Cobweb

A new data centre for Cobweb and some new technology to go in it...

Friday was a big day for us technical guys at Cobweb as we hit the first milestone in a project that will deliver the next generation of technical platform for us.

We've just signed the deal to take some data centre space in a leading data centre that's not in central/east London. Good data centres are hard to come by outside of Docklands, but we found one in the Equinix LD4 facility. It's a leading data centre, one of the latest generation (with which only opened fully in 2008. Importantly for Cobweb, this location has connectivity to the internet and peering networks that is diverse from the data centre hub of Docklands, giving independence and resilience from any major London DC incident.

Also on Friday, we announced that the BIG-IP solutions from F5 Networks will become our platform of choice for load-balancing and application management. This is a big step forward for us and we'll develop beyond simple load-balancing of HTTP/S connection to improve performance and responsiveness for our Managed Services, especially for connection-critical applications such as Hosted Exchange and Hosted SharePoint

All in all, this is a very significant investment by Cobweb and one we are certainly going to make the most of!

Dan - http://twitter.com/dan_germain

HP announce exclusive partnership with Cobweb

Well, true to my word, although a bit later than expected I'm pleased to announce that Cobweb has been chosen by HP to provide our Hosted Services out to their EMEA reseller network.

This vote of confidence by one of the world's largest hardware vendors is a fantastic endorsement of both Cobweb and the services it provides. We will be HP's exclusive provider of Hosted Services to their EMEA partner channel which shows the faith and trust they have for us to deliver a reliable and secure service.

These services include all of our main products:- Microsoft Exchange, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and our newest service Dynamics CRM 4.0.

What can I say? We're delighted! Cobweb really is the leading provider of these services across EMEA and if this doesn't re-enforce that then I don't know what would!

There has been some fantastic work carried out across the company to enable this to happen and really shows what as a business we can achieve.

Much thanks to Shelley (get blogging!) and the rest of the marketing team for their assistance.

Read the official press announcement here

Information for HP partners is available on www.cobweb.com/hp

Mark

Important announcement

I'm pleased to say that Cobweb has recently signed it's largest ever strategic partnership. We can't say who with just at the moment but a formal release will be made by their press office a week today.

Exciting times down in the Cobweb offices! I'll update you a bit more as soon as I can :)

In other news other people from Cobweb are now twittering too. Lots of departments now so get on there and start following!

Mark

Mobile Twitter – Twikini out now

I’m hooked on Windows Mobile and Twitter, the mobile browser interface wasn’t working well for me so I started looking at the mobile apps available. The best app for me has been Twikini. It’s clean, simple and best of all it makes a bird tweet noise when new updates are received.

Try it free, http://www.trinketsoftware.com/Twikini.

It integrates with Twitpic and services like TinyURL. You can add location information using GPS, or by entering a place name. I added my location to tweets the other week and so far I haven’t noticed any new stalkers.

I’m undecided whether to use “Tweet song info” about songs playing in Windows Media, it could generate a lot of updates and be a bit embarrassing when I’m listening Kylie.

If you update multiple Twitter accounts there is a “Switch account” option, which is proving pretty handy especially if you have personal and company accounts to update.

Try it for free from http://www.trinketsoftware.com/Twikini and follow me from your Windows Mobile.

Daniel
http://twitter.com/dannoakes

Technorati Tags: Windows Mobile,Twikini,Twitter,Trinket Software

ActiveSync (beta) for Andriod HTC Magic

If you have bought a HTC Magic or HTC Dream you can get a free beta ActiveSync client from http://www.dataviz.com/products/roadsync/android/.

You get Push email with HTML formatting, calendarand contact synchronisation including caller photo ID integration.

For the security conscious a remote wipe can be initiated from Exchange Server should the device go missing.

The beta ends on 30 May 2009

Daniel
twitter.com/dannoakes

Tags: ActiveSync, Exchange, Anroid, HTC

The value of Twitter....

I love the diversity of communication methods that we go through and the really clever people that come up with 'the next big thing'. I remember back in the days of #iRC (Internet Relay Chat) and Bulletin Boards and looking at where things are now, how we've progressed. I've been through all the networking sites in some shape or form. Firstly with friendsreunited,which I never found very friendly. Then on to Facebook, now become a bit dull, and finally on to Twitter.

I'm not one of these people that follows people because they are there. I'm not a celebrity watcher who reads Heat magazine and the like but there is something about following a few select 'celebrities on twitter that I find entertaining. There is also the information aspect, which for picking up little snippets that are useful can be quite powerful. Like any tool it has its downside, but by and large it works well.

I thought I'd share some interesting people to follow on Twitter as well as some of the people from Cobweb you can follow too. I think if nothing else it can show we are 'real people' that do 'real things' rather than being faceless keyboard warriors or people on the phone.

Talking about putting a face to the name then the Cobweb CRM launch event (shameless plug!) is still taking attendees even though we now have over 100 confirmed. We'd still love more! Please contact us about this so we can make sure we can accomodate you. www.cobweb.com/crm_launch.aspx

Twitter links:-

This is me - http://twitter.com/dccarnage - Channel Manager and random witterings about nothing really important

This is Dan G - http://twitter.com/dan_germain He twits alot! CTO type stuff and bicycling type things :)

This is Dan N - http://twitter.com/dannoakes - Mobile device evangelist, action man and adventurer. Dan is your modern day (but cleverer) Bear Grylls

This is Mark A - http://twitter.com/MarktheMD - Not quite as prolific as the rest of us on Twitter but he is very busy with other things!

My choice of celebrities to follow purely down to quality of their updates:-

Stephen Fry - http://twitter.com/stephenfry

Jonathan Ross - http://twitter.com/Wossy

Alan Carr - http://twitter.com/AlanCarr (Comedian so caution advised!)

If you haven't got on Twitter yet, give it a go. It takes a while to get going but once you do, you'll wonder how you communicated without it!

Have fun!

Mark

Integrated solutions and service - iSaaS anyone?

Dale Vile, Founder and Research director of Freeform Dynamics, recently attended a Cobweb event and has written a great peice that sums up the Cobweb approach to SaaS, well worth a read, at

http://www.openreasoning.com/

Pay Once BlackBerry from T-mobile

If you use a BlackBerry for email and web T-mobile could have the deal for you. For £179 you get unlimited data (Pay as you Go talk/text) for 12 months and a BlackBerry Perl, that is less than £15 per month.

More details here, http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/phones/blackberry/

Daniel - twitter.com/dannoakes

Cobweb CRM Launch Event

At the back end of last week, we quietly launched a new hosted service, Cobweb CRM, built upon Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and the Parallels Automation system. On Wednesday 27th May 2009 we are holding an in-depth launch event at the Microsoft offices in Central London (Cardinal Place on Victoria Street) and we're giving all existing partners and customers a unique opportunity to discover more about the service, meet some of the project team and interact with Cobweb.

On the day you'll hear all about the Cobweb CRM service from Ian Stobie, our man in charge of the sales team. Also presenting at the event will be John Pearson, the Sales Director at ConsultCRM, whom Cobweb have partnered with to develop and active the CRM service.

It's a morning event, so this won't take up your whole day, and there's a lunch for attendees too. If you're interested, there's more information and online registration here: http://www.cobweb.com/crm_launch/crm_launch_event.aspx

Hope to see you there,

Dan - http://twitter.com/dan_germain

The Best Support Representatives.

In Support World March/April edition the following statement was made:

"The best support representatives have extensive networks of contacts internally and externally, and call upon these self-support infrastructures when they are required"

This got me thinking; how does this statement fit into Cobweb's operational structure and do we really have the best support agents?

It is standard that most managers in a service department will state that their agents are the best equipped to service the organisations customer base; it is a natural loyalty to their staff.

However at Cobweb I really do have this belief and it is supported by the following facts:

The Cobweb service desk has three tiers of agent which all sit together which improves knowledge share and communication.

Every single agent has direct access to the Exchange and Windows engineers, for immediate escalation.

Each agent has access to extremely robust partner escalations, for example with Message Labs and Tiscali, which have been built up from years of service. Giving us highly streamlined support functions to our external partners.

A passion for customer service; many of our big customers know our agents by their first names and get the chance to meet them when they come for an office visit. 

As with anything there is room for improvement and we always strive to better ourselves, but I have one question.

What do you think makes the best support representative?

Thanks,

Russ - Service Desk Team Leader