 Few
people would argue against the fact that
Windows Small Business Server is a great
product for the small business.
Microsoft
has really done a great job, not just in
the functionality of the package, but also
the pricing – no matter how small
your company is (the shipped product comes
licensed for 5 users but can have more access
licenses added easily!) you can have enterprise
class tools, such as Exchange Server (Email),
SQL Server (Database), Security Features
and SharePoint (intranet, Document Control
& Team Collaboration Tools) services
plus much more for less than it would cost
to buy a 5 User copy of Exchange Server
on it’s own!
For example,
the Small Business Server 2003 Standard
Package software (5 Client Access License),
currently retailing for around £300
contains Exchange Server 2003 and Windows
Server 2003 which alone would cost around
£850 and £700 respectively for
a total of £1,550 for the 5 CAL versions!
Therefore Small Business Server standard
can save you over £1,000 alone just
for the 5 CAL version!
The Small
Business Server Premium Edition (5 CAL),
currently retailing for around £1,000
adds SQL Server and ISA (Internet Security
and Acceleration) Server to the standard
edition, these packages bought on their
own would add around £1,100 and £1,050
for a complete total of £3,700! Small
Business Server Premium therefore giving
you a massive saving of £2,700 over
buying all the included components separately!
Of course,
costs are not everything. You IT systems
are just another tool that helps you run
your business, increase productivity and
deliver products or services to your clients,
so how can Small Business Server 2003 help
you do this?
Windows
Small Business Server 2003 is the latest
release of Microsoft’s multipurpose
network operating system for the everyday
needs of small business organisations. Built
on the robust Windows Server 2003 operating
system, Windows Small Business Server is
secure, dependable and highly manageable.
Small
Business Server
Taking small business computing to the next
level
With businesses
increasingly relying on technology, managing
and monitoring IT infrastructure can be
a full time job. Invariably the reason for
the technology in our small business is
to help us be more productive, so the last
thing you need is to be tied down dealing
with day to day IT issues when you could
be dealing with your core business. Enter
Microsoft Small Business Server 2003.
The Small
Business Server 2003 solution provides you
with email and Internet connectivity, file
and printer sharing, improved productivity
through knowledge sharing and collaboration,
remote access, support for mobile devices
and built-in backup and restore capabilities;
creating a faster, more efficient, reliable
and secure business environment. Built in
support for remote server management means
when you need assistance we can access your
server remotely and fix your problems without
needing to visit your site, ensuring speedy
response to your problems, reducing down
time to a minimum and saving you both time
and money.
Connect
to the Internet and your Network Resources
Windows Small Business Server 2003 makes
connecting to the Internet and other network
resources like files, printers and fax machines
simple, while centralised access helps improve
productivity by making sure your employees
can access the network resources and information
they need when they need them.
There are
many security enhancements built into the
latest version of Small Business Server
to help protect your data and network, and
now you're network is further protected
from intrusion attempts with an integrated
firewall.
Encourage
your Team to Work Together
Effective communication among work teams
can help save time and significantly increase
productivity.
Windows
Small Business Server 2003 gives your employees
a single place to share information and
seamlessly collaborate on projects - with
a ready to go intranet based on SharePoint
Services; providing you with shared document
libraries, announcements, events and links.
SharePoint
lets you keep all the documents about a
project in a single location. No matter
who or how many people are working on it,
a single copy is available to everyone.
Since you may have several documents being
worked on at once, SharePoint can notify
you when a document or list has been changed.
Your document
library can also be used to house information
that needs to be centrally maintained, such
as Health and Safety procedures. Since SharePoint
also has a survey function, when the procedures
are updated you can use this to get people
to acknowledge that they have read and understood
the new processes.
SharePoint
also includes holiday calendars that lets
your staff book holidays and see who else
has already booked time off, and if all
you want is a simple list that everyone
can update and view, like a list of customers
or prices, SharePoint's list function fills
this need.
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Easily Manage
Email, Meetings and Calendars
Exchange Server 2003 allows you to enjoy
the full functionality of Microsoft Outlook.
Junk mail is filtered either by add-ons
to Exchange or by Outlook itself. This
means you spend more time managing important
e-mails rather than dealing with spam.
The new
system enables greater levels of collaboration
as you can book meetings with your colleagues
while looking at their calendars, so you
will know when you book them that they
are available, this even includes any
group calendars held on the intranet site
such as the holiday calendar.
Managing
actions and agendas around meetings is
also much easier as an automatic storage
area is created on the SharePoint intranet
that holds agendas, actions and other
documents from the meeting.
Outlook
can even connect to your server as if
you were in the Office, wherever you are
sitting, at home for example or even wirelessly
from an airport lounge, providing you
have a wireless network card in your PC.
Give
Mobile Workers Seamless Access to Network
Resources These days there's
an increasing need for businesses to provide
their workers with the ability to access
network resources remotely, whether this
is to facilitate flexible working patterns,
to accommodate users on business trips
or to enhance effectiveness when dealing
with clients.
Windows
Small Business Server 2003 comes with
the Remote Web Workplace that enables
remote users to securely access email,
the SharePoint intranet and their office
computer desktops from wherever they are,
on the road or even working from home,
as effectively as if they were sitting
at their desks.
For those
users that are constantly mobile and need
regular access to Outlook data such as
inbox, calendar and contacts, Exchange
2003 now allows you to synchronise your
data by connecting directly to the company
server. This means that users can update
or access emails, contacts or calendar
requests throughout the day whilst mobile
on their Pocket PCs and Smartphones. Every
time they synchronise, any changes on
the device will automatically be sent
back to their business system and update
the server. At the same time any new changes
on the company system, such as new emails
and meeting requests will be sent to the
device.
Easily
Administer and Manage your Network
Making sure that your network is running
smoothly and efficiently can be time consuming,
and the more users you have, the more
challenging this becomes. The whole point
of increasing the sophistication of your
IT infrastructure is to increase productivity
and improve performance, not to compound
your administrative nightmares.
One way
Windows Small Business Server 2003 helps
is by having built in functionality to
allow us to remotely access your Windows
Small Business Server 2003 AND other PCs
on your network. If you call us with a
problem, rather than try and explain over
the phone, we can immediately access the
problem machine and SEE what’s going
on. This saves time for you and saves
you having to explain complex error messages
or symptoms, the vast majority of times
we can sort the problem out there and
then! Immediate response, immediate fix,
reduces system downtime, increases productivity,
allows you to spend time on your core
business and saves money as there is no
need to pay call out charges!
Remote
access allows us to carry out many of
the network administrative and maintenance
tasks unobtrusively and without disrupting
your workplace, we can add new users and
computers to your network quickly and
efficiently.
Keep
an Eye on Server Health and Reduce Downtime
As the central repository of your critical
information, it's essential that you keep
an eye on your server and make sure that
it stays healthy. So, why wait until there
is a problem when proactive and careful
monitoring of your server's performance
can help significantly reduce downtime
and allow a quick response when issues
arise?
Windows
Small Business Server 2003 makes it possible
for us to monitor your server activity,
and provides us with performance and usage
reports either online or via email. We
can often be notified of a potential problem
and have it rectified before you even
arrive in your office!
Protect
your Valuable Data and Network Resources
Windows Small Business Server 2003 makes
it easy to create and implement a successful
backup strategy. Once this has been set
up, Small Business Server 2003 does the
rest for you. It reports on every backup
via email so that we can monitor its effectiveness
for you.
Because
the information in the e-mail system is
also centrally managed, contacts, shared
information folders and all your other
information stored in Exchange is available
at any time. Should you lose your laptop
and need to re-build this information,
you simply connect your replacement to
the network and your information, e-mail,
contacts, calendar, documents and applications
will flow back to the device.
Furthermore,
should you delete or overwrite a file
held on the server and regret it, you
can simply go to where the file was or
to the updated version you wish to undo
and tell the computer to roll back your
changes. So there’s no need to get
those backup tapes or removable disks
to undo a simple mistake.
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