Assessing Your Customer Management Tool Needs

Windows Client UPDATE, March 30, 2006--Assessing Your Customer Management Tool Needs

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1. Commentary - Assessing Your Customer Management Tool Needs

2. Reader Challenge - April Reader Challenge - March Reader Challenge Winners

3. News & Views - Finally, Microsoft Releases Windows Vista Hardware Requirements

4. Resources - Tip: Re-Enabling Task Manager - Featured Thread: See the Windows XP Forum's current posting: "Open, Look in, take ages in Office."

5. New and Improved - AMUST Software Announces 1-Password - Tell Us About a Hot Product and Get a T-Shirt!

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==== 1. Commentary ==== Assessing Your Customer Management Tool Needs by David Chernicoff, david@windowsitpro.com

As many of the small clients I consult with begin to grow their business, they want to make better use of computers to deal with larger numbers of sales, customers, and customer service problems. I tell them they need customer relationship management (CRM) tools. For many of these small businesses, CRM means using the Contacts folder in Outlook. Others are likely to be familiar with, or using, a contact manager tool such as Sage Software's ACT! (see URL below), one of the long-established players in the sales-contact management business. http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25744:610453

The task of adding software tools to a small business isn't as simple as it might sound. Rarely do small-business people know what they want or require from CRM software, and they need to learn what a CRM system can do for them.

Because the vast majority of my clients use Microsoft software to run their business, I often recommend that they take a look at the Microsoft Dynamics (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions) Web site at the URL below to get a broad idea of what's available. http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25740:610453

As I'm usually dealing with the small side, 25 users or less, of the SMB market, I've found that the biggest time investment, for both the client and for me, is determining how the client plans to grow his or her business and how CRM software can best help achieve that goal. One tool I've found very useful is the Microsoft CRM Needs Assessment wizard, which you can download at the URL below. http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2572E:610453

This tool uses an interview-question format to help business owners assess what they want from the available CRM tools and how they think their business can make use of CRM. The tool even helps to generate ideas and potential solutions that business owners might not have considered. The report that the tool generates doesn't simply suggest Microsoft products as a solution but rather establishes useful guidelines for implementing a CRM solution. It organizes the client's needs and requirements into a format that can be used regardless of the CRM-solution vendor that the client ultimately selects. This tool would be useful to help organizations that haven't selected a corporate-wide standard department-level CRM solution.

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==== 2. Reader Challenge ==== by Kathy Ivens, challenge@windowsitpro.com

March 2006 Reader Challenge Winners

Congratulations to the winners of our March 2006 Reader Challenge. There were some truly wonderful, clever, and very amusing answers, so thanks to all of you who help make my days more fun! In fact, there were so many correct responses we're giving three prizes this month, instead of the usual two.

A copy of "Windows Server 2003 Network Administration," goes to Tom Kiernan of New Jersey. A copy of "Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks, Second Edition," goes to Karla Keeney Lowe of Florida. A copy of "Learning Windows Server 2003, Second Edition," goes to Karlis Irmejs of Latvia. All of these excellent books are from O'Reilly & Associates Publishing.

April 2006 Reader Challenge

Solve this month's Windows Client challenge, and you might win a prize! Email your solution (don't use an attachment) to challenge@windowsitpro.com by April 19, 2006. You MUST include your full name, and street mailing address (without that information, we can't send you a prize if you win, so your answer is eliminated, even if it's correct).

I choose winners at random from the pool of correct entries. I'm a sucker for humor and originality, and a cleverly written correct answer gets an extra chance. Because I receive so many entries each month, I can't reply to respondents, and I never respond to a request for a receipt. Look for the solutions to this month's problem at http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2573B:610453 April 20, 2006.

The April 2006 Challenge:

I recently participated in a panel discussion at a seminar for local IT administrators. As usual, the most interesting conversations were during the coffee breaks. This month's challenge is drawn from one of the conversations I overheard while scarfing down some delicious cheese Danish.

One participant said to another, "We're invoking POLP, but we need to figure out a way to force the use of Run As for some applications."

Question 1: What does POLP stand for?

Question 2: How do you force the use of Run As when launching an application?

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==== 3. News & Views ==== by Paul Thurrott, thurrott@windowsitpro.com

Finally, Microsoft Releases Windows Vista Hardware Requirements

Over the years that Windows Vista has been in development, I've been asked one question more than any other about this next-generation OS: What hardware will it require? Microsoft has always been pretty vague about the requirements. A few years back, it specified that Vista systems would require a DirectX 9.0-compliant video card to provide the best experience--that is, to use Vista's Aero Glass UI--but since then, I've heard nothing. I eventually wrote my own guide to buying a Vista- compliant PC, "Buying a Windows Vista PC Today," which you can find at the URL below.

But this week, Microsoft finally, if quietly, revealed its own requirements and recommendations.

According to a page on the Microsoft Web site, "There is no reason to wait till Microsoft launches Windows Vista before you deploy PCs." The company then lays out the following guidelines for what constitutes a Vista-capable PC: - A "modern" Intel, AMD, or VIA Technologies CPU - 512MB of RAM or more - A DirectX 9-class 3D graphics card

Such a system will provide what Microsoft calls a "good" experience with Vista, though it might not provide you with the high-end Aero Glass UI. For a better experience, the company recommends a graphics processor that supports the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) technology. Such systems will enjoy "enhanced graphics stability, multi-application performance, and monitor hot-plugging" when compared to Windows XP, Microsoft says. For the best experience, Microsoft recommends DirectX 9-class graphics hardware that supports WDDM and Pixel Shader 2.0 technologies, and 64-256MB of dedicated video RAM, depending on screen resolution. (For resolutions up to 1280 x 1024, 64MB of video RAM is appropriate; 128MB is fine for resolutions of 1920 x 1200 or less; and 256MB is required for higher resolution displays.)

For more information about Vista's hardware requirements, visit the Microsoft site at http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25736:610453

My article, "Buying a Windows Vista PC Today," written about a month ago, is surprisingly similar, if less dry: http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25735:610453

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==== 4. Resources ====

Tip-- While working over the phone with one of my clients on system problems, I asked him to launch Task Manager and give me some information that it provides. He responded that he was unable to do so, and in fact, he received the error message "Task Manager has been disabled by your Administrator."

I knew that his small business didn't have anyone working as an administrator and that most of the Windows XP computers he had were set up with minimal, if any, user security. So my next step was to ask him if anyone had been playing with user policies on his computers. He assured me that he didn't even know what user policies are, so I asked him some additional questions about the behavior of the computer in question. His answers indicated that the machine was infected with some sort of malware.

A look into the registry showed that the system policy for disabling Task Manager had indeed been set, and the DisableTaskMgr key had been added to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\s ystem\DisableTaskMgr with a value of 1. Changing the value to 0 and rebooting the computer re-enabled the Task Manager.

A long discussion followed on why it was important that users not disable the software they had paid me to specify to protect their computers. Basic malware protection would have prevented this problem.

Featured Thread: A user in the Windows XP Forum writes: "Open, Look in, take ages in Office." http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=2572F:610453

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==== 5. New and Improved ==== by Caroline Marwitz, products@windowsitpro.com

AMUST Software released 1-Password, password-management software that consolidates multiple Internet passwords into one. 1-Password creates a one-way hash of a user's master password and combines it with the Web site address the user wants to access, generating a secure on-the-fly password when the user logs on to the site. 1-Password doesn't use password databases, nor does it store passwords. Because the software generates a unique password at the time of logon that the user clicks instead of keying in, 1-Password reduces the risks that key logging software and phishing attacks pose. Users need remember only their master password. 1-Password can also store configuration settings and synchronize data in personal email accounts, such as Yahoo! or Gmail, so that a user can securely log on to Web sites from a computer at home or in the office. 1-Password supports Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE); support for Mozilla Firefox is planned for a later release. 1-Password Pro is scheduled for release in Q2 2006 and can be pre-ordered for $19.99 per user before May 20, 2006, and for $29.99 per user after that date. You can download the free beta version at the URL below. http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=25741:610453

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