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Integration Insider

March 2012

What We Can Learn From Jeremy Lin

If you've heard the name Jeremy Lin in the last few months, it's no surprise. As of this writing, the New York Knicks basketball player now has more than 607,493 Twitter followers and 1,327,457 Facebook likes to his fan page. Impressive stats for this young man, both on and off the court!

Whether it's in sports or business, we can all enjoy learning from great examples (even if we're not basketball fans or have no idea of who Jeremy is). This article titledWhat Small Businesses Can Learn from Jeremy Lin gives five good tips that any business, large or small, can adopt. They are...

  • Hard work and dedication pay off.
  • Grab opportunity.
  • Strive to be the unexpection exception.
  • Focus on your strengths as long as they contribute to the team.
  • Check the ego at the door and help others shine.

All good attributes for any team that wants to play together well. Check out the article for more information and get your team ready to rock!

Sincerely,

Michael Ciabattari
President

[email protected]

Microsoft Silver Certified  

Status Quo Is Bad For Business

If your sales are good and customers are happy, then there isn't anything wrong. If it's not broken, there is nothing to fix, right? Actually, that's not right. Holly Green, a Forbes Contributor, points out how the status quo stifles success in "Anti-innovation: 10 Proven Ways Not to Innovate".

While every one of her top 10 tips for stifling innovation are shining examples, one of my favorites has to be "We've always done it that way". We have all encountered this attitude at one workplace or another and maybe even used that one ourselves. This particular bad attitude has to be one of easiest ways to put your products on the endangered species list and your business at risk of disappearing.

"We've always done it this way" means whatever worked back then and should work now. The Model T was a great car back then but it doesn't have the same efficiency on today's roads. Always using the same marketing campaign, the same production schedule, or releasing the same product year after year will prohibit you from seeing ways to become more efficient, productive, or provide better quality products. Keep thinking of ways to keep your products relevant or people will forget about you and your products. Check out the other tips from Green and begin to eliminate as many non-innovating attitudes and practices as you can in your business.

Cloud-Based Document Scanning Solution for Microsoft SharePoint 2010

Finally, a Complete Document Capture Solution Designed Exclusively with the Needs of the Line of Business Owner in Mind for your Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Content System. Scan, Index and OCR documents anywhere, anytime from a web-browser using CAPSYS CAPTURE. Check out a unique On-Premise or Cloud-based data and document scanning solution from CAPSYS Technologies. The CAPSYS CAPTURE SharePoint 2010 QSX release module copies document images, eDocuments, meta data and other content types from CAPSYS CAPTURE into the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 repository.

Download an Overview of CAPSYS CAPTURE for more details on the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 integration or visit http://www.capsystech.com.

Video Spotlight:

Get to Know IDT Better:

Watch this brief Interview of IDT President,Michael Ciabattari, talking about IDT solutions.

In Case You Missed It:

Did You Miss our "Benefits of Web-based Document Capture for the Transportation and Logistics Industry"? You can watch the posted recording here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHtr019ZJyc.

In This Issue
Status Quo Is Bad For Business
Cloud-Based Document Scanning Solution
Video Spotlight
SharePoint Described In Plain English
SharePoint 2010 Online Service Update
SQL Server Reporting Services and SharePoint Go Together Like PB&J
Windows 8 Preview: Using SkyDrive
Microsoft's Tortoise and the Hare Approach to the Cloud
Tips and Tricks
Contact Us

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www.idtconsulting.com

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Fun Facts

Recent statistics show the average 21 year old has spent 5,000 hours playing video games, has exchanged 250,000 e-mails, instant and text messages and has spent 10,000 hours on the mobile phone according to Mediabistro. That's incredible to say the least.

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The first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83.

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More than 100 million Americans watched online video content on an average day in 2011 according to comScore. This is a 43% increase over 2010. What kind of increase will we see at the end of 2012?

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"You can't file a conversation." - Author Unknown

Looking to Migrate or Convert from Paper Documents to Digital?

Document Imaging is for Work, Paper is for Play. IDT's Digital Document Scanning & Conversion Services can quickly reduce your paper document backlog.

Turn to IDT Conversion Services for help.

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SharePoint Described In Plain English

Have you ever tried to explain Microsoft SharePoint to someone? If you have, you are well aware of just how difficult that is. Since SharePoint really isn't something most people are used to it is sometimes just easier to show them what it does instead of trying to explain it. Here is a unique video that shows a quick and easy example of what you can do with SharePoint. If this sounds like something you want to implement for your company we would be happy to help you get started. Contact us today.

SharePoint 2010 Online Service Update

In the latest service update from Microsoft for SharePoint Online several key enhancements are taking place:

  1. Enterprise Readiness - With some changes taking place to allow for the number of active directory objects to increase from 20,000 to 500,000, larger organizations will now be able to use the online version of SharePoint.
  2. Recycle Bin Enhancements - With enhancements made to how the recycle bin information is handled, users can now take a more self-service approach to restoring accidently deleted information quickly.

For links on these enhancements and others, check out this full blog post from the Microsoft SharePoint team SharePoint Online: Service Update. If you are interested in these features or would like to find out more about how to optimize SharePoint for you contact [email protected] or call us at 630.875.1100.

SQL Server Reporting Services and SharePoint Go Together Like PB&J

If you have made it this far, you realize that is a lot of S's in the title! If you are familiar with using SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) you know that you need to go to a Report Manager Site to access your Microsoft Dynamics� GP reports. Chances are that you also have an instance of Microsoft SharePoint Server running as well. Did you know that you can make your life a little easier by integrating SharePoint and SRSS? By switching your deployment method of SSRS from native mode to SharePoint Integrated Mode you can take advantage of some great features such as the ability to publish/upload reports, report models, resources, and shared data source files to a SharePoint library, allowing your teams to easily work together. Thanks to a blog post with screenshots from the Microsoft Dynamics GP Support and Services Blog, Moving SQL Server Reporting Services from Native Mode to SharePoint Integrated Mode, it shouldn't be difficult to implement. If you would like assistance with this technical PB&J, or you would like to receive more information about this, please contact [email protected] or call us at 630.875.1100

Windows 8 Preview: Using SkyDrive

You may have heard of this thing referred to as "the cloud". All joking aside there are some great benefits to using the cloud to manage files and that is exactly what Microsoft's SkyDrive does. While this program has been around in various forms for a few years now, it seems to have found a home in the upcoming release of Windows 8. Two of the program managers at Microsoft recently demoed some of the great features you can expect. In this video you will see that it appears that they have found a way to reduce the difficulties of working with files that reside in the cloud. If you would like to read more about this you can check out Connecting your apps, files, PCs and devices to the cloud with SkyDrive and Windows 8 in a more detailed blog post from the Windows engineering team.

Microsoft's Tortoise and the Hare Approach to the Cloud

Microsoft believes that the cloud reduces costs, improves deployment, and provides an innovative way to connect data. While it has a lofty goal to put all of its ERP (Enterprise Resouce Planning) offerings on the cloud, starting with Microsoft Dynamics� NAV, it is taking the tortoise approach and making a slow and steady race to the finish line. Recognizing the importance of having options that uniquely fit each business, Microsoft wants to provide choices with on-premises, partner-hosted, and Microsoft-hosted ERP options.

Later this year, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 will be released with both on-premises and cloud options. Future releases will come cloud-first. After the NAV release, Microsoft Dynamics� GP will follow, although a deadline has not been indicated. Once all of the ERP offerings are available with on-premises and cloud options, Microsoft intends to release two major updates a year, as it does with Microsoft Dynamics� CRM.

Some of Microsoft's customers are ready for the cloud though and Microsoft is taking the hare approach to provide them with the cloud assets they want today. New datasets and apps in the Azure Marketplace are available for those who are ready to use them.

Read more about Microsoft's tortoise and hare race toward cloud technology in this article Microsoft's plan to bring its ERP users slowly but surely to the cloud posted on ZDNet by Mary Jo Foley. If you are ready for the cloud today or want to plan your approach, contact [email protected] or call us at 630.875.1100 for guidance. We can coach you to the finish line whether you are a tortoise or hare.

Tips and Tricks

Increase Your Productivity in Microsoft� Office Word

Speed up the time it takes for you to work within a Microsoft Word document by using these 5 shortcut keys:

  1. CTRL + B - This will bold the text you have highlighted.
  2. CTRL + I - This will italize the text you have highlighted.
  3. CTRL + U - This will underline the text you have highlighted.
  4. CTRL + SHIFT + D - This will double underline the text you have highlighted.
  5. F12 - When you hit this key, this will launch the "Save As" function.

Get Noticed with QR Codes

You may be seeing those square codes called QR (Quick Response) codes in retail stores, but this is a trend that is not just for retail. Many small-to-medium businesses are getting in on this action. In a recent study conducted by comScore, more than 20.1 million people scanned QR codes with their mobile phones in the 3 month period studied in 2011. So, what can you use these codes for? You can have them link to a promotion, a digital download, a webcast, a product page, a sign-up page for communications, etc. You not only have numerous ways on what you have them link to, but also to how you place them. Get creative - you can put them on business cards, signs, advertisements, postcards, emails, t-shirts - the possibilities are endless! Get started by creating a QR code for free on one of these sites: www.delivr.com, qrcode.kaywa.com, or www.QRstuff.com and start getting noticed.

The companies of IDT (Integrated Document Technologies, Inc.) support small, mid-market and enterprise firms in achieving maximum efficiency by offering fully integrated ECM, ERP and CRM solutions.

 

Founded in 1992, IDT's initial focus was helping companies effectively apply automated enterprise content management solutions to eliminate paper and better manage every business transaction. With the inception of IDT Consulting in 2001, the company offers ERP and CRM solutions and in-depth knowledge of how financial systems work and how to streamline the accounting process. Today, IDT Consulting is a Silver Certified Microsoft Partner specializing in Dynamics GP, Dynamics CRM, and Microsoft SharePoint. Visit our website at www.idtconsulting.com.