Happy New Year
Busy working on interesting new posts … watch this space
Just when I thought I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, it was some B&^^*@ with a torch bringing me more work
How secure is e-mail?
Collabor8online is a solution that enables businesses to share documentation and manage projects online. At the moment just about the most common question we are asked is, “What about security?”
The questioner usually then goes on to say how his company handles a great deal of sensitive information, concerning projects or clients financial records, sometimes medical, sometimes technical but always of a highly confidential nature.
“How do you communicate this information at present?” We ask
“We e-mail it”, is the usual reply.
Oh dear.
At this point we need to ask ourselves how secure is e-mail? Although Email is used every day by billions of people worldwide, which leads most people to think it is secure, in fact, email is an inherently insecure communications medium, which can only be secured through great effort. One of the biggest security mistakes anyone can make is assuming their email is secure. It is not.
In case you’re thinking that because you have a “business based solution”, such as MS Exchange, Outlook or similar, these security problems do not apply to you, far from it. The inherent insecurity were talking about relates to business users just as much as they do to home users. In fact, in some cases they may be considered worse, the most commonly used “business” protocol SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol), actually relays your messages through several servers before reaching their final destination. What is more, this is all done in plain text (which is of course the heart of the problem), so if anyone were to intercept your e-mail (in mid transmission or at one of the relaying servers) they could read it. It’s that simple. Intercepting unencrypted e-mail messages presents no problem for anybody who wishes do it.
So, what’s the solution. The solution is to encrypt the transmission of e-mail from your computer to your intended target and there are a range of products and services available to help you do this. Such services are offered by a large number of companies including Microsoft and Semantic but generally do not form part of standard solutions.
Our solution at Collabor8online, is that you store the documents via encrypted (https) transmission in your own version of collabor8online, and then simply e-mail the link to that document to your intended recipient. That way your confidential information is encrypted as it is saved on our server and again when it is read from the server. Furthermore, only users with a valid login ID and password will be able to retrieve the document at all, which of course adds an additional layer of security.
There is one further problem with e-mail, which is probably more down to the way we use it then with the product itself. Those wonderful tools that enable us to Forward, Reply or (the worst offender) Reply to All are prone to misuse, often with amusing but occasionally with horrendous consequences.
So e-mail is inherently insecure, both in technical terms due to the methods of transmission and in human terms due to the fallibility of the people who use it.
I’d like to take this opportunity of apologising to my colleague who I referred to as a “muppet” some years ago, when inadvertently replying to all!
Building Services online collaboration
A large percentage of our users are in Building Services, from a variety of sectors, often Mechanical, Electrical or Civil and we have good number of General Building Contractors, however we also have a large section of users with the prominence for “design” or consultancy, typically ranging from Architects to interior designers. Typical Project page
More and more organisations are also turning to the product. We appreciate that in some cases Companies will have document handling systems imposed on them by their own IT departments or clients, but Collabor8online is priced in such a way that the costs can be justified even if users aren’t able to use it on every project they are involved in.
There is no mystery to why they find the product so useful, storing documents securely online in one central repository has distinct advantages and has proven to reduce contractual and administrative errors significantly. On the occasions when drawings and specifications need to be distributed to associated trades, contacts and clients and collabor8 lets usrers do it quickly and easily with no associated direct costs!
This video shows how:
Typical Page
- Click to Enlarge
Call 0203 369 6491
Try NowM&E Contractors Collabor8online
A large percentage of our users are Contractors of one kind or another, often Mechanical, Electrical or Civil and we have good number of General Building Contractors using our product. Typical Project page
More and more sub contracting organisations are also turning to the product. We appreciate that in some cases subcontractors will have document handling systems imposed on them by main contractors or clients, but Collabor8online is priced in such a way that the costs can be justified even if users aren’t able to use it on every project they are involved in.
There is no mystery to why they find the product so useful, storing documents securely online in one central repository has distinct advantages and has proven to reduce contractual and administrative errors significantly. On the occasions when drawings and specifications need to be distributed to associated trades, contacts and clients and collabor8 lets usrers do it quickly and easily with no associated direct costs!
This video shows how:
Typical Page
- Click to Enlarge
Call 0203 369 6491
Try NowHow Architects use Collabor8online
A large percentage of our users are Architects, Consultants or other professional organisations associated with the building and construction trades.
There is no mystery to why they find the product so useful, they usually have an ongoing business need to produce and distribute drawings and specifications to associated trades, contacts and clients and collabor8 lets them do it quickly and easily with no associated direct costs!
This video shows how:
Typical Page
- Click to Enlarge
Call 0203 369 6491
Try NowOne foot in The Cloud?
“Cloud” most definitely is the buzzword of the moment, “Could you store that in The Cloud?”, “Is it cloud-based?” The questions and soundbites roll off the tongue if as if penned by Wordsworth himself! Well, are you in The Cloud?
For most users storing documents or content entirely in The Cloud is actually a step too far. If I have a precious document that I’ve spent many hours perfecting, I like to know exactly where it is. I take some comfort from knowing that it is on the hard drive of my PC (or Mac), in the “My very important stuff folder” and I like to keep several versions and a backup and another back upon my memory stick. So if some IT person comes along and says, don’t worry it’s “in The Cloud”, I am likely to resort to Jim Royle mode and come straight back with “In the Cloud my Ar@*!”
Whilst entirely cloud-based applications have many merits, products like Google docs can be a little too abstract for some of old school guys like me. Links can be lost, passwords forgotten, login details mislaid, but if its on my PC I know I can (almost) physically get hold of the thing when I need it urgently and I take some comfort from that.
Collabor8online offers the best of both worlds, you prepare your documents on your own PC (or Mac) and then simply place a copy in The Cloud. In that sense the original content is always created and exists off-line and although you may determine that the copy in The Cloud is deemed to be the “latest version” for clarity with the person(s) you share with, in some sense it is always a backup by definition. Which in itself provides more comfort. This way you can enjoy the benefits of The Cloud, access from anywhere, secure sharing and easier communication etc but take comfort from being a little “old school”.
If you’d like to put one foot in the cloud call or click.
Call 0203 369 6491
Try Now
Save a lot of fan cleaning
Do you have problems publishing or accessing drawings? Do you always know where the latest project documentation is? Are you always sure you are working on the latest version of the specification?
If any of these problems affect you then sharing your documentation online may be the answer. Our document sharing software keeps all of your project documentation in one place, what is more. automatic version control ensures that only the current version is displayed and because the system is Internet-based you can access your files from office, site or home.
“Reducing mistakes” is the biggest reason our clients give us for their using our online document sharing product. Simply knowing where everything is is another, with the added bonus of being able to share your documents with your subcontractors, suppliers and clients. Simply invite them, to your version of collabor8online and the system will do the rest, automatically sending them secure login details and password. The product is web-based, all you need is a browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox and an Internet connection and you can view and access your files from anywhere.
Of course you have complete control over who can see what, so you never need to share information that you’d prefer to keep private. Prices start from just £25 per month (in total) for up to 25 users, so the colleagues and contacts that you invite to share in your documents don’t need to pay. They gain the benefits of working more closely with you, reducing mistakes and saving time and money for everyone.
If you’d like to know more call or click but remember a “Sharing documents online can save a lot of fan cleaning”
Call 0203 369 6491
Try Now
Is light still the ultimate speed?
For those aficionados of all things science fiction and especially humorous, will know that the movie “Space Balls” introduced the concept of “ludicrous speed” which was obviously faster than “the jump to hyperspace” described in the other, rather famous sci-fi trilogy (x2). Older sci-fi purists will remember, the hugely entertaining “improbability drive”, employed in Douglas Adams wonderful creation The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Those of us with an interest in science as well as science fiction will certainly have been taken aback by the recent stories that certain particles had (apparently) exceeded the speed of light during an experiment emanating from Cern in Switzerland. To the world of science this was absolutely breathtaking news, so much so that rather than publish the results with a fanfare, the scientists rather sheepishly released them and invited the scientific community to work out where they made a mistake (because they couldn’t find one!)
You see, although this is a little bit difficult to get your head around, (my personal tip is to have a glass of wine before reading this next bit), Einstein pointed out that nothing in the universe can possibly go faster than the speed of light. He explained (and I’ve seen the equations to prove it) that if you were travelling flat-out at the speed of light, and you put your foot a little further on the accelerator, you wouldn’t go faster but several rather strange things would happen. You’d shrink (quick way to slim down), but wait for it, you become heavier (oops) and finally, time, for you, would slow down. (I told you to have a glass of wine).
This flies in the face of conventional logic, but Einstein didn’t just prove this with equations he proved it by observing and measuring various physical things that we can all see around us and he demonstrated beyond all doubt that his theories were correct. [I won't go into details here, but the way that Mercury orbits the sun and the more popular one nowadays, the GPS navigation systems we all use have to allow for the fact that time moves slower for the satellites orbiting the Earth (because they're going so fast) than it does for us down here] are just two examples that prove Einstein’s theories.
So beyond all reasonable doubt, Einstein was right – until those pesky underground scientists in Cern came up with these “faster than light particles”. Panic not! I’ve seen the explanation. You see, apparently the universe is rather like a loaf of sliced bread (our universe) the one of failing banks and euro bailout funds occupies just one slice – within that slice – nothing can go faster than light. Those pesky particles from Cern, jumped off our slice for a bit, (took a shortcut if you will) and hence appeared to go faster than light. The other slices by the way (and if you’re interested) are the alternative membranes, or parallel universes described in string theory. My turn to go and get a glass of wine!
With Collabor8online, we can’t exceed the speed of light, but we’d like to think that we can make your projects run a bit faster though.
If you’d like to go faster:
Call 0203 369 6491
Try NowMove E-mail to the cloud – An easy win
Email to the Cloud
As we wrote a few weeks ago in “anarchy in the streets” – businesses are finding new reasons to move applications and services to the cloud, not just to protect themselves in cases of disaster (or riot) but frankly, because it’s easier.
In fact there is nothing much easier than moving your e-mail services to the cloud, firstly you have a wide choice of venders trying to tempt you with their services. Google, as ever are doing their best to tempt you away from more traditional sources with Google Apps which includes Gmail, but Microsoft quite frankly (and quite surprisingly as far as we’re concerned) has fought back with a very creditable offering in Office 365.
As with all things Microsoft it sometimes doesn’t do exactly what it says on the tin–for example the Office Web apps provide “lightweight editing” so not quite as good as your desktop application but for access to email, calendars and contacts, functionality is just about maintained and, with a whopping 25 GB per mailbox and the ability to access from anywhere you may say functionality has been improved upon.
Migration from your existing service to the cloud can be a challenge, but that’s why we can help, we can migrate all of your existing data from your existing service to office 365, ensuring dual operation of both services into your new services is fully up and running, making the transition a smooth and pain-free operation.
You’ll be happy with the costs too, with prices at around £4 per user or less, when set against ongoing license, maintenance and service fees the numbers stack up.
If you’d like to move to the cloud, call us London (0203) 369 6491 or Manchester (0161) 920 6491
