A few months ago, we kicked off a new blog series where we ask some of our IT experts what they like about certain technologies, as well as the vendors/partners behind those technologies. After all, the IT landscape is an expansive one. Knowing which solutions are ideal for which scenarios is the first step in turning IT into a real asset. Perhaps just as important is knowing which solutions are backed by strong partnerships that prioritize the customer over profit. Our hope is that this blog series gives you a glimpse into why we choose the technology and partners that we do.

Microsoft just might be the most well-known and ubiquitous name in technology. Few companies have the experience and presence that they do. They’re active in literally every facet of tech. Rather than trying to share thoughts on their entire solution catalog, this post will focus more on the scope of our partnership with them, which is centered on their cloud-based productivity offerings. To help me in this endeavor, I enlisted InterWorks IT Practice Delivery Director Aaron Richardson and Systems Engineer Kody Bradley.

Premier Performance at the Best Value

Q: What do we at InterWorks like about Microsoft technology?

Richardson: Microsoft is a standard for most of the IT world, and the ability to use and integrate their products to fit our clients’ needs just makes them a natural fit.

Bradley: They have competitive pricing for really great solutions. Nothing really beats Exchange for email. Having it in the cloud provides so much more redundancy and features for a very low cost. The feature set is insanely large, and utilizing the full stack of Office/Exchange/Windows/Teams, etc. has never been easier or more powerful.

Running your own Exchange server is a liability at this point. Having to self-manage security updates and mailbox databases is daunting and very often not worth the amount of effort for the number of users you are supporting – not to mention how much knowledge you need to gain/utilize in order to manage them. Offloading this workload onto Microsoft by utilizing Exchange Online just make so much sense, and I’ve not heard one single story of anyone that had any regrets about moving their Exchange workload to the cloud. Maybe they are out there, but they’re few and far between.

Q: Why and when would we recommend Microsoft to clients? 

Richardson: Most clients run on a Windows environment, and the products that Microsoft builds are targeted at performing better on those machines. Knowing our clients’ business needs as well as the products Microsoft builds means that suggesting Microsoft products is a pretty easy choice for us.

Bradley: I’m focusing mostly on cloud offerings here because 95% of the time (or more), people are already utilizing Microsoft tools, so our recommendation is usually some version of “move these workloads to the cloud.” Most often, we recommend Exchange Online anytime we see/run into a client running their own Exchange server on-premises. Or less likely, they are utilizing a less feature-rich email solution like SmarterMail or other POP3/IMAP services.

Unmatched Support from Microsoft and InterWorks

Q: What do our clients like about Microsoft?

Richardson: Clients typically like the usability as well as the upgrades and support that both InterWorks and Microsoft provide when you subscribe or purchase their hardware or software. Microsoft continues to improve on things and add to their offerings. While you may purchase one thing at the beginning of the year, it doesn’t mean that’s what you are limited to by the end. The additional products that get added and simply provide additional value to what you are already spending make their SaaS model very appealing.

Bradley: Familiarity with the product is a big one. People have used Windows for most of their lives at this point, and Office has always been the go-to for documents, spreadsheets and presentations. That mostly transfers over to all of their cloud offerings. This may be a bit introspective, but our Marketing Team at InterWorks is a great example of this. Many of them utilize MacOS for their operating system but still utilize Office for a lot of other purposes. Part of this might be because those are just the recommended tools at InterWorks, but part of it might be because Office is what they’re most comfortable with. InterWorks is pretty open to giving our people the tools they prefer to work as they please, but we don’t really get requests asking for different tools that do what Office does.

Q: What makes our partnership with Microsoft a good one?

Richardson: Microsoft has made it easy to partner with and distribute their hardware and software in multiple ways. Our choice is by utilizing the indirect CSP model with our distributors. This allows us the convenience and expertise of being a Microsoft Gold Partner while also being able to lean on a much bigger organization to help make the management and acquisition of Microsoft products a very simple process both internally and for our clients. All this means that we can spend the majority of our time learning, implementing or supporting our clients in a way that reflects the InterWorks support model in the best possible light.

Bradley: The biggest thing is that the solutions work great for our clients. We have a ton of in-house knowledge and history with Microsoft, but honestly, the solutions are just solid. The speed of development has picked up a lot, and Microsoft went from a product/technology that didn’t change much to something that changes so often it can be a little hard to keep up with. I personally think that’s a huge strength for the product suite, as is the ability to offload your hardware to the cloud instead of running an on-premises email server/chat server/etc. You gain SO MUCH without having to deal with a ton of security concerns in allowing general internet traffic onto your network (something you have to account for when running an on-premises Exchange server).

Want to Learn More About Microsoft?

The thoughts shared here are only the tip of the iceberg as to why we like Microsoft for cloud-based productivity. If you want to learn more or simply want to talk with someone about how to implement Microsoft cloud solutions within your organizations, we’d love to chat.

Contact Us

The post Quick Q&A: Why We Like Microsoft for Cloud-Based Productivity appeared first on InterWorks.

Most IT service providers have a set menu of offerings you can choose from. They define exactly how their technology will be delivered, and they don’t make exceptions. That makes sense for them, but it doesn’t really take the needs of the customer into account. The customers’ needs are usually tied to broader goals, and often there’s more than one way to achieve them. What does it take to find the best course of action? It’s all about knowing the people.

We Take the Time to Listen

The primary way our service model is different from other IT service providers is that we listen first. We are focused on customizing offerings after hearing what you need. Many IT service providers come in with the technology hammer, and everything looks like a nail to them. They recommend rolling out several components when there may not be a need to deliver a comprehensive solution. In reality, the need at hand sometimes doesn’t require a major implementation. It may just be centered around one critical component of the platform.

We would rather take the time to understand your needs because it allows us to deliver the results that are right for you. Accurately assessing the need before making a recommendation gives our customers confidence that we’ll be able to provide the right solutions for the long haul.

After we’ve identified the appropriate solution, the considerations around pricing can be important as well. We may be talking to someone who needs to see a flat-rate pricing option. Others may prefer a master agreement where there’s a budget in place with an option to go over on the service hours, if necessary. In those cases, if hours are not used, they can just roll over into the next month.

Another model that customers sometimes prefer is break/fix. In that model, we handle the scenario only when they determine that our involvement is needed. These pricing models can shape the nature of how we go about implementing the solution as well.

Cutting Through the Tech Noise

A person used to be able to google a tech topic and consistently see the best solution at the top of their search results. If it wasn’t a single solution, they’d have a decent chance at piecing together what they need. These days, there is a lot of bogus information showing up in search results and even more companies playing the SEO game. That creates a ton of excess noise in the buying process. The answers are there, but you have to dig through so many layers to get to them, and it can be very daunting to successfully sift through them all.

We live in this space on a day-to-day basis. Our customers rely on our ability to filter the options for them, but they also trust that we’ll listen to them as we go through that process. This allows us to make the right tweaks along the way.

Easy Opt-Out

We work with customers of all sizes but have grown to work with larger customers over time. We tend to see the larger organizations surprised at our willingness to give them options. That’s because most IT vendors just have a box of things that they’re willing to offer. They want to lock you into a contract that requires you to pay even if you no longer need what they provide. Those scenarios often create conflict among the end user, the executive and the architect. When relationships have that kind of stress, it’s not good for the long term.

There was a situation recently where a customer had some confusion about the way we were handling their flat rate. They noticed a 30-day option in the terms and thought it meant that we reserved the right to drop them as a customer after that period of time. We were able to clarify that it meant the opposite. The language was actually giving them an option to part with InterWorks if they decided that made the most sense at that point in time. They were pleasantly surprised and said they’d never seen that before. It never even occurred to them that a vendor would give them the option to get out of something easily.

More Than Just an IT Vendor

When purchasing technology, it’s not always about the latest and greatest. It’s really important to also understand what makes the most financial sense. We take the time to understand great technology options at multiple price points. This allows us the additional flexibility to respond with more options. There are lots of IT vendors out there that will act like only a few options exist, and they’re the ones that have already sent in the proposal. InterWorks is known for tailoring our recommendations regardless of where we’re at in the discussion.

We have a basic list of technologies that we like to recommend because we know they’re reliable and easier to support at a large scale. If a customer comes to us and requests that we look at some different hardware for them, we can take care of it. It may take some time to wrap our minds around the adjustments, but we’re on it. We don’t ever want to limit our customers’ choice of hardware.

How Can We Meet Your IT Needs?

Whether it’s general consulting on how an IT department can help the overall business or targeted help on specific technologies, we’re ready to take on the IT challenges you’re dealing with today. Are your biggest needs in the area of security? That tends to be top of mind for most of our customers. Maybe you’ve got the security piece figured out, but you need to get a better handle on virtualization, wireless or cloud options. Let’s cut through the noise together and come up with the best option for your current needs.

Contact Us

The post How InterWorks’ IT Service Model Is Different appeared first on InterWorks.

“ShoreTel measures customer experience using the globally recognized Net Promoter Score (NPS®) to drive improvements in customer loyalty, ensure profitable growth and recognize our stellar partners. 

Your score surpasses what is considered world-class level of customer care in the industry. Your consistent performance in delivering an exceptional all-around customer experience is a tribute to your dedication to our ShoreTel customers.”

We greatly appreciate Don’s kind words and are thrilled to be setting a new, elevated partner standard in customer care. The credit, as always, goes to our hard-working team. They’re the ones assisting clients day in and day out with their ShoreTel solutions. Their expert technical knowledge and friendly, around-the-clock support are what solidifies our reputation as a top-tier IT services provider. 

Our Recipe for Success

How exactly does an IT company surpass world-class customer care? We believe it starts with our culture. We built our culture around delivering the best possible solutions with the most talented individuals in the industry, all while being approachable and relatable. From day one, our primary concerns have been making clients happy and equipping them for success. This means actually caring about our clients’ businesses, giving them the products and services they really need, and above all, forging lasting relationships. 

Like any good relationship, ours require hard work and understanding. It’s this understanding that enables us to be the best at what we do. Continually earning recognition from partners like ShoreTel tells us something – it tells us we’re doing things right.

Interested in learning more about our VOIP and unified communications capabilities with ShoreTel? Contact us today!

About ShoreTel

ShoreTel is the only provider of brilliantly simple unified business communications solutions that consistently leads the industry in customer satisfaction and lowest total cost of ownership. In addition to an award-winning, premise-based, all-in-one IP phone system with unified communications and contact center capabilities, ShoreTel offers cloud-based communications. ShoreTel Sky delivers businesses of all sizes proven and secure hosted VoIP, hosted unified communications (UC) and hosted contact center services.

About InterWorks

InterWorks is a total IT services and data consulting firm specializing in business solutions that remove distractions and improve efficiency. Partnering with industry leading names such as Dell, VMware, Ruckus Wireless, ShoreTel and ESET, InterWorks offers the hardware and know-how for any IT need. Through implementation of cutting-edge technology, application of expert knowledge and dedication to absolute customer satisfaction, InterWorks proudly maintains the reputation of a premier, all-in-one IT services provider.

The post InterWorks Surpasses World-Class Customer Care Benchmark for ShoreTel Services appeared first on InterWorks.

Download the latest release of Open Manage for ESXi from http://support.dell.com

Enable remote support on the host.

1. Hit F2 and login to the host
2. Arrow down to the troubleshooting optioins
3. Make sure the Remote Tech Support (SSH) is enable
4. Make sure all of the virtual machines are shut down and put the host into maintenance mode
5. Copy the downloaded version of Dell’s open manage to a location on the datastore
   I used the vSphere client just because it was the easiest way I knew
6. Click Summary on the Host and right click on the datastore
7. Click browse datastore – you will get a new window and there you can choose to upload a file
8. Simply pick the file you want to upload and  click open
9. Open the application you will use for the SSH connection – I used Putty
10. Connect to the host using its Management IP
11. Login as root
12. type ls -a
13. cd vmfs/volumes -this will take you to the your working directory
14. ls -a This should display your datastore 
15. cd “the name of your datastore”  ex: cd datastore1
16. ls -a This should display all the files you have located on the data store
17. esxupdate –bundle “the name of the file you uploaded” update – This will start the process
    ex:  esxupdate –bundle OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-6.3.0-2075.VIB-ESX41i_A00.8.zip update  
18. You should see the following occur:
    Unpacking cross_oem-dell-open.. ######################################## [100%]
    Removing packages :oem-dell-o.. ######################################## [100%]
    Installing packages :cross_oe.. ######################################## [100%]
    Running [cim-install.sh]…ok.Running [vmkmod-install.sh]…ok.Running [/sbin/esxcfg-secpolicy -p /etc/vmware/secpolicy]…ok.The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective. 
19. Reboot the host and you are done

The post Installing Dell OpenManage on ESXi 4.1.0 using SSH appeared first on InterWorks.

1. Download the CLI tools from http://www.vmware.com and install them. If you already have them make sure you have the current release or errors will still occur.
2. Download the OpenManage package from http://support.dell.com make sure to search for “oem-dell-openmanage-esxi”.
3. Verify you have a connection to the host, I used the vSphere Client just to make sure since you need all the machines shutdown and the host in maintenance mode before starting.
4. You will need to edit the oem-dell-openmanage-esxi_6.2.0-A00.zipmetadata.zipvmware.xml file so you will need to extract the folder and the zip it back up before attempting to install.  The reason for the edit is because the build they have listed in this file is still 4.0.0 and you are using 4.1.0 so you will find 3 places that will require you to make that change.  Be sure the file structure does not change from the original download from Dell.
5. Open the VMware vSphere CLI cmd console you installed. and change your directory to the following location
   Windows 32bit C:Program FilesVMwareVMware vSphere CLIPerlbin>
   Windows 64bit C:Program Files (x86)VMwareVMware vSphere CLIPerlbin>
6. Run the following command
   vihostupdate –server -i -b   ex: vihostupdate –server 192.168.0.1 -i -b c:oem-dell-openmanage-esxi_6.2.0-A00.zip
7. Login as root
8. You should see the following once it completes  
   Please wait patch installation is in progress …
   The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
9. Reboot and you are done.

Hope this helps

The post Installing Dell OpenManage on ESXi 4.1.0 using vSphere CLI appeared first on InterWorks.

SEPM, Symantec Endpoint Protection Management Console

If you are one of those people who partition your server hard drives and have run up against the problem of not wanting to expand a drive but need more space on one of them, this might help you get some of that space back.  Recently we had a client that had a 2003 server with a C partition of 16GB which was almost full and creating issue with backups.  After looking around we found that SEPM was taking up almost 6GB of that space for itself, the decision was to remove it and install it onto a different hard drive on the same server.

The steps for performing these are very simple and just require you to back up some files and the database. 

1. Create a folder on a removable drive or a separate drive from the existing install to store the backups.
2. Create a backup of the database using the database backup and restore function provided under Programs/Symantec EndPoint Protection Manager
3. Open the application click backup database and point it to the location of the folder you just created
4. Create a backup of the Keystore_.jks file located in the current drive install location Program FilesSymantecSymantec Endpoint Protection ManagerServer Private Key Backup
5. Create a backup of the Sylink.xml file as well by making a copy and pasting it to the folder you created for backups

The reason behind backing these up is there is a keystorePass located in the Keystore_.jks file that you will need to make sure you are able to restore things correctly.  The sylink.xml file contains the domain id which would be required if you didn’t perform the database backup or it did not create a successful back up to restore from.

1. You now just need to uninstall the current SEPM installation from the Add/Remove Programs option or Programs and Features in the control panel depending on your server version
2. Although it does not state a reboot is required after remove I suggest it simply because of everything it does with IIS
3. You can now install the software on the drive that has the space available to support it, but remember to use the same setting for installation here as you did when you performed the initial install.
4. During the install you will be prompted for the password encryption you had on the old server which if installed in simple mode is the same password as what  you used to login to the management console.
5. After completing the install you will need to login into the admin console and import the server certificate.
6. Click on Admin – Servers – Manage Server Certificate
7. You will then go through the process and choose Update the Server Certificate
8. Make sure to choose the same type of certificate you were in this case .jks and browse to the file you backed up
9. You will need to enter the password that was stored in the keystore_.jks file you can just copy and paste it from the text file
10. You will just need to restart the service for the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager and log back into the console. 
11. To restore the database you will need to stop the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager service again.
12. You will also need to copy your backup of the database to the following directory.  The drive letter you installed :Program FilesSymantecSymantec Endpoint Protection Managerdatabackup
13. Open the backup and restore function again and select the file that is available for restore
14. That should complete the process so you will just need to restart the service, if it doesn’t I had to run the database configuration wizard again and the import the certificate again for the move to work.
15. The last step once you can login and see all your clients is to have them update, you just need to select the group they are in and right click
16. Choose run command on group and then Update Content, I actually has to restart the service on the client for it to start communication again but it was not consistent for each machine.  I would recommend restarting each client just to be sure.

The post Moving Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager appeared first on InterWorks.

1. Reset IE back to default settings, under tool/internet options/advanced

2. If you don’t Firefox it then download it and install. Set Firefox as the default browser, both from the Control Panel and from Firefox (Tools, Options, Advanced, General, “Check Now” under System Defaults)

3. Open IE again and go through through the setup again, make it the default browser again.  Links in Outlook should be working again. 

If you have removed recently Google Chrome here are some steps that should get you back to working as well. 

1. Click Start, click Run, type Regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.

2.Locate the following:HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClasses.html

3. File menu, click Export.

 4. Export the registry file and click save it somewhere of your choice

 5. Then modify the value for it by right clicking on it delete ChromeHTML and enter htmlfile

6. Remember to back them up prior but perform the same steps if they show up in the .htm and .shtml keys if the keys show up in your registry.



The post Restrictions this operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer appeared first on InterWorks.

Windows Vista and Windows 7
Start-> type; outlook.exe /resetnavpane

Windows XP
Start-> Run; outlook.exe /resetnavpane

The post Outlook “Can not open window” appeared first on InterWorks.

One of the steps I followed was from the following site.

http://www.slipstick.com/problems/redx.asp#show

The other steps I found were to make sure that I didn’t have the image place holder box checked under the advanced editor options within a message and to make sure I didn’t have it set to block images under the Trust Center – Automatic Download 

I was also told it was an Internet Explorer issue and that I simply need to empty my temporary internet files to fix it.

The statement about being an Internet Explorer issue got me thinking and so I started looking through the settings to see what might cause Outlook issues.  I opened one of the message in a browser just to test and it still would not display the image.  After all the searching and registry tweaks I was asked to it was a simple fix.  I only had to remove the check from the work offline option under Internet Explorer – Tools.  Once I unchecked it all the images started working again and things went back to normal.

Hope one of these will help if you have this issue occurring.

The post Red X on images in Outlook 2007 appeared first on InterWorks.

I found an article stating that is was because of a e-mail address that was in one of the previous messages before she received it.  The quick and easy workaround was to click reply on the message and click “Format Text” and choose “Rich Text, or Plain Text” and then send the message.  Apparently Outlook doesn’t like messages that contain a e-mail addresses that look something like this; mhtml:{d89988d-dc34-56n2-mki1-156audu5u7ac}mid://099878999/! x-stw:mailto:myusername@mydomain.com.  While this doesn’t give a good reason why this happens it will make it possible for them to get their mail out as needed.

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