This is an important year for Microsoft as they have scheduled the release of some of their .NET product lines. New Microsoft products that will be released this year as well as products currently in development focus on this .NET strategy.

Here are some principles of .NET:

• It erases the boundaries between applications and the Internet. Instead of interacting with an application or a single Web site, .NET will connect the user to an array of computers and services that will exchange and combine objects and data.

• Information will move between business partners instantaneously.

• Software can be rented as a hosted service over the Internet instead of purchased on a store shelf.

• Users will have access to their information on the Internet from any device, anytime, anywhere.

The .NET strategy of Microsoft will take time to become the mainstream technology. However, it is important to understand that in a time frame in the future, it will be required that all business partners are able to communicate with each other – instantaneously using a component of the .NET strategy called XML. XML is short for “Extensible Markup Language” and is actually a `meta-language', a language for describing other languages, which lets you design your own customized markup languages for limitless types of documents.

The ability for business partners to be able to process documents between themselves in seconds as opposed to hours or days is a key goal of the .NET strategy. In today’s world, a Purchase Order may take a few hours or even a day to start a process with a partner. Likewise, an Invoice back to the originator also takes some element of time. In the future, all businesses will need to have this XML capability, turning hours or days of processing time into seconds. Businesses are at the infancy of fulfilling this .NET strategy. Whether we will see this as the standard business practice in two, three, or even five years from now remains to be seen. However it is clear that the business model needs to flow in the direction that the .Net strategy defines.

Future newsletters will keep you posted on the .NET initiative as better understanding of the product as well as the setup of industry standards will influence the timing.

The topic of Junk E-mail, or SPAM as it is sometimes called, is not new to the pages of Copeland Data News. SPAM is bombarding all of us at an increasing rate. Today over 50% of most users' inbox is composed of junk E-mail. Even users who mentioned that they had only remnants of junk E-mail last year have seen a dramatic increase in the number of unwanted E-mails. SPAM is frustrating for all of us for many reasons. Whether SPAM “irks” us because of the content, the disk space and resources required to house this junk E-mail, or the challenging and time consuming job of “cherry picking” your wanted E-mail, the issue is the same. SPAM left on its own is a real problem that is not going away anytime soon.

SPAM filters are available at the desktop level as well as at the server level. While server versions allow for centralized management of the filtering, both types of products are far from “automatic”. Even the most recent SPAM filtering products will weed out 50% to 90% of the current SPAM E-mail. That number is far less than perfect. The effectiveness of SPAM filtering is dictated by two issues. First, the quality of the filtering software used. The second and just as important, the management of the software to “tweak’ filter settings and rules.

While better SPAM filters are available everyday, the cost of the product, the cost of implementation and the time to manage the filters will continue to increase as well.

Just like Anti-Virus software is a requirement for all businesses to purchase, install and keep up to date, the same issue will hold true with SPAM filtering software. At some point, most of us will need to deal with this “ugly monster” called SPAM. In realizing that we have to throw money at it as well as be committed to maintaining it, is the new reality of system management.

SPAM filtering options are changing everyday, so there is no blanket product that will work for everybody in every situation. However, everyone needs to have a plan to combat this and we are ready to help.

Microsoft’s Office Suite, with the inclusion of Word, Excel, Outlook and other applications, is the most popular Office Suite in the business environment. What is also interesting about Office is that currently there are three versions of Office being utilized. Office XP was released with the new Operating System, Windows XP. Likewise, Office 2000 was released in concert with Windows 2000. However do not forget about Office 97. While Office 97 was not the first “Office” product, it certainly is in use today running on many “older” desktops that are not capable of running Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

To add to the current availabilities, Microsoft is set to release Office 2003. The premise of Office 2003 is to “connect information, people and business processes. Office 2003 follows the .NET Strategy of Microsoft. More specifics about Office 2003 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/editions/overview.asp.

The question then becomes, “Should we upgrade to Office 2003?” While every situation is different, we recommend the following:

1. If you purchase a new PC and have Office 2003 available as part of the purchase, consider buying it as the OEM versions are relatively inexpensive compared to license purchases.

2. If there is a list of features that you “desperately need”, then consider the upgrade. However, realize that some of these features are dependant on the new Windows Server 2003 operating system. Your server would have to be upgraded as well.

3. If you are running some Office 97 desktops, it is time to consider an upgrade to these machines, both hardware and software. A new PC with the Office 2003 is an option.

4. If you are running Office 2000 or Office XP, and you are satisfied with your current functionality, do not upgrade at this time. You will have opportunities to upgrade at a later time.

In time, Office 2003 functionality and its .NET strategy will be standard issue. It will be up to you to decide on when it makes business sense to move to this technology. We will have the knowledge to advise you as part of our service.