Our phones work

At last this morning a nice man came and fixed our ISDN.  A few twik to our new  Trixbox and we have a working phone system.  Only three days without any phones!

BT are not coming to save the day

Customer Service from big companies.  On Monday our phone server died no problem we built a new one, but then we noticed the ISDN lines were down.  When you dialled our number a pleasant BT lady said there was a temporary fault on the line.

Yours truly very naively assumed this was being acted on, but by 6pm I contacted BT and released the fault had not been reported.  At least the endless wait on the line has been replaced by a ring back option one step forward.  On  Tuesday I get a call from an engineer saying yes there is a fault but they are “Very Busy”  and cannot send out an engineer until Thursday.  This is supposed to be a business service!!! 

I was think just how my customers would react to being told we were “Very Busy” and could not attend a major fault for two days with their feet to somewhere else I think.  They have even breached their own terms and conditions by not rectifying the fault by the next day even with added bonus to them that because I did not report the fault until after six it is not logged until Tuesday morning.

This does seem to show poor customer service, we have the calls redirected to another single line and can manage for a short time, but how would a slightly larger company with say a sales force manage!

They just don’t seem to care not the individuals I spoke too but the organisation as a whole,we shall I think be looking at other options.

Cloud Computing Confidence (2)

After the last post I read this over lunch how BT had a massive broadband outage which lasted most of yesterday afternoon, we had a couple of calls from customers who had lost their broadband, which means loss the email/internet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15154020

This sort of problem and the other recent well publicised problems at the cloud host sites must undermine confidence especially for those suggesting we move all services to the cloud

Cloud Computing Confidence

Discussing a new installation with potential new client I raised the possible option of using Cloud based Exchange instead of a small server. “Oh no” said the customer “I don’t feel any internet connection is reliable enough to run my business on”   Enough said I thought I am not putting our neck on the line to say it is and I can’t justify a backup internet connection on cost grounds.

Cloud Computing?

Like most It companies we are evaluating CLOUD COMPUTING though like most people we have been using for years but never called it that.  Is it good for our customer is it good for us as a company?

We have successfully completed the Microsoft Partner Network Sales and Services Assessment for Microsoft Online Services. Sounds very grand but actually not that big a deal but it means we shall be able to properly assess these products over the coming months.  Watch this space

PCML welcome MBA Associates Limited

We would to welcome MBA Associates Limited as a new customer.  PCML have replaced their existing SBS2003 small business server with a new HP ML350 server running SBS 2011.  The initial setup and transfer of data and emails was completed in a single day.   A few interesting technical issues arose and have been resolved and may appear in this blog, but now all systems are up and running.

MBA Associates are a specialist recruitment agency based in Andersford, Gloucestershire for more information about them see www.mbaontheweb.co.uk

Don’t forget your Forwarders!

SBS2011 and SBS2008 have so many wizards you would think it was a Harry Potter program and we are told to use them and only them to set up SBS.  So why do they let us down.  A classic we have seen in both versions is DNS forwarders to resolve internet addresses.  In SBS2003 when you setup Internet access you were asked for your ISP or other DNS addresses.  Not so in SBS2008 or 2011, so what, well all will be fine to start with but after a short (days) time some websites will not display while others will, google down bing ok. 

The solution is to manually add your ISP or other DNS addresses as forwarders in the DNS, via Administrative Tools – DNS and add the forwarders to the site properties, easy but why oh why is not covered by the wizard?

PCML provide Support for Industrial Trading Solutions

PCML is delighted to be chosen by Industrial Trading Solutions to support their Microsoft Small Business Server.  ITS are based in Coleshill Birmigham and specialise in the supply of pumps and equipment for the food and pharmaceutical industry (See them at www.industrialtradingsolutions.com).  We shall be providing both hardware and software support for the server and network.

We look forward to supporting them and their server!