Migrate from Mediacom Email to Gmail

I am writing this post out of sympathy. I don’t have Mediacom anything, I never will be a customer of that company again, and I have never used their email. However, I do live in an area where mediacom is the only cable company and as such I hear a lot of complaints about their email system. Also any quick search will show you how much people hate that company. So this post is here to help people solve at least part of the problem that comes along with being a mediacom customer. Please share this with anyone you know who has a @mchsi.com email address.

Before we begin, I would also suggest to you that after you migrate your email to gmail you look into alternative internet providers. The one I use here in Iowa City is Qwest DSL. Back a few year ago, medicom internet was deffinately fast than DSL (assuming you actually had an internet connection with mediacom), but Qwest has been making some serious upgrades to their network and in my experience my DSL is much faster than cable modem.

The first step is setting up your free Gmail account. This is very easy. To sign up for your account visit the Gmail Signup Page and fill in the required information. You will be asked for a secondary email address when you sign up. I would recommend using a work address, but you may also use your @mchsi.com email address.

After you have signed up for your account you will be directed to your new inbox. The Gmail inbox is very clean and easy to get used to. To begin the migration of your old email click on the settings link at the top of your inbox. (See picture below)

Next click the “Accounts and Import” tab. Select “Always reply from default email address”. After that click the “Add POP3 email account” button.

After you click the “Add POP3 email account” button a popup window will appear asking you for your email address. Input your @mchsi.com email address and click next.

Next enter your password in the dialog and then click “Add Account”.

That is everything you need to do in order to get Gmail set to download your mediacom email. You start seeing the emails that are being imported from your mediacom email appear in your gmail inbox within a few minutes. If you have a lot of email in your mediacom account this process may take some time.

That’s it. All your emails from your mediacom email will be in Gmail and any future email you receive to your @mchsi.com email address will arrive in Gmail. All email sent through your gmail account will use your new email address.

You can also setup gmail with other devices like smartphones and email software like outlook.

Setup Gmail on your phone: http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/
Setup Gmail with Outlook: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=23333

Let me know if you have any problems or questions.

Google, you’re so good to us

It’s been a great day. I just got home after watching the Mumlers for the first time in the most hospitable dive bar in Missouri (it’s non smoking). I opened my email and learned that Google just slashed its additional online storage fees! This is great news! I was about to have to pay $50 for the third year in a row to support my Picasa addiction. Instead, for $20 I get 80 gbs of additional storage.

This is wonderful timing considering my increasing dependence on Google Docs and the growing draw of the new DROID. Or am I actually more lured by Verizon…nah, it’s probably my disdain for at&t. The point is that Android 2.0 may be tempting enough to finally cut the cord with my iPhone. Decisions, decisions…

In case you don’t have Google additional storage but you do have a Gmail account or a Picasa account, you really need to hop on the bandwagon. How can reject 20gb of additional storage for 5 bucks a year?! Time to bust out that digital camera and start sharing pictures as they’re meant to be shared — not as email attachments.

Google Apps Account Renaming Tool

Yesterday a client of Atlas Bay asked me if it was possible to rename some of their user accounts in Google Apps. After a bit of digging I found that it was possible, but only using the Google’s provisioning API. Unfortunately, the provisioning API is only available for Google Apps Premier Edition users. I decided that the easiest way to complete this renaming of the user accounts was to build a tool using Google’s .Net SDK. After a few minutes I developed a simple command application that will allow me to rename any user account in a Google Apps domain. Using the tools is simple, and I have made it available for anyone to use. Here is how you complete an account rename.

First, you need to turn on the provisioning API on your Google Apps account. To do this, click on the Users and groups tab in your domain administration site. Next, check the box called “Enable provisioning API.”

After the API is enabled you can use my tool to rename an account. If you are running Windows, Internet Explorer, and have .Net 3.5 installed simply click here to run the application. If you are on Firefox or another browser you can download and install the application here.

When the application opens you will be prompted to enter your domain, administrator email address, and password. As a note, this application is running on your computer and all data is being transmitted securely to Google so all your data should be safe.

After you have entered your administration credentials you will be prompted to enter the old username and new username. After you click enter, the request will be sent to rename the account. Be careful because there is no confirmation. However, if you make a mistake you can always just fix it with this tool.

After the account has been renamed you will receive a message that the operation completed successfully and asking you if you would like to rename another account using your same administrator credentials. If there is an error you will be told, however there is no detailed information about the cause of the error.

The only thing that is left is to turn off the provisioning API in your Google Apps administration site and you are done.

In case you would like to modify this program yourself here is the source code. You will need to download and reference the .Net library for the Google Data API here. You will have to reference Google.GData.Apps, Google.GData.Client, and Google.GData.Extensions in your project.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Google.GData.Apps;

namespace AtlasBay.GoogleAppsTools
{
 class Program
 {
 static void Main(string[] args)
 {
 Console.WriteLine("Domain:");
 string domain = Console.ReadLine();
 Console.WriteLine("Administrator Email:");
 string adminEmail = Console.ReadLine();
 Console.WriteLine("Administrator Password:");
 string adminPass = Console.ReadLine();
 RenameUser(domain, adminEmail, adminPass);
 }

 static void RenameUser(string domain, string adminEmail, string adminPassword)
 {
 Console.WriteLine("Old Username:");
 string oldUsername = Console.ReadLine();
 Console.WriteLine("New Username:");
 string newUsername = Console.ReadLine();
 try
 {
 AppsService service = new AppsService(domain, adminEmail, adminPassword);
 UserEntry entry = service.RetrieveUser(oldUsername);
 entry.Login.UserName = newUsername;
 service.UpdateUser(entry);
 Console.WriteLine("Rename Successful. Perform another rename? y/n");
 }
 catch
 {
 Console.WriteLine("An error occurred while performing the update. Try another? y/n");
 }
 var key = Console.ReadKey();
 if (key.Key == ConsoleKey.Y)
 {
 Console.WriteLine();
 RenameUser(domain, adminEmail, adminPassword);
 }
 }
 }
}

This application and code are provided as is. The application works on my machine, but you are using this at your own risk.

Radiohead strikes again

On March 2, 2008 I downloaded thirty six amazing tracks for $5 (nin’s ghosts i-iv: still available for $5 on the nin site). A few months earlier I downloaded Radiohead’s In Rainbows and Saul Williams’ The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust for free. Musicians were finally winning, I thought to myself. Unfortunately that was short lived. The online distribution model did not change the tide of the music world. So much for thinking that artists would no longer burn and package a ton of albums that would then be thrown into armies of trucks and shipped to the far corners of the world. So much for a future with one less genre of giant cardboard cutouts telling us what to buy.

How times had changed.

For years I was set on not buying media from iTunes. I had all the CDs I thought I wanted and didn’t think it was worth dishing out $1 a song if I didnt get the media in the mail. Over time I did buy a few songs and episodes that I had to have it at that moment.

In 2008, a few months after getting my Zune, I broke down. My roommates’ convinced me that it was pretty pointless to not have the Zune service since they also had Zunes. They couldn’t forward great songs without going to a third party service like Grooveshark, which of course, they were unwilling to do. We tried to share songs over the Zune’s wifi, but since I didn’t subscribe to the service, I could never get the songs they sent. Looking back on it today, I don’t know how I lived without it. I ‘rent’ over half of my music collection for a few bucks a month and also get 10 free downloads. Well worth it.

Today I listen to Porcupine Tree and Pink Floyd on my Zune and my Karma Police Station on Pandora on my iPhone and can’t remember the last time I bought an album. There are a couple albums I am going to buy on the Amazon Marketplace (Metallica’s Black Album and DJ Dangermouse’s Grey Album) as soon as I get around to it.

A few hours ago Radiohead released a new song online: Harry Patch (in memory of). Even though the single song they released is a little pricey, the proceeds are for a cause. Maybe if this song takes off more musicians will think twice before sending another dozen tracks to the plastic factory.

Update: Girl Talk released his latest album following the In Rainbows Method – pay what you want to download. http://bit.ly/13zmaN

RescueTime Version 2.0

About a month ago I realized that my RescueTime dashboard was no longer listing any of the time I spent on either my desktop or laptop. Tony Wright immediately suggested that I had changed my password online but had not updated it on the client app, thereby leaving the log of the work tracked sitting on my computer. Since the client app only has an online dashboard, I was sure it was something wrong with the tracking software, not the reporting software. The solution to my problem was as simple as logging in with my correct password and non of my time worked was lost.

Tony also told me that a couple months ago RescueTime released version 2, complete with tray icon notification and more advanced reporting tools. If RescueTime is as useful to you as it is for Nate and me, you should really download the newest version at RescueTime.com. If you haven’t used RescueTime, I really suggest downloading it and checking it out…now to work on a product review, to highlight the awesomeness of this app. Thanks Tony for creating such great app!

Open Letter to Napa Non-Profits

Unfortunately last year I didn’t hear about Craigslist’s Bootcamp for non-profits until it passed. Here is the letter I just sent out to all the Non-Profits and Non-Profit service companies I have in my rolodex (err, Gmail history — I’ve never owned nor intend to own a rolodex):

Hi Napa Non Profits,

I meant to send this announcement out earlier. Below is an email reminder to sign up for Craigslist’s Boot Camp — a series of workshops designed to help bay area non profits reach their audiences. The workshops cover a range of topics from strategic planning to locating opportunities in this economy and social entrepreneurship  (you can see all 24 workshops here: link). I think this is a great opportunity for any Napa Non Profit. Please forward this to anyone else you think may be interested.

For more tips on how to make the most of your resources or improve your non profit, you can follow us at: www.atlasbay.com or our twitter account.

Alejandro Oyarzabal

Excerpt from Craiglsit Boot Camp email:

BOOT CAMP IS ONLY FOUR DAYS AWAY - REGISTER NOW! Breaking news: Key team members from AllforGood.org (an open source application created by volunteers in the tech world that allows you to find and share volunteer activities) will be doing a special session: Smarter Service in a Web 2.0 World: Introducing All for Good Presenters: Adam Sah, Jonathan Greenblatt, and Susan Nesbitt Learn about how your organization can use All for Good, a new open source platform that helps distribute your volunteer opportunities across the web and on social networks. All for Good engineers and co-founders will provide an overview of the platform and related Apps, walk through steps for you to get started today, and give a sneak peek at upcoming features. So join us, Craig Newmark, Arianna Huffington, Ami Dar, Michael Krasny, and thousands of others this Saturday as we join forces to build stronger and healthier communities. See you at Boot Camp! -The Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp Team For questions or help with registration, please email: bootcamp@craigslistfoundation.org.

Google Apps Sync for Outlook

Today Google issued a heavy blow in the fight for small business, non-profit, and education email systems. Google announced that they will soon be releasing a tool that will allow Google Apps Premier and Education users to synchronize all their Outlook data instantly and quickly with their Google Apps account. This new tool will behave very similar to how Outlook interacts with Microsoft Exchange server and will feel no different for users.

As somebody who has setup numerous deployments of Exchange and Google Apps I can tell you that this is the one thing my customers have been waiting for. Many organizations have been using Exchange Server since its early days. All of their employees are using Outlook to manage their email, calendar, tasks, and contacts and for these organizations training all their employees to use Gmail would have simply been too difficult and too great of cost. However, this new tool allows organizations to seamlessly transition to Google Apps without the difficulty of removing Outlook.

Below is a demo of the new Outlook Sync tool.

Microsoft really needs to step up their game if they want to continue to succeed in this market. I am not saying Exchange Server is going to simply vanish, but fewer smaller organizations are going to be considering products like Small Business Server in the future and will instead be relying on cloud file storage and services like Google Apps and Salesforce.com to power their businesses.

Move to Hosted Email

The time for an organization to host and maintain their own email system has passed. For many years, I have been a proponent of Microsoft Exchange Server and Small Business Server. I have helped many smaller sized organizations install and support these email systems. However, with the vast selection of free or inexpensive hosted email solutions available I can longer see any reason that would justify an organization maintaining their own email system.

The simple fact is that building and supporting an onsite email system is costly to setup and costly to maintain. Additionally, it is nearly impossible for any organization to maintain even a 99% uptime. A 99% uptime amounts to 3.65 days of downtime per year. With most paid email services and even some free ones an uptime of at least 99.9% is guaranteed. Even the free solutions, like Google Apps Standard, that don’t guarantee 99.9% will almost certainly maintain levels close to that level.

Atlas Bay switched from using Exchange Server as a part of Microsoft Small Business Server about 6 months ago and I haven’t regretted the decision once. The time we spend maintaining our email went from hours per month to nothing. We are using Google Apps Premier and love the uptime guarantee, spam filters, and virus filters. This level of reliability and quality would never have been available to us with an on-site email system. Additionally, we now know that our email will always be delivered, always be available remotely, and is secure.

Since Google Apps was released Atlas Bay has helped many organizations make the switch. We have setup single person businesses and medium business. Some people still like to use Outlook while others like to use only the web interface for gmail. The beauty of Google Apps is the flexibility. This flexibility makes it easy for employees to make the switch. To date I have not had a single person say they preferred using their on-site email system over Google Apps. Additionally, every single company is seeing drastically reduced support and maintenance costs. Most customers that are on Google Apps haven’t had to pay for a single hour of support with their email systems since they made the switch.

With the economy as it is and every business trying to save money I would urge you to consider moving your organization over to Google Apps. You will save money and more than likely have a much better and more reliable email experience.

Build or Buy: CRM Software

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software comes in all kinds of forms from countless vendors. There is not doubt that every organization should be using CRM software. It simply isn’t enough for a business to keep spreadsheets of data and private contact lists with client information anymore. Businesses need reliable data that can be analyzed, reported, and accessed by anyone in the organization. Once your organization has made the choice to implement CRM software the choice is what software do you use or do you hire a consultant to build a custom solution for you.

First, and most importantly, don’t build custom CRM software. Seriously, don’t do it. It wont work. Unless you have the development budget of Microsoft or Google you are never going to be happy with what you get. A good CRM software application costs millions of dollars to plan, develop, test, and maintain. A single person or small consulting company will not be able to create you product from the ground up to meet all your needs.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking. Many organizations think that none of the CRM products out there really meet their needs. Or they think that because their business is different than a traditional sales based company that traditional CRM software just doesn’t work for them. Both of these assumptions are wrong.

First, a good CRM software application is customizable. You can create new types of entities, edit the entities that come with the software, and change the data those entities store. No matter what your organization is you can shape a good CRM software application to your needs. If you are considering CRM software that can only be changed by programmers, don’t buy that software. CRM software should be relatively easy to modify by anyone who has read the manual.

Second, even if the software that is currently available can’t meet your needs 100%, I guarantee that the custom software you are considering making or that some consultant is trying to sell you wont even be in the same ballpark as your needs. I have seen dozens of CRM solutions that were build by consultants that cause more headaches than they solve problems. Microsoft Access, FileMaker, or custom a custom web application are not good CRM applications for any organization.

I wont go into too much detail on these points, but here are some more things to considers:

• Is your data secure? Where is the application hosted? Are you using encryption?
• Is your data going to be backed up daily? Don’t know, then it probably isn’t.
• Is your custom web application compatible with multiple web browsers?
• Can you access your CRM data outside your office?
• What will be the cost to make changes to the application?
• Can multiple people use the data at the same time?
• Can you build customizable reports?

If your application can’t do these things then it is time to consider something new. These features are the basics found in any established CRM software such as Salesforce.com or Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. For most companies, I would recommend using one of the online hosted CRM solutions. These solutions will be much easier and faster to implement and will cost less to maintain and upgrade in the long run.

If you are considering implementing or upgrading your CRM software give us a call. We will always give you an honest assessment of what will work for your business. We don’t sell  proprietary in-house CRM software that makes us huge margins like many other small consultants. We will recommend to you what is right.

Launched SigmaLambdaGamma.com

Last week Atlas Bay and Kalidoscopio launched the new SigmaLambdaGamma.com. Sigma Lambda Gamma is the largest, historically Latina-based national sorority with a multicultural membership in chapters and alumnae associations throughout the United States. The new website enables headquarters staff to more easily communicate with the public and their 3,000 members all over the world. SigmaLambdaGamma.com is built on modern communication and collaboration tools to provided a unique and useful experience for the user.

At the core, this website is built on the WordPress software. WordPress is the most widely used online blogging and content management solution today. WordPress enabled the developers and designers to more quickly and efficiently deploy a quality and reliable product for our client without expensive and lengthy custom software development.

One of the key elements to the new SLG website is the integration with social networking. Users can now share information obtained from the website quickly and easily on their favorite social networking site. Additionally, Atlas Bay has integrated this website with the new Facebook Connect tools to enable website users to easily login and comment on posts.

One of the main pain points with the old website for the headquarters staff at SLG was keeping the website up to date. The old website required headquarters staff to utilize complicated website editing tools and perform manual HTML edits. This method proved to be difficult and the website quickly became outdated.

The new solution allows anyone with basic word processing skills to upload new content, add photos, or add videos in only a few easy steps. Additionally, the new website platform enables more people to participate in editing the website because of the customizable levels of permission. Website administrators can now assign other users limited permission to perform edits or publish new content without risk of unauthorized edits.

While building this website, Sigma Lambda Gamma also decided they would like a complete branding makeover. Through collaboration with Kalidoscopio, Atlas Bay was able to provide SLG with new color schemes and logos to improve and modernize their brand. These new logos and colors are now available for the entire organization to unify the look off all official documents. The new logo will now appear on everything from press releases to clothing and will ensure the brand is always presented consistently all around the country.