** To Remove yourself from this mailing list please send a reply to this message with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject field. Or call or email your QTS Account Manager. ********************************************************************** To Subscribe to this Newsletter, tell your friends and colleagues to go to http://www.QTSnet.com/QuikNews. ********************************************************************** To View an archive of all QTS QuikNews editions, please visit http://www.QTSnet.com/stayinformed/QuikNews/QuikNews_Index.htm. ************************************************************************ ^{ã2002 Quality Technology Solutions, Inc.} This site last updated 08/06/02 © 1999 Quality Technology Solutions, Inc. 76 South Orange Avenue Suite 302, South Orange, New Jersey 07079 telephone: 973.761.5400 fax: 973.761.1881 email: info@qtsnet.com