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(The Hosting News) – British firms are losing time and money from out-dated office practices and a struggle to handle and store electronic documents, according to research released today by 1&1 Internet Ltd, www.1and1.co.uk, the world’s largest web host. From a study of 410 small firms, 37 per cent report money is lost from employees failing to share updated versions of documents. 53 per cent of companies are held back by poor archiving of emails and documents, and one third have document files saved on hardware that not all colleagues can access. 1 in 4 report wasting over £2000 a year from excessive printing of documents. Some 25 per cent are losing efficiency from slow-running email accounts clogged with attachments. Document handling skills are inconsistent across staff in 41 per cent of firms, and only 1 in 4 firms has a strategy for increasing their efficiency in handling electronic data. Many businesses could benefit from reviewing how they draft, share and store their electronic documents.
1&1’s ‘UK Digital Office Audit’(1) finds that many UK firms are losing time and money from their poor handling and storage of electronic materials. A key finding is the lack of facilities for collaborating on electronic documents between colleagues. In total, two thirds of small companies believe that their efficiency is reduced by problems with document handling. 1 in 3 firms (37 per cent) believe that time and money is lost as a result of staff failing to share the latest versions of documents. Significantly, 43 per cent do not have access to a file-sharing method that removes the need to email whole document files. 59 per cent of owners are unable to amend documents off the premises and save them where their colleagues can access them. Staff skills around creating and sharing documents can also be a problem. Some 29 per cent report that documents are frequently deleted in error, and 41 per cent of firms believe their success is hindered by inconsistent levels of staff skills in this area.
The majority of UK business owners now value email to be an essential communication channel. However, the data shows many find their efficiency in handling emails is not optimal. Over half of small businesses surveyed (53 per cent) do not currently archive old emails in a structured, easily-searchable form. 1 in 4 companies find their email accounts are regularly clogged with large attachments and face reduced performance when sending attachments around their team. 1 in 4 have worked with a ’slow running’ email system before the capacity was expanded. Furthermore, over half of firms (53 per cent), do not have access to shared calendars across their staff.
Oliver Mauss, CEO 1&1 Internet Ltd. said, “For many firms, out-dated or inefficient methods of handling and storing electronic materials can negatively impact performance, costs and so their bottom line. Companies of all types can benefit from examining how their day-to-day use of office technology can be enhanced. There are now intuitive web-based options for document creation, collaboration and storage that can increase mobility, raise efficiencies and benefit the environment as well as the balance sheet”.
The data suggests that filing and storing electronic files is an area where British companies can struggle. 1 in 4 firms believe that work is often repeated because documents from the past cannot be found quickly. Some 29 per cent believe time is wasted as a result of staff creating and storing documents in differing ways. For 1 in 5 firms, the server where files are stored is ‘disorganised’. Only 1 in 4 small companies has a plan in place for growing their electronic storage capacity.
The study reveals that wasteful office printing remains a challenge for many companies. Over half of owners (56 per cent) surveyed believe that their staff are wasting money with excessive print-outs. 1 in 4 firms estimate that they are currently wasting over £2000 per year. One third of businesses report that paper is wasted everyday in the routine editing and re-drafting of documents. Many British firms still rely on out-dated paper based filing and communication. 46 per cent of businesses still maintain paper copies of documents on file as back-ups. Furthermore, 43 per cent routinely pay to post paper copies of documents to clients and partners, and 22 per cent of firms still post documents to their staff rather than emailing them. The use of paper files leads to a shortage of physical office space for 27 per cent of companies.
Mauss adds, “Cloud applications for small businesses will be instrumental in the years ahead. Solutions such as 1&1 Online Office can be a great way of speeding up work-flows and achieving better consistency and security for documents and files. Furthermore, the latest web-based email platforms, such as MailXchange, can offer the scalability and performance needed by firms to improve email management and storage”.
1&1 Internet offers a wide range of solutions for small and medium sized businesses including Software-as-a-Service, instant business-website packages, business email solutions, domain names, shared and dedicated web hosting, eCommerce packages, Cloud servers and virtual and dedicated servers. As the world’s largest web host, 1&1 is well placed to deliver a high quality service to business customers. The company currently holds more than 9.5 million customer contracts worldwide and manages over 11 million domain names.
For more information on 1&1 hosting visit the website at www.1and1.co.uk
(1) 410 UK small companies surveyed by OpinionMatters via electronic feedback form
Source: British Firms Using Money in Digital Paper-Chase
(The Hosting News) – British firms are losing time and money from out-dated office practices and a struggle to handle and store electronic documents, according to research released today by 1&1 Internet Ltd, www.1and1.co.uk, the world’s largest web host. From a study of 410 small firms, 37 percent report money is lost from employees failing to share updated versions of documents. 53 percent of companies are held back by poor archiving of emails and documents, and one third have document files saved on hardware that not all colleagues can access. 1 in 4 report wasting over £2000 a year from excessive printing of documents. Some 25 percent are losing efficiency from slow-running email accounts clogged with attachments. Document handling skills are inconsistent across staff in 41 percent of firms, and only 1 in 4 firms has a strategy for increasing their efficiency in handling electronic data. Many businesses could benefit from reviewing how they draft, share and store their electronic documents.
1&1’s ‘UK Digital Office Audit’(1) finds that many UK firms are losing time and money from their poor handling and storage of electronic materials. A key finding is the lack of facilities for collaborating on electronic documents between colleagues. In total, two thirds of small companies believe that their efficiency is reduced by problems with document handling. 1 in 3 firms (37 percent) believe that time and money is lost as a result of staff failing to share the latest versions of documents. Significantly, 43 percent do not have access to a file-sharing method that removes the need to email whole document files. 59 percent of owners are unable to amend documents off the premises and save them where their colleagues can access them. Staff skills around creating and sharing documents can also be a problem. Some 29 percent report that documents are frequently deleted in error, and 41 percent of firms believe their success is hindered by inconsistent levels of staff skills in this area.
The majority of UK business owners now value email to be an essential communication channel. However, the data shows many find their efficiency in handling emails is not optimal. Over half of small businesses surveyed (53 percent) do not currently archive old emails in a structured, easily-searchable form. 1 in 4 companies find their email accounts are regularly clogged with large attachments and face reduced performance when sending attachments around their team. 1 in 4 have worked with a ’slow running’ email system before the capacity was expanded. Furthermore, over half of firms (53 percent), do not have access to shared calendars across their staff.
Oliver Mauss, CEO 1&1 Internet Ltd. said, “For many firms, out-dated or inefficient methods of handling and storing electronic materials can negatively impact performance, costs and so their bottom line. Companies of all types can benefit from examining how their day-to-day use of office technology can be enhanced. There are now intuitive web-based options for document creation, collaboration and storage that can increase mobility, raise efficiencies and benefit the environment as well as the balance sheet”.
The data suggests that filing and storing electronic files is an area where British companies can struggle. 1 in 4 firms believe that work is often repeated because documents from the past cannot be found quickly. Some 29 percent believe time is wasted as a result of staff creating and storing documents in differing ways. For 1 in 5 firms, the server where files are stored is ‘disorganised’. Only 1 in 4 small companies has a plan in place for growing their electronic storage capacity.
The study reveals that wasteful office printing remains a challenge for many companies. Over half of owners (56 percent) surveyed believe that their staff are wasting money with excessive print-outs. 1 in 4 firms estimate that they are currently wasting over £2000 per year. One third of businesses report that paper is wasted everyday in the routine editing and re-drafting of documents. Many British firms still rely on out-dated paper based filing and communication. 46 percent of businesses still maintain paper copies of documents on file as back-ups. Furthermore, 43 percent routinely pay to post paper copies of documents to clients and partners, and 22 percent of firms still post documents to their staff rather than emailing them. The use of paper files leads to a shortage of physical office space for 27 percent of companies.
Mauss adds, “Cloud applications for small businesses will be instrumental in the years ahead. Solutions such as 1&1 Online Office can be a great way of speeding up work-flows and achieving better consistency and security for documents and files. Furthermore, the latest web-based email platforms, such as MailXchange, can offer the scalability and performance needed by firms to improve email management and storage”.
1&1 Internet offers a wide range of solutions for small and medium sized businesses including Software-as-a-Service, instant business-website packages, business email solutions, domain names, shared and dedicated web hosting, eCommerce packages, Cloud servers and virtual and dedicated servers. As the world’s largest web host, 1&1 is well placed to deliver a high quality service to business customers. The company currently holds more than 9.5 million customer contracts worldwide and manages over 11 million domain names.
For more information on 1&1 hosting visit the website at www.1and1.co.uk
(1) 410 UK small companies surveyed by OpinionMatters via electronic feedback form
Every control panel includes various modules that make managing a site or several sites easier. Each module is responsible for a different set of tasks that can be executed at will to perform a variety of functions within the site’s backend interface. The control panel is usually segmented into different sections that pertain to different areas of website creation, management and optimization. Although every control panel is different, they all have certain modules in common, such as the FTP account module, the File manager module, and most notably the email account manager module. Successfully administrating a successful website requires the use of one or more email accounts setup properly.
Setting Up Email Accounts
Setting up email accounts within the email account management module is usually pretty simple, but may vary depending upon the control panel you are using. Generally you would simply choose a site from a dropdown list of domains that are loaded into your web hosting account, and then you would choose a prefix for the email account, which is the part the comes before the @ symbol. For example, you may want your email address to be – myemailaddress@mydomain.com. You would then set up a password and log into the email account to setup your favorite email client such as SquirrelMail or RoundCube.
Setting Up AutoResponders
An autoresponder is an integrated serverside software that automatically responds to email inquires based on a set selection of criteria. Many control panels include autoresponder functionality by default, however there are also more capable autoresponder solutions such as Aweber that can be installed via installation utilities such as Fantastico and SimpleScripts. Autoresponders are often used in the world of eCommerce sites to respond to customers that are in need of assistance, and that ask questions that have already been answered on numerous occasions, almost like an interactive FAQ. Autoresponders are also used to respond to general inquiries with pricing lists and other information that can be automatically sent.
Setting Up Filters
Filters can be used to send certain emails to certain folders, or even other email inboxes. For example, you may want to send all emails that contain the words “pricing”,“prices”, or “pricelist” to a folder named “Pricing.” Or you may want to send all emails form a particular client to their own folder. All of this and more can be done within the filtering options of your email client which can be found within your web hosting control panel. You can also set up filters that send emails with certain titles to certain folders. In general, a filter can be applied to virtually any criteria that can be identified within an email.
Setting Up Employee Emails
Another way you can use the email account management module to control the input and output of your workforce is to set up employee emails, in which employee of your website has their own email address. This is particularly useful when operating a multifaceted site with multiple service departments and supervisors. You can set up permissions for each email address, even restricting some to read-only status if necessary.
(The Hosting News) – Sun Spring Hosting introduces a new $6.95 monthly web hosting plan to target small and medium-sized businesses. Plus, more than $300 worth of premium eCommerce, marketing and web design tools to assist business owners in growing their online presence is provided at no additional charge.
The Business Plan which comes with a generous amount of resources includes 14Gb of data space, 300Gb of monthly traffic, 100 email accounts, 20 ftp accounts, 20 mySQL databases and 3 hosted domains. Other business plans are available for those websites that need dedicated servers and unlimited hosting resources. Additionally, a one-click installation method adds blogs, content management systems and other important website must haves. This enables websites to get online quickly by significantly reducing the amount of time needed to design a professional website. All plans come with 24/7 customer support giving webmasters peace of mind knowing that support is there whenever they need it.
Webmasters hosting their business websites with Sun Spring Hosting will be able to leverage the power of its state-of-the-art semi-cluster server technology. Splitting essential functions into independent servers improves website performance, stability, reliability and capacity. Additionally, Sun Spring Hosting locates its custom-made servers in multiple data center locations. Customers are able to choose whether their site will be hosted near San Francisco, California or near London, England. This gives business owners more control over their website and to be closer to their website visitors and customers.
Sun Spring Hosting Company, LLC, based in Coral Springs, Florida, provides a large number of professional services including web hosting, domain registration and quality customer support. Our ready-made solutions enable small and medium-sized enterprises to generate revenue from their websites
and respective online activities.
Website: http:// www.SunSpringHosting.com
Email Hosting is considered to be one of the most valuable resources these days and there are numerous companies providing your business with an email address and services that liberates you from all the worries related to equipments and expenses needed for hosting. Email hosting is the most important point of communication with any clients and consumers and is an integral part of the internet that has made the arena of business truly nation less and without any geographical borders.
Email web hosting services are planned in such a way so as to give the ease of access to the users that he requires in order to create his ecommerce site. Sometimes even extra features are added for a higher level of customer satisfaction and the best part of a plan is that there are no restrictions on the number of email accounts you have. It is all about operating email servers where users can send and receive emails conveniently in a big business organization that includes handling of the software applications together with firewalls and spam blockers.
What the email hosting service providers actually do
It is very important to choose a reliable email hosting provider so that the entire process of handling corporate mails run smoothly. Various email plans should be studied thoroughly so that you can enhance you company’s web presence and at the same time fulfill your emailing needs. Let’s discuss how an email hosting service provider can boost the efficiency of your email infrastructure.
- Secured POP and IMAP access:
Large organizations are increasingly focusing on email hosting solutions as they are able to provide a secured access to the desktops through IMAP and POP. All sensitive information including names and passwords are encrypted and sent from the client to the server for authentication. Top hosting providers usually support mail clients like Microsoft Outlook, Eudora, Apple Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird. - Ample storage space:
Email Web hosting service providers allow a robust quantity of storage space for each mail box that is created. It can range from MB to GB per mailbox that is sufficient enough to store tens of thousands of messages and you can easily upgrade your storage as per your needs. - Secured webmail access:
The mail servers provided by the email hosting providers usually follow industry standard 128 bit encryption that remains active throughout the webmail session. This truly means that the data sent is encrypted from the moment you start till your signing out. This security protocol ensures that all your sensitive data will not be intercepted by any means. - Virus and spam blockers
Email web hosting service providers blocks the harmful mails by using spam blockers and anti-virus scanners even before they enter the network. Various filters are used to deal spam and anti-virus scanners are usually incorporated into the SMTP gateways. - Address Book:
It helps the users to store contact data in a convenient manner for easy use and retrieval. Both private and shared address book together with access to network directory services are offered by email hosts.
(The Hosting News) – Email Hosting is considered to be one of the most valuable resources these days and there are numerous companies providing your business with an email address and services that liberates you from all the worries related to equipments and expenses needed for hosting. Email hosting is the most important point of communication with any clients and consumers and is an integral part of the internet that has made the arena of business truly nation less and without any geographical borders.
Email web hosting services are planned in such a way so as to give the ease of access to the users that he requires in order to create his ecommerce site. Sometimes even extra features are added for a higher level of customer satisfaction and the best part of a plan is that there are no restrictions on the number of email accounts you have. It is all about operating email servers where users can send and receive emails conveniently in a big business organization that includes handling of the software applications together with firewalls and spam blockers.
What the email hosting service providers actually do
It is very important to choose a reliable email hosting provider so that the entire process of handling corporate mails run smoothly. Various email plans should be studied thoroughly so that you can enhance you company’s web presence and at the same time fulfill your emailing needs. Let’s discuss how an email hosting service provider can boost the efficiency of your email infrastructure.
- Secured POP and IMAP access:
Large organizations are increasingly focusing on email hosting solutions as they are able to provide a secured access to the desktops through IMAP and POP. All sensitive information including names and passwords are encrypted and sent from the client to the server for authentication. Top hosting providers usually support mail clients like Microsoft Outlook, Eudora, Apple Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird. - Ample storage space:
Email Web hosting service providers allow a robust quantity of storage space for each mail box that is created. It can range from MB to GB per mailbox that is sufficient enough to store tens of thousands of messages and you can easily upgrade your storage as per your needs. - Secured webmail access:
The mail servers provided by the email hosting providers usually follow industry standard 128 bit encryption that remains active throughout the webmail session. This truly means that the data sent is encrypted from the moment you start till your signing out. This security protocol ensures that all your sensitive data will not be intercepted by any means. - Virus and spam blockers
Email web hosting service providers blocks the harmful mails by using spam blockers and anti-virus scanners even before they enter the network. Various filters are used to deal spam and anti-virus scanners are usually incorporated into the SMTP gateways. - Address Book:
It helps the users to store contact data in a convenient manner for easy use and retrieval. Both private and shared address book together with access to network directory services are offered by email hosts.
(The Hosting News) – Alurium Hosting announced that it has introduced a new Mini Plan for entry-level shared hosting. The plan is designed to provide robust hosting at an entry-level price.
Starting at just $3.75 per month, the Mini Plan comes with 10GB of storage space, unlimited data transfer, and a wide variety of other features, including 25 Email Accounts, two Mailing Lists, two FTP Accounts, two MySQL Databases, two Sub-Domains, two Add-on-Domains, and two Parked Domains.
Like all hosting plans from Alurium, the Mini Plan also includes ColdFusion (CFML) support, powered by Railo. The Ralio solution is a high-performance, open source CFML engine that allows users to write and run CFML pages on any JEE server or servlet container.
“Even though our Basic Plan was already one of the most affordable CFML hosting plans on the market, for some of our clients it was still ‘too much’ plan. As we added more capacity to the Basic Plan, we realized that the plan may be getting too big for some customers just starting out with their first website. We introduced the Mini Plan to create a plan that would better meet the needs of some of our smaller customers,” said Peter Amiri, founder of Alurium Hosting.
Alurium has been hosting customers since 2004, and today hosts hundreds of sites from customers in the United States and Canada. The company plans to introduce a broader variety of hosting services in the coming months.
To learn more about Alurium Hosting, please visit http://www.alurium.com.
To hear what Alurium’s existing customers have to say, please visit
http://alurium.com/testimonials.
To learn more about Alurium’s Mini Plan, please visit http://alurium.com/hosting/min-plan/.
With so many hosting services available online today, it can be very difficult to decide on one. Even worse than the sheer number of hosting providers is the fact that all of them promise to be the best, making the process daunting and confusing. With that said, it is obviously not very easy to choose a web hosting provider, however it can be with the right guide by your side. Here we will discuss the most important features of a web hosting service, giving you something to base your decision on other than propaganda.
Stability
Professionalism and stability are extremely important attributes for a web hosting service to have. You want to make sure you are giving your money to a company that is going to be reliable and offer you all of the services you need without a hassle. The fist step in determining the stability and professionalism of a web hosting service is by contacting their customer support. If it takes longer than 24 hours for you to receive a response email then you know you are dealing with a company that doe snot pride themselves on their reliability.
Try calling your prospective hosting services one at a time and inquire about features such as bandwidth, uptime, and quality assurance. Ask them questions like: “What is done to ensure the security of my website?” Or “ Do you offer a money back guarantee?” If a company does not offer a money back guarantee then you can rest assured that their service is not really the “best.” Also it is a good idea to find out how many employees they have and also if their customer support center is available 24 hours out of the day.
Performance
Performance is also an extremely important factor when considering a potential web hosting provider, especially if you run a large business website. Find out what kind of bandwidth they offer, how many domains you are allowed to register with them, what kind of server disk space are you allocated, how many email accounts you can have, and anything else that you think would be crucial to the success of your business. If you are going to be running an e-commerce then you may want to consider web hosting services that specialize in this field. Make sure they offer basic features such as shopping carts, SSL certificates, PayPal integration and merchant accounts. Without these essential features, your e-commerce site will be a complete failure and you will be susceptible to hacker attacks.
Popularity and Price
They say that the most popular services are not always the best, however in the web hosting industry this is not necessarily true. The more popular a web hosting company is, the more you can be assured of it’s ability to satisfy it’s customers. Signing up with new web hosting companies is very risky, and doing so should be done with caution. Most of the time, the most popular web hosting services will offer the best prices for the most feature-rich packages. The reason why this is possible should be obvious, as they are making a lot more money then the smaller web hosting companies and so therefore they can afford to offer lower priced packages for their users.
HMS Panel is an all-in-one control panel designed for Linux server platforms. A multi-server solution, it offers a number of advantages to both the web hosting provider or the customer who needs a more efficient way to manage their dedicated or virtual private server. HMS Panel is secure, easy to use and loaded with an arsenal of features that will surely come in handy for administrators at all levels. Here is the rundown:
Complete Domain Management
HMS Panel provides a complete system for managing domains. Users can add domains and sub-domains to the IP address of their choosing whether it is located on or off the server. Wildcards can be added so that all sub-domains for a particular domain point to a specific IP address. You can also modify domain zone files along with CNAME records, A records and MX records.
Email Management System
Web hosting customers on the client side benefit greatly from features such as HMS Panel’s robust email management system. Users can easily create email accounts and customize their communications with forwarders, catch-all addresses and auto-responders. While customers have access to their messages via the control panel interface with SquirrelMail, they can also integrate Microsoft Outlook Express or their preferred mail client.
.htaccess Management
HMS Panel offers a robust .htaccess management tools that can be used to apply various settings to directories within a particular domain. This includes error handling with custom 401, 403, 404, and 505 redirects, IP and domain blocking, file and directory redirects, hotlink protection, directory browsing and much more. The .htaccess management console utilizes AJAX technology, making it a dynamic and very flexible system. While this system is very convenient, experienced administrators also have the ability to modify .htaccess via the standard control panel interface.
Web Application Management
Similar to most control panels on the market today, HMS Panel is integrated with a facility that enables customers to perform one-click installations of various pre-installed software applications. The software management console makes it easy to incorporate programs such as WordPress, phpBB, phpAdsNew, Gallery, Drupal and osCommerce among several others. These applications are mainly available due to user request, but the HMS Panel control panel offers the ability to install many more third-party scripts.
Advanced Security
HMS Panel was developed with advanced web technologies and security mechanisms. The software utilizes sophisticated API authorization to ensure that server communications remain protected. By leveraging an enterprise-grade authentication system, HMS Panel is able to better assure that web applications and network security features are properly configured. The software also uses process isolation, a technology that allows administrators to isolate web applications from one another, making it so that potential issues with one application do not affect others running on the server.
A Complete Control Panel Solution
Now on version 3.5.1, HMS Panel is quickly evolving to be one of the most remarkable control panels on the market. It has all the basic capabilities offered by other panels with a few qualities that make it stand out from rest. If you are in search of a new control panel for your server, give HMS Panel a shot with the free 30-day trial license.
Created by software company Biztology, Cube Panel is a control panel application that provides the ultimate in automation to simplify the process of managing a server or website. Though overshadowed by more popular options such as cPanel and Plesk, this control panel is very capable and a worthy competitor on the market. If you are currently considering a control panel for your server, this article will give you four reasons why Cube Panel makes an excellent choice.
1.) Powerful and Intuitive
While the software is loaded with a host of features, the Cube Panel interface is simple and refreshingly intuitive. Similar to cPanel, the main page is where you will find the most essential features and virtually everything you need. There is a small column to the left of the page that gives a brief overview of your statistics as well as information on resources such as email accounts, FTP accounts and MySQL databases. Whether it is composing mailing lists or installing SSL certificates, Cube Panel makes sure it can all be done with ease.
2.) Cross-Platform Solution
Unlike cPanel, Cube Panel not only supports the Linux operating system, but Unix and Windows platforms as well. And unlike Plesk, it does so with maximum efficiency to give you the best performance possible. This factor alone gives it a considerable advantage over some of the most popular control panel programs.
3.) Integrated Data Backup Functionality
Losing the important data on your server can result in major headaches and detrimental ramifications for your business. Cube Panel makes this a less likely scenario by providing a built-in utility that enables you to backup every piece of data. All you have to do is click the “Backup copies” button to launch the Backup Management feature. From here, you can instantly create a single copy of your website, or choose increments based on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule. Cube Panel makes it simple to protect your data and easily restore it directly from a user-friendly interface.
4.) Extensive Domain Options
Cube Panel’s domain features serve as a great benefit to the hosting customer. Its domain options are divided into two separate pages: Domain Permissions and Domain Limits. The Domain Permissions page gives you an overview of the features specific to your web hosting account. This includes what type of server-side programming support you have, where you stand in regard to FTP access and so forth. The Domain Limits page displays all the services and resources specific to your account. For example, it shows the total number of email accounts you are able to create, how much disk space is available to you, bandwidth allotment and much more. These features allow you to easily keep track of your account and determine when upgrades are required.
Conclusion
The selling point of Cube Panel is simplicity. Even though it provides many useful features, the mere design of the software makes for convenient navigation and great performance. Although a license will cost you around a $100, you can test out it for free with Cube Panel Lite, a limited version that still lends a great deal of power to server administrators. Keep your eyes on this control panel because it could be a major player in the very near future.
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