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Driving Business Impact in Managed IT Services I’ve been working in the managed IT services field for the last 25...
The End Is Near!
What Windows 10 End of Life means to your organization. The end of Windows 10 is upon us! Today marks...
The Main Event – Teams Premium Webinars
Teams Premium Mini-Series, Pt. 3: There are many ways to host a live, virtual event in 2024. Microsoft has invested...
Unleashing Desktop Magic: The Power User’s Guide to Microsoft PowerToys
Originally posted to https://maddydahl.com/microsoft-powertoys/ Power Automate, PowerApps, PowerToys, Power BI, oh my! Ever since the release of Power BI in...
RSM is an Azure Expert MSP
Celebrating RSM’s achievement RSM is now one of only 120 companies around the globe that call themselves an Azure Expert...
Embracing the Future with Microsoft’s Global Secure Access
In today’s digital age, securing access to resources and data is more important than ever. Microsoft’s Global Secure Access offers...
RSM Managed IT Services (MITS) Portfolio
Overview Welcome to the RSM Managed IT Services (MITS) and Security Portfolio. Here, you will find comprehensive information about our...
Case Study: Transforming Restaurant Operations with Azure Virtual Desktop
The organization, a pioneer in the restaurant industry, is renowned for its award-winning destination restaurants. The company has a rich...
Case Study: Modernizing a Multi-State Clinic with Azure
The clinic, known for its excellence in healthcare, employed over 100 Infectious Disease (ID) physicians across multiple states. Each office...
Understanding Azure Nonprofit Credits
Did you know that nonprofits can benefit from annual Azure credits? Qualifying organizations can receive up to $2,000 for production...
SaaS Migration Strategy
Evolving from on-premises, single-tenant applications to multi-tenant, cloud-native applications hosted by cloud providers. With the advent of SaaS, businesses have...
Outlook for Web; Outlook for Everything!
Teams Chats Are Now Available in Outlook Over the course of the past few months, Microsoft has continuously updated and...
Cloud Migration: Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
A guide for enterprises and organizations that want to leverage the benefits of cloud computing without compromising on aspects such...
RSM Cloud Readiness and Assessment Services Overview
RSM provides modular, framework-based Azure cloud readiness assessment services to confirm our clients’ business and IT ecosystem are ready and...
RSM Cloud Migration Delivery Process Overview
RSM’s cloud migration services are delivered based on a wealth of delivery experiences and lessons learned from hundreds of previous...
SharePoint Online Migration Myth Busters: Navigating the Maze
Co-written with William Jones. SharePoint Online, the robust cloud-based collaboration platform from Microsoft, has become the go-to destination for organizations...
Turning an ask into a task with Microsoft Teams and To Do
When working on multiple projects, committees, organizations, and workgroups we often fall behind on the little things. These simple asks...
RSM’s Approach to Content Migration to Microsoft 365
One of the most common challenges that RSM’s clients face is document management. Typically, outdated and disorganized files cause inefficiencies,...
The New Wave of Teams Premium: Three Invaluable Features Available Now
Microsoft Teams has been heavily utilized across businesses everywhere for a few years, and now that we are in the...
Microsoft Secure Score: What is it and what does it mean for you?
What is Microsoft Secure Score? Microsoft Secure Score is a security analytics tool that helps organizations assess and improve their...
Microsoft 365: Is Your Organization RaMPing UP?
In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses are constantly seeking ways to optimize their operations, enhance productivity, and stay competitive....
OpenAI’s DevDay Reveals a Future Shaped by Advanced AI: Unveiling GPT-4 Turbo and More
OpenAI, the innovative force behind ChatGPT, celebrated a significant milestone on November 6 by hosting its inaugural DevDay, headlined by...
The Magical Parrot
Demystifying the workings of large language models (LLMs) can be quite the conundrum. It’s all too easy to spiral into...
Copilot for Microsoft 365 – Outlook Email First Looks
Copilot for Microsoft 365 (M365) was released for enterprise customers on November 1, 2023. The scale of the Copilot for...
Are you ready for Microsoft Copilot?
Written in collaboration with Kaleb Dombeck Your everyday AI Companion Microsoft Copilot is designed to revolutionize how we work, offering...
Power Automate: Streamline and Accelerate Contract Processing
In the fast-paced world of modern business, efficiency and automation have become essential components for success. One area where this...
SharePoint: An Intranet Solution
When our clients consider SharePoint, they often envision a web-based repository for distributing and storing digital content. While technically accurate,...
RSM Presents: New Veeam BaaS Solutions
Are you looking for an easy to use and reliable method for protecting your Microsoft 365 and Azure data? If...
RSM HyperBox
This article details the RSM HyperBox service. It is a small, self-contained data center on wheels and provides a solution...
Improving Company Security with VDI
In today’s world, where security breaches and cyber-attacks have become extremely common, companies need to be extra careful when it...
Thinking about resource management in ServiceNow
Resource management is a Journey It is best to recognize early that resource management (RM) is not a destination. Just...
Network Detective Pro and Cloudockit – For Better Understanding and Protecting Your Cloud Environment
As companies move further and further into the world of online work environments, one of the most dynamic solutions to...
Optimize IT work through RSM’s ServiceNow WorkHub solution
Many middle-market companies have fragmented legacy IT systems and manage a wide variety of services using multiple tools. Consequently, they’re...
RSM Can Sell GCC-High
RSM provides end-to-end, industry-specific Microsoft solutions for thousands of our clients across the world. We are an award-winning Microsoft Gold...
Review of Revenue Contract Management Cycle as it Relates to ERP
RSM is a leading provider of Revenue Contract Management services and software in the Life Science industry. With years of...
Immutable Backups
You may have heard the latest talk around immutable backups and wondering to yourself what they are, how they can...
How IT Can Survive the Great Resignation?
For middle market business IT, the Great Resignation has turned the spotlight on challenges that have persisted since long before...
Now what? A next-step leadership guide for digital transformation
Just as every midmarket company is unique, so is its technology transformation journey. But ultimately, digital transformation is about creating...
Charting your digital strategy
Transforming people, processes and business technology One of the biggest myths about having a digital strategy is that it’s all...
Is Your Organization Fully Protected from Ransomware Attacks?
More and more businesses are experiencing the ravaging effects of ransomware. Bad actors are using a systematic approach to lock...
Digital Transformation – A plain-language guide for midmarket leaders
What is digital transformation? Talk to anyone about digital transformation, and you’ll find that it means different things to different...
Prevention of Ransomware Attacks Amid Security Implementations
Even an informed organization can fall victim to devastating cyber-attacks. Your team has done extensive research and prepared a comprehensive...
The Five Phases of the Cloud Lifecycle
The cloud can help your company increase efficiency, improve employee access to systems, implement scalable solutions and gain competitive advantage...
Cloud Security: Three Key Components
As companies make the move to the cloud, security is a top concern. A strong security foundation, however, needs to...
How Cloud Usage is Changing in A Pandemic
More than a year after the pandemic began, it’s clear that COVID-19 will have a continued impact on the way...
Building in Security for Azure Serverless and Platform as a Service (PaaS)
With an increase in PaaS and serverless deployments in Microsoft Azure, a collection of integrated cloud services comes a shift...
Previewing Azure Purview
What is Purview? We are going to be talking about Azure Purview in this post. No, that is not a...
Azure Express Route Considerations
Middle market organizations are deploying Azure Express Route to provide reliable, low latency connections between their primary office(s) – where...
Edge computing: What You Need to Know
In IT, edge computing is a big buzzword. From a purely business standpoint, edge computing is one of these high...
COVID-19: Securing your employees’ remote access
In a race to provide employees first-time remote access to systems and applications, it is imperative that security is not...
Dealing with remote network connectivity during COVID-19
COVID-19 (coronavirus) is forcing more employees to work remotely. While many companies have remote access capabilities, they were never designed...
RSM’s Helpful Resources for Essential Technology Operations
First and foremost, we want to extend our care and concern amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope you, your family...
Data Center Assessment Provides Clear View of Hidden Risks to Your Data
We now live in a world of cloud, hybrid, and edge computing. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and others have massive data...
The Role of Networking in Replication
Your business is important, and information is important to your business. Consider how long you can go without each application...
Optimizing Data Storage Costs
Both cloud and on-premises storage solutions offer pros and cons unique to their nature. When considering a solution to fit...
Ways to Improve Your Organization’s Cybersecurity Today
Cybercrimes are on the rise and predicted to cost the world $6 trillion in losses annually by 2021. From ransomware...
Managed Cloud Services help ensure best long-term Azure cloud performance
Relying on Microsoft’s Azure cloud for your daily business operations sounds warm, fluffy and oddly comforting. We hear a lot...
Stay Ahead of the Curve with RSM Device Management
In the U.S. alone, smartphone users will reach 271 million by 2022 and the number of tablet users is forecast...
Ransomware in the Cloud
The black plague of cloud security Ransomware is the IT equivalent of the medieval Black Plague. It can easily and...
You have the map – But don’t know where you’re going?
RSM recently released findings from its 2018 Digital Transformation Survey. We surveyed CFOs across the middle market to better understand...
Risk Impact of SD-WAN to Financial Institutions
Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN) are expected to have exponential adoption rates over the coming 18 months, as organizations look...
Top 10 firewall assumptions that can cost you your job
When (not if) your environment is breached and the forensics auditors are reviewing the environment, will they find you were...
Creating a modern secure workplace
At RSM, we have been educating our clients on the merits of effectively managing corporate data in the world of...
TECH ALERT: Windows 7 still poses as a significant risk for many middle-market companies
NOTE: Extended support from Microsoft for Windows 7 will end on January 14th, 2020. Leverage this critical time to address...
What carriers don’t want you to know about SD-WAN
Software Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) is the next generation of WAN technologies to provide connectivity between people and applications....
SharePoint calendar – Everything you need to know
Microsoft® Sharepoint® calendar is a powerful feature that allows you to manage the events, appointments, reminders etc. This blog explains...
Is The Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Ready For Your Data Center?
Today, there is a significant focus on the cloud. Most anything we do in the technology world can be moved...
BI360 Composer – Alternative to Smart List
Do you ever get frustrated that Smart List only allows four filters when retrieving data? An alternative might be to...
BI360 Tips & Tricks – Excel Security on Budgeting Templates
To avoid Budgeting users from making changes budget templates you can implement Excel Security Protecting the worksheet: Planning creates special...
Survey Reveals Top of Mind CFO Technology Issues
Capabilities, Not Costs, Define IT Outsourcing A recent CFO Research survey of middle-market senior finance executives, conducted in collaboration with...
Missing setting Metadata navigation in document library revealed
Recently, there was a request to enable the Metadata navigation in a document library in SharePoint Online, because the list...
Unified Communications, Analytics, and the Customer Experience
Today, organizations are constantly vying for the next competitive edge that is going to enable them to stretch above their...
When Passwords Aren’t Enough – Increasing Security through Two-Factor Authentication
Most people, when asked to picture a hacker, would describe the assailant as an individual sitting in front of a...
Mobile Device Security and Two-Factor Authentication: Is Your Mobile Device Safe?
More and more online services are requiring users move to a form of dual factor or two-factor authentication to access...
A snapshot outlook on higher education – using profitability analysis to drive strategy
Trends in higher education The accelerated demand for education by increasingly more diverse student populations has piqued the interest of...
The next generation cloud: A road map from cloud infancy to cloud maturity
Join us on Thursday, October 26, at 11:30 a.m. EDT | 10:30 a.m. CDT for a 60-minute webcast on next...
Can your vendor’s cloud security controls protect your data? Here’s how you can tell!
According to the IDG Enterprise Cloud Computing Survey (2016), 70 percent of businesses had at least one application operating in...
Exploring Visualizations for Power BI
When working with Power BI, a great way to test the functionality is to attach your desktop to a sample...
Joining the Windows 10 Device to Azure AD – Part 2
This is Part 2 of our 2-part series on Joining Windows 10 Devices to the new Microsoft Azure Active Directory....
Linking AX2012 Cubes for Power BI
One of the key areas of both current and legacy support is the connection to Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 Cubes. These...
Apple Fix Resolves Issues Between iOS 11 Update and Office 365, Exchange 2016
Apple’s major update iOS 11, released in mid-September, was causing some issues between Office 365 and some configurations with Exchange...
Sample Azure Database for Power BI
When working with Power BI, a great way to test the functionality is to attach your desktop to a sample...
Managed Services Offers Multiple Benefits for Financial Institutions
Managed services describes the practice through which a company’s day-to-day technology is managed by third party providers. There are a...
Email Security – How Do You Keep Your Email Environment Safe?
Twenty-five years ago, when discussing email security, the response to this question would have been much simpler. Probably along the...
Digital Transformation – 5 Secrets to a Successful Business Intelligence Strategy
Who are your customers? How much does it cost to acquire a new one? Which customer relationships are the most...
IT Professionals and Soft Skills: A Reminder
Over the course of the last 10 years, my experience with IT professionals has ranged from architect-level VMware expert all...
Windows 10 Servicing Plans Change
In an interesting turn of events, Microsoft recently decided to completely revamp the Windows 10 servicing plans model which I...
Cloud Migration Key Decisions: Public vs. Private
There is no debating the overwhelming impact cloud computing has had on the IT landscape in recent years. Organizations, ranging...
Four Ways to Leverage Your Existing Infrastructure for Office 365 Authentication
When it comes to having a successful Microsoft Office 365 deployment, it is important to keep the end user’s experience...
IWAN: Cisco Systems Entry into the SD-WAN Arena
Cisco’s Intelligent Wide Area Network (IWAN) is an evolution of existing feature sets that have come together in a very...
MAPS for Power BI
When working with Power BI, one of the most used and highly interactive features is the map feature. Power BI...
How to Incorporate Linux into a Windows-Based Network
This post is to share the strengths of the Linux OS and explain how this lightweight operating system can be...
Minimizing the Risk of Ransomware by Leveraging Storage Snapshots
The topic of ransomware is top of mind among both information technology (IT) professionals and business leaders lately and is...
Managed IT Services: A Structured Approach
Managed information technology (IT) services are becoming more prevalent in the business world, and I don’t see that changing any time soon....
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and SharePoint for Financial Institutions
Microsoft SharePoint is an easy to use intranet/extranet, and internet sites that make it simple for everyone to access critical information, regardless of...
Considerations for branding SharePoint Online
SharePoint branding can add a great deal of value by enhancing the companies’ user experience to increase the overall usability...
Solver’s BI360 – An Alternative to Management Reporter
If you are looking for an option for reporting other than Management Reporter,you should try looking at Solver’s BI360 Suite...
SD-WAN: What is Software Defined Networking and how can it help me?
One of the big buzzwords in the industry today is SD-WAN, or Software Defined Networking. In this article, I am...
How to use the five new features in SharePoint 2016
We all resist change one way or another but recently, I’ve been working with SharePoint 2016 and clients seem very happy with the...
Change Scribe Insight Target Connection without Losing Data Mappings
With the introduction of Global Connections, in Scribe Insight Version 7.9, it became a little bit tricky to change connection...
Windows 10 Servicing Plans Explained
An update to this post was published on August 15, 2017. The update reflects recent changes to Microsoft’s Windows 10...
Surfacing external data in SharePoint
As SharePoint is being used to streamline Line of Business (LOB) activities, it may be necessary to incorporate external data,...
Formal patch management programs critical to technology security and performance
Annoying pop-ups, system crashes, latency issues and viruses are just a few of the common problems end users can encounter...
Stoplight indicator for a task list in SharePoint online
Recently, a client wanted the ability to look at the task list in SharePoint and tell if the task(s) is on...
Managed IT Services – Examining the Pros and Cons of Outsourcing
Many small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) don’t have the time or resources to devote to managing an IT department; often,...
Network Access Controls Enhance Network Stability and Manage Security Threats
From addressing new auditor-mandated security requirements to removing network vulnerabilities, administrators have a growing need for network access controls that...
What is Enterprise Content Management (ECM)?
Enterprise Content Management, ECM, while implemented via technology, is not technology, it is a set of practices and methodologies for...
Part 2: Creating visuals from SharePoint list data using Power BI
There are many different options when it comes to data sources with Power BI. In Part 1: Embedding Power BI...
Part 1: Embedding Power BI reports in SharePoint
The ability to visualize data is extremely valuable in the world of business today. Instead of looking at a spreadsheet...
The Borderless Datacenter – Part 2 of 3 – The Threat Landscape
The Borderless Datacenter Part 2 of 3 – The Threat Landscape Regardless of the physical location of an organization’s critical...
Save Money by Automating Azure Virtual Machines Schedule
One of the benefits of hosting Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations virtual machines through Microsoft Azure is the pay-as-you-go payment...
Underutilized feature of SharePoint – Content Query Web Part (CQWP)
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to query and display data from multiple lists in SharePoint? With...
Technology focused companies vs. reactionary
As we all know, IT services are a lifeline for most businesses today, kind of like oxygen for all of...
The Borderless Datacenter, Part 1 of 3-Business Driven Infrastructure Design
The Borderless Datacenter Part 1 of 3 – Business Driven Infrastructure Design Business leaders around the globe experience...
10 Signs You Are Outgrowing QuickBooks – Time for Dynamics ERP
QuickBooks is a household name among small and medium sized business. It is typically one of the first accounting packages...
Overview of eDiscovery and in-place holds in SharePoint 2013
Electronic Discovery, or eDiscovery, is the discovery of content in electronic format for litigation or investigation. This typically requires identifying...
Dropbox vs. SharePoint
You have a file that you need to send to a co-worker, or a client, but every time you click send it comes...
Documentation: Improving the path for others
I remember one of my first jobs working at a bank. I was so excited to learn everything about the...
Use SharePoint search analytics to improve results
One common complaint among SharePoint users is that search feature is awful. Unfortunately, most don’t know what to do about it....
Getting management buy-in for the SharePoint journey
The vast majority of businesses are using some sort of SharePoint solution in their organization. It may vary from SharePoint foundation...
IoT is here to stay: Time to rethink your business model!
Two years ago there was excitement in the air about the impact of Internet of Things (IoT) on the consumer...
Migrating Outlook content to SharePoint
Organizations have begun to explore the option of migrating some of the Outlook content they share to SharePoint, due to the limitations...
Term and synonyms in SharePoint
Information architecture in SharePoint is dependent on the industry and the type of business. Recently, our team engaged in a...
How to trick SharePoint publishing sites to save as a template
Ever gone to save a template in SharePoint and to your dismay the sign above appears after your screen turns...
4 things to identify when migrating to SharePoint
Now more than ever, users and organizations are looking to web-based enterprise content management systems like SharePoint to handle the...
How to redirect users to a new site in SharePoint Online
Recently, while meeting with a client we were asked to create a new intranet site on the organizations SharePoint platform. The main...
CYBER SECURITY TREND #4 FOR 2016 and 2017: SECURITY CONCERNS TO ADDRESS BEFORE MOVING TO THE CLOUD
In our next submission in this series we will touch on Gartner’s fourth projection for 2016 and 2017 which is...
CYBER SECURITY TREND #3 FOR 2016 AND 2017: OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW
In our forth submission for this series we will explore Gartner’s third projection for 2016 and 2017. Out with the...
The case for IT Governance
IT Governance is not the most sexy topic in the world of IT. Even to people that wake up every...
CYBER SECURITY TREND #2 FOR 2016 AND 2017 ACCORDING TO GARTNER: SOFTWARE DEFINED
Continue with our blog series on Gartner’s cyber security predictions for 2016 and 2017 and their impact on the middle...
CYBER SECURITY TREND #1 FOR 2016 AND 2017 ACCORDING TO GARTNER: WORLDS COLLIDE
In a continuation of our prior post, RSM will delve into the middle market’s view on Gartner’s cyber security predictions...
An introspective viewpoint of today’s hybrid infrastructure
The road to the modern IT department has taken several twists and turns over the years, which has forced the...
Scrub hidden metadata in SharePoint docs
As ECM consultants, we harp on metadata and the importance of having strong data behind your content management strategy. This...
Importance of a good project manager
Technology projects are constantly growing in complexity. With multi-level integrations between systems, infrastructure and business intelligence; talented minds and skill...
File share migration into SharePoint
Remember the ubiquitous file shares which end up as the central document repository for many organizations. This document repository becomes crucial for...
Performance is key for your new technology implementation
The fastest way to lose end user support of a new technology implementation is to see system crippling slowness, making...
GARTNER SPEAKS ON CYBER SECURITY TRENDS FOR 2016 AND 2017: ARE PREDICTIONS CONSISTENT WITH WHAT RSM CLIENTS EXPERIENCE?
Against a backdrop of what may be the most exciting and dynamic, yet challenging time in cyber security and arguably...
Excel services in SharePoint
Imagine a scenario where an organization leverages Microsoft Excel to generate and share reports and charts with their stakeholders and...
Optimize your bandwidth for your new cloud services by switching carriers
We are constantly challenged with trying to keep our network and computer performance acceptable for our business. I continually hear...
Systems monitoring isn’t complete when a system is built
Providing a managed service monitoring system is not as simple as setting up a good checking policy to meet a...
Security planning for your SharePoint deployment
Every project should have a considerable amount of the overall effort dedicated to planning. We typically gage 25% of overall effort....
Part 2 – Using consistent metadata in SharePoint
In part one of this series, we discussed the importance of consistent metadata, specifically column types, in SharePoint, that can...
Part 1 – Using consistent metadata in SharePoint
Metadata is the foundation of a strong collaboration and portals within SharePoint. Metadata determines the quality of, content search results, content filtering,...
I/O and You: Part 2
As mentioned in the first I/O and YOU post there is more to SQLIO (disk subsystem benchmark tool by Microsoft)...
Using technology as a competitive advantage
There are various ways to look at technology within an organization, however, many mid-sized organizations tend to see it as...
Windows Continuum allows you to take your work everywhere
Microsoft has a vision that your data and applications should be available anytime you need them. The cloud has enabled...
Moving your file shares to an ECM platform
As an organization approaches a migration from network file shares , one of the most difficult thing to do is...
Business Case for an Information Security Officer
The role of the Information Security Officer (ISO) is to ensure a proper Information Security Program is in place. It...
Why Migrate to IPv6?
A little background on IPv6, it has been in development for over 20 years. It was released and approved in...
Pillars of Successful cloud solutions – Cloud infrastructure
Here we are, at the finish line of the Pillars of Successful Cloud Solutions. In the last post of the...
What’s new in SharePoint 2016?
With the new release of every major piece of software the inevitable question users and system administrators ask themselves is always,...
Bandwidth for Christmas?!?!
Christmas of 1998, I was eighteen years old, I opened what I still consider to be one of my favorite...
IT support needs – what’s best for your organization?
IT support and its role in modern companies is often a topic that tends to leave an organization’s decision maker in a tight spot....
The future of SharePoint development
As we have seen with the introduction of Office 365 and the trend to move from on-premises environment to a cloud...
BYOD (bring your own device) plan basics and cost savings for your company
We hear new acronyms all the time and have to look up what they mean. BYOD, Bring Your Own Device,...
BYOD (bring your own device) plan basics – Security and support
In my last post BYOD (bring your own device) plan basics and cost savings for your company, I laid out...
Does my organization have a disaster recovery solution or a backup solution
By now, I assume we have all heard the statistics that 80% of organizations that face a catastrophic event, without...
Keeping your SharePoint environment secure
Major security breaches expose an organizations sensitive data so make sure you take time to ensure your own SharePoint environment is secure....
Welcome to the era of “Good Enough” IT
Over the last few years I have seen a really disturbing trend with my clients – they make purchases based...
Top 5 recommended IT readings
It’s Winter here in the U.S. so when I’m not out hunting or playing in the snow with my son,...
Sharing your documents internally and externally
Many organizations have defaulted to legacy file sharing technologies to exchange large files with others. This is mainly due to...
PAYG Cloud Computing: Pay for Only what You Use!
Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) also known as pay-per-usage or pay-per-use is a payment method that charges users for procured rather than actual...
Uploading and configuring custom display templates in SharePoint
In the second post of this series, “Creating and understanding display templates,” I explained how to create new display templates by understanding the...
Creating and understanding display templates in SharePoint
In the first post of this series, “Render content in SharePoint with content query and content search”, I explained how to retrieve and display content...
I/O and YOU: Part 1
Often, you’ll hear someone complain about the network being slow or a program being slow. To the ire of the...
IT Administrator: The Cloud does not Mean IT Staff Outsourcing
Almost every week, I meet a new IT pro of one kind or another… system, network, analyst, ninja and more...
Render content in SharePoint with content query and content search
Within SharePoint 2013, there are two different ways you are able to render the content from your SharePoint sites. You can render...
Top three actions to take when unexpectedly losing a key IT resource within your company
As an IT leader or business owner, have you lost a key IT resource? Have you had to scramble to...
Don’t get caught with your phone system down
Many people talk about the dark days of IT as cloudy days. However, the cloud has been a significant improvement...
Is Windows 10 business ready?
As many are aware, Microsoft recently released its new iteration of its ever popular Windows operating system on July 29,...
Windows 10 – Should you upgrade?
Windows 10 sounds amazing, and in fact it is. Microsoft has made notable gains with Windows 10, but that doesn’t...
How to avoid a bad IT implementation
In technology when a large implementation fails at a large entity, such as an SAP implementation in Marin County, California...
Phones: More than just a dial tone! Introducing Unified Communications
When most people think about phones in the workplace they see the phone on their desk and think, “Well that’s...
Meraki: How can it fit into your enterprise?
What is Meraki? Meraki is a Cisco cloud based mid-market network solution. It combines a very easy and intuitive interface...
Dissecting the administrator’s Microsoft Office 365 experience with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Last week I attended the CRMUG Summit in Reno and leda session called Dissecting the Administrator’s Office 365 Experience with...
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) vs. a shared file system
The challenge of managing documents scattered across shared folders comes up in almost every ECM engagement that I work on....
Benefits of IT Outsourcing
Organizations are under increasing pressure to improve their bottom line. Decreasing unemployment figures and a robust dollar are squeezing the...
Benefits of Effective Technology Training
Technology training can be painful. We all know it. It is often viewed as a “necessary evil” when implementing new...
Strategic considerations in the path to the next generation of mobility
Today the concept of mobility is becoming a necessity for businesses of all sizes. Many organizations are listening to their...
Pillars of Successful Cloud Solutions – APPLICATIONS
In my last post, Pillars of Successful Cloud Solutions – PROCESS, I discussed how processes that are well-defined, documented, and...
High Availability and Disaster Recovery: is your plan aligned to your needs?
Disaster Recovery, Backups, and High Availability are terms that are thrown around in reference to a business’s ability to recover...
The customer service side of providing system updates to clients
Today it seems everyone knows the basics of system updates and why they are needed, however, I notice with clients...
Customer support: Resourcing for results
The last thing you want to hear from a colleague or client on a Friday evening is, “I’m sorry for...
3 simple ways to increase SharePoint usability within your organization
Usability in a SharePoint site is critical to success. Often times an end user needs to go to the wayside while focus...
HITECH and HIPAA IT Compliance Resources
Security and privacy in IT is a complicated beast. Recently in the news we’ve seen plenty of large (and small)...
Disaster Recovery: What to do when the lights go out
Disaster Recovery: What to do when the lights go out What do you do when the power cuts out midway...
Manage your projects using SharePoint
Learn how to manage multiple projects using standard SharePoint functionality.
The Reality of Cybersecurity Threats Facing Hedge Funds
Cyber attacks are already a threat to hedge funds, but the true risk is expected to escalate rapidly over the...
IT Security is more than a purchase, it is a process
In a previous article I explored the concept of compliance not equaling security. Once management in regulated industries, particularly financial,...
Using a search connector can surface SharePoint results
Users today expect to go to one place for their information by using their favorite search engine, blogging site, or...
What ERP applications can be integrated with SharePoint?
SharePoint has a very wide breadth and depth with the ability to provide a variety of capabilities, features and technology. These capabilities will allow you to create...
Upgrade path to Windows 10 for your business
Microsoft has released its Windows 10 operating system as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 operating system...
7 major cyber attack themes revealed at Blackhat and DefCon 23
Similar to prior years RSM Security and Privacy teams have a heavy presence at Blackhat and DefCon this year. With...
Is my content secure in SharePoint?
One question I get asked a lot when talking to clients about implementing SharePoint is, “is my content secure when...
Information Technology Management: How much money can I spend?
Recently you may have been promoted to IT Manager, Director; maybe even CIO, since then you have been buying books...
Should employees be allowed to work from home?
In the 13 years from 1997 to 2010, the amount of people who work from home (also known as telecommuting)...
VMware vSphere Remote Office Branch Office Editions
Last week I was asked by a client to develop a strategy for the placement of servers in their remote...
Aligning your business needs with your IT goals
In a day and age where IT plays an increasingly larger role in business processes and operations, one of the...
Tips for managing permissions in SharePoint
Managing permissions in SharePoint can be a tricky thing to do. Not only is there no easy way to see who has...
Five signs your company should consider IT outsourcing
For many small and middle-market companies, it is increasingly known that outsourcing IT can be directly tied to business success. ...
The economy favors technologically advanced companies
The Speed of Technology In the 2015 rankings released by Forbes, Apple, Google, and Microsoft hold three of the top...
Remote access to technology a must for millennials in the workplace
Millennials are quickly making their way into the corporate world, and the expectations of this new group of professionals are...
How to enhance search results in SharePoint search using query rules
Continuing on from a recent post by my colleague Jesse Marshall, Making SharePoint search more user friendly, there is another great feature of SharePoint...
Making SharePoint search more user friendly
“Take it easy on me, It should be easy to see.” Sure, that is from the Little River Band –...
Technology can impact campus recruiting
As I sat watching my two-year old cousin navigate an iPad with precision, while at the same time being asked...
Pillars of successful cloud solutions – PROCESS
In my last post, Pillars of Successful Cloud Solutions – PEOPLE, I discussed how employees fall into one of three...
Cybersecurity and Data Breach Preparedness
As hackers become more advanced, organizations must increase their focus on cyber security to protect sensitive data and systems. No...
Different ways to execute SharePoint workflows
SharePoint workflows provide a great way to automate the business processes. They usually are created for the business processes where humans...
Migrating away from public folders in Exchange Server 2013?
What else can you compare public folders to but roaches? No Exchange Administrator wants them around, any time you mention...
Cisco ISE: Secure Network Access in Dynamic Environments
RSM has been implementing Identity Services Engines (ISE) for clients since it was released by Cisco a few years ago....
Virtual volumes VVOLs: Making storage smarter
With the release of vSphere 6, VMware introduced a technology that will change how virtual machines interact with storage called...
How do I organize my content in SharePoint?
You have applied the principles of information architecture to your Intranet site. Every type of document has got a well-defined...
Top three actions to take when losing a key IT resource within your company
In today’s world, companies are dependent on technology to perform the daily functions that allow us to run our business...
Leveraging SharePoint as the framework for your Human Resources (HR) portal
Human Resource (HR) departments are continually being challenged with fewer and fewer resources while at the same time being required...
Building infrastructure for the future
If you were a business joining the small list of 100,000 websites that existed in 1996, you would not have...
New features coming to OneDrive for Business sync app
Recently, at the Microsoft Ignite conference, there were a lot of exciting announcements. The news that really hit the mark with me...
What is SharePoint today?
Considering the general pervasiveness of SharePoint it’s interesting that I get asked more often now than ever, “what is SharePoint?, what...
Technology in Education
The rapid and constant pace of change in technology is revolutionizing modern educational methods and curriculums. Today’s youth, thru school,...
Igniting Power BI
At the IGNITE Conference a few weeks ago, I was fortunate to take in a Power BI overview session presented by...
Patch management is a never ending battle
Many articles in this blog talk about cool, sexy, and trendy things. However in IT there are a lot of...
What’s New in vSphere 6
Making the decision to upgrade your vSphere infrastructure can be a complex decision. One of the primary factors to consider...
Compliance does not necessarily equal IT security
Throughout my career I’ve worked a lot with regulated clients in the financial and healthcare fields and one disturbing trend...
Wireless Guest Access – Not as easy as you may think
Businesses and organizations of all types are deploying wireless access for their guests. Coffee shops, schools, libraries, shopping centers, restaurants,...
Maximizing your SharePoint Return on Investment (ROI)
If you’re like many organizations that have implemented SharePoint for your users, you have likely put lots of time, money,...
Using Veeam with Amazon AWS S3 Storage Gateway for Backup Archives
Veeam together with Amazon AWS S3 and Glacier In late 2014, Amazon announced that AWS Storage Gateway would now support...
SharePoint product catalog templates are not just for eCommerce
One of the most exciting features of SharePoint 2013 is the product catalog template but it tends to be ignored because of...
Designing a Unified Communications Platform in 2015
As we look at the evolution of unified communications platforms over the last 20 years, we quickly realize these systems...
SharePoint custom solutions can be very powerful for your business
SharePoint is a platform which delivers very powerful out of box solutions. However, there is a threshold beyond which custom...
Checkpoints when moving your business to the cloud
As businesses explore cloud solutions, it is quickly discovered that no cloud service fits all organizations, and the right platform...
Understand SharePoint globalization and localization
Currently, you may have a SharePoint site which is running well in only English but there is a request for...
Best practices for SharePoint user training
Effective user training can help to mitigate some of the challenges that organizations face when rolling out SharePoint to their...
What’s happening in your SharePoint environment?
Time and again I come across situations where companies can only guess at whether their SharePoint implementations are successful. What...
What can I do with SharePoint navigation?
One of our colleagues, Wendy Neal has created some wonderful articles on best practices and web site usability. From her...
XP migration complete? Removing server 2003 is next
If you are like most organizations, over the past year or two you have been removing Windows XP from your...
Delegation Dangers – Prevent Token Impersonation
Impersonating Windows access tokens can still be a fruitful way for an attacker to expand access on a network. Thanks...
SharePoint migration communication plans are essential
When you decide to migrate your SharePoint environment your users will need to know that content is going from one...
The real cost of usability
This morning I read an article on CMSWire.com that really resonated with me. The article stated that one of the...
Pillars of Successful Cloud Solutions – PEOPLE
In my last post, In The Cloud? How is it working out? , I stated successful cloud implementations sit on...
Software-Defined Networking – SDN Versus Legacy Network Infrastructure
As organizations continue to the search for ways to accelerate time to increase revenue, reduce operational costs, and deploy new...
Do you know how to search?
You sat in the design sessions for the new SharePoint platform. Buzzwords like ‘metadata’, ‘information architecture”, and ‘taxonomy’ were thrown...
Looking Beyond the Politics of Net Neutrality
What might it mean for your business? In the past few months, you may have heard the term Net Neutrality...
3 tips for successfully using record management within SharePoint
So quite some time ago, you decided to starting using SharePoint for content management and collaboration. That was about a year, what...
Development life cycle for SharePoint projects
SharePoint Projects have unique requirements. A traditional software development life cycle does not work very well for SharePoint projects. This...
Sharing content externally with SharePoint
If your organization has any scenarios that involve sharing documents or collaborating directly with vendors, clients, or customers, then you...
Harvesting metadata from what already exists
As we all know, one of SharePoint’s most compelling features is to store documents in such a way that you...
Strategies for backing up SharePoint
You get a call from a panicked user who tells you they’ve accidentally deleted an important file from SharePoint. And...
Using OneDrive within your organization
Chief Information Officers (CIOs) need to find ways to introduce “easy-to-use” tools that are familiar to them in a manner...
Standing a Ghost of a Chance With GHOST
The seemingly endless parade of vulnerabilities recently found in legacy code that characterized much of 2014 continues into 2015 with...
Understand the technical career path for SharePoint
As you progress through your SharePoint career you may be starting to wonder what’s next from technical perspective. You may...
Disruptive technology enables innovation
Earlier in January, Las Vegas hosted the world’s largest trade show, presenting all things Tech, known as the Consumer Electronics...
Avoid multiple data entries using SharePoint
I talk with clients all the time regarding the inefficiencies of re-work across the organization. Duplicate data entry is typically...
NetSuite takes QuickBooks customers to the Cloud
IN THE BEGINNING After working within an implementation team for NetSuite’s Cloud ERP Software, I have become surprisingly familiar with QuickBooks....
What is BI360 Reporting? | Business Intelligence Reporting Made Easy
BI360 Reporting tool is an Excel-based report writer that can connect directly to your Dynamics ERP or CRM system, and...
Rolling out your SharePoint intranet smoothly
So, you’re about to implement SharePoint or Office 365 for your company intranet, and there is no doubt that you...
Monitoring – or why Monday mornings give System Admins anxiety – Part 1
Imagine you’re a System Administrator for an organization that typically starts business at 8AM on Mondays. Saturday night you spent...
5 ways to find documents easily with Sharepoint views
Whether you use views today or you are new to views completely, here are 5 ways you can use views...
VMware Operations Manager
Solution Overview How do you monitor your VMware Environment? If you are like most administrators, vCenter is your primary means...
Moving fax systems into 21st Century
Many times when businesses consider making changes to its phone system or carriers, little thought is given to the legacy...
Next Generation Phone Lines (SIP) – Prepare to Save!
The land lines that we know today are going away. By the end of this decade, your company will most...
5 ways to get your SharePoint project back on track
We work with many clients who have implemented SharePoint in their organizations but aren’t utilizing it to its full potential or...
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: Understanding RTO and RPO
Lately, I have had several conversations with customers regarding Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR). I am finding that, in...
Should you upgrade or migrate your SharePoint enviornment?
To upgrade or migrate? That is the question… Many organizations struggle with the decision of how to take their current...
Managed services for technology infrastructure
Emerging technology is increasingly becoming a part of every facet of business, and its proper integration and optimization is critical...
Medical industry technology infrastructure improved by M & A process
Are you utilizing a merger or acquisition as a catalyst for technological improvement? During a transaction, hospitals and other medical...
Get me a “SharePoint Type”
There is an old Hollywood joke about the four stages of an actor’s career, with apologies to Mr. Bacon: Who...
Hybrid on-demand cloud technologies for information delivery
The global market place is evolving, shifting consumer behavior and forcing businesses to rethink traditional IT services and how they’re...
Using SharePoint to help people collaborate in real-time
Many of our clients use SharePoint to plan, execute and track projects. SharePoint has a number of tools that enable...
Prevent security breach if credentials are stolen
The headlines for 2014 were full of incidents involving stolen credentials. One of the bigger headlines involved a Russian crime...
Which SharePoint App Model is right for you?
It is quite evident that SharePoint Apps are becoming rapidly popular as a choice to extend SharePoint functionality with custom...
How to integrate management reporter reports into a SharePoint library
Publishing your Management Reporter 2012 reports to SharePoint is fairly straightforward to configure. This article describes how to integrate Management...
ERP in the Cloud – what you need to know about controls and security
Companies today deal with implementing constant technology changes in order to fit their growing needs. Leveraging internal staff for in-house...
Content types: The foundation of SharePoint information architecture
SharePoint is a beast. Given the volume of data and the disparity of the type of data being managed, it...
25 usability tips for SharePoint 2013
On Saturday, November 22 I presented a session at SharePoint Saturday Twin Cities in Bloomington, Minnesota called “25 Usability Tips for...
Network security – More than just the firewall
Security postures of traditional networks, especially smaller organizations, have always focused on the edge of the network as the highest...
Giving SharePoint a nudge – Architect your choices wisely
I’m working my way through a very popular book called “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness” by University of...
How SharePoint can solve your human resources IT challenges
I was recently asked to write an article for a local business journal on how businesses are challenged with technology in...
In The Cloud? How is it working out?
Over the last 18 months, the biggest agnostic buzz word in Technology has been CLOUD. Chances are Public, Private and...
SharePoint is more than document management
There are quite a few people that I talk to that think SharePoint is only for document management, when that...
SharePoint: Creating a page vs. a sub-site
Whenever I’m speaking about or conducting basic SharePoint user training, there is usually some confusion surrounding the use of pages...
How mobility and cloud computing are changing the face of customer interaction
How mobility and cloud are empowering consumers and connecting employees – changing the way business is conducted With mobile technologies...
Modernize your disaster recovery and back ups
Introduction Data protection is critical for business success. With ever increasing infrastructure complexity, compliance and regulatory driven requirements, integration of...
Are you in Shellshock?
Are you properly protected against a recently reported critical vulnerability in the Bourne again shell, simply known as BASH? Where...
Think You’re Safe Since Cryptolocker was Shut Down? Think Again!
The United States FBI earlier this month identified the author of the original CryptoLocker malware, a Russian national named Slavik...
Consider IaaS: Seven real reasons organizations are moving to the cloud
Many organizations are evaluating Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platforms as a part of a cloud offering, largely due to...
How secure is your wireless network?
How secure is your wireless network? Ask yourself a few simple questions: Are you still using WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)?...
Understanding Storage Technology – Part 3: Sizing Storage beyond the Terabytes
How do you get the right size storage device? You add up all the gigabytes and terabytes of data it...
Data Loss Prevention
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is one of those hot topics that every executive will agree they should have, but may...
Understanding Storage Technology – Part 2: The Alphabet Soup of Storage
In a previous blog entry, we looked at the evolution of today’s storage technologies. Too often, however, the dizzying array...
Making sense of IT Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
A new client who is going through a core systems upgrade was asked from the vendor about their Disaster Recovery...
What is the Cloud and how is it Architected?
Part 1 -Welcome to the Cloud! Series This is the first in a series of blog entries about Cloud Computing. ...
What Does the Cloud Mean for You? Is it for Everyone or Every Situation?
Part 2 -Welcome to the Cloud! Series This is the second in a series of blog entries about Cloud Computing. ...
Social Media: Why Your Company May Have the Wrong Ideas
Social media is a hot-button topic across both the consumer and business worlds, with a vast range of opinions from...
Aligning Technology with Your Business Goals
How is IT thought of in your organization? Is technology an influential tool to help improve efficiency in the workplace...
Multi-Vendor Networks: More Secure or More Risk?
Clients often ask if it would be wise to diversify their network components for fear a single code vulnerability could...
Security through Segmentation: Reducing Scope, Risks and Costs
I recently saw an episode from one of those “caught on camera” television series that featured a group of thieves...
Is Windows 8.1 Ready for Business?
On October 18th Microsoft released Windows 8.1, this release builds on Windows 8 and adds several features that may be...
Understanding Storage Technology – Part 1
Understanding Storage Technology Series – Part 1 Since human beings have been able to record ideas and information, the technology...
Five Reasons to Evaluate an IT Outsourcing Strategy
With an eye on revenue and enhancing core business processes, companies are pursuing outsourcing strategies for many facets of their...
VDI Comparison: VMware Horizon View and Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS)
Introduction In today’s fast paced and information driven economy, a business’s ability to efficiently leverage the power of technology plays...
IT Application Management: Building Your Application Portfolio
Summary When it comes to IT in the enterprise, it can’t be understated: knowledge is power. With regards to the...
Unified Communications: What’s the Benefit?
Increasingly businesses and organizations of all sizes are realizing the benefits of deploying Unified Communications (UC) services. While many of...
Disaster Recovery: How to Weather the Next Disaster Through Practical IT Solutions
Over the last ten years, the uptick in natural and manmade disasters has placed disaster recovery and business continuity at...
Secure Mobile Apps: An Innovative Approach
SpydrSafe Mobile Security Recently I was introduced to a company called SpydrSafe Mobile Security. SpydrSafe is...
The Evolution of the Firewall, Why You Need a Next Generation Firewall
As security threats continue to evolve, we must ensure our defense strategies are keeping pace. One important element of most...
Cloud Computing: Eight Questions to Ask Before Moving to the Cloud
The changing face of IT – When is the Cloud right for you In today’s fast paced and information driven...
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure: The Hidden Benefits
Lately, many of our clients have been asking about virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI, for short). Recent advancements in virtualization and...
Dynamics CRM 2011 Online – Office 365: Internet Explorer Certificate Errors Windows Server 2003
You may notice that there are many articles regarding Certificate Errors in Internet Explorer. Most of what you will find...
Commodity Contract Management – Getting the Most Out of Supplier and Contract Management (Part 1 of 2: Grower Accounting)
RSM’ Commodity Contract Management (CCM) system is designed to enhance and manage the relationship between a company and its suppliers...
Commodity Contract Management – Getting the Most out of Supplier and Contract Management (Part 2 of 2: Dairy Accounting and Producer Payroll)
RSM’ Commodity Contract Management (CCM) system is designed to enhance and manage the relationship between a company and its suppliers...
Is the Heartland ready for the Cloud?
“Is the Heartland ready for the Cloud?” That’s a question that was posed to me recently. The question implied both...
What is BI360 Dashboard?
The BI360 Dashboard module has the capability to calculate and store metrics and KPI’s. BI360 can support any dashboard...
What is BI360 Planning? | Planning Made Easy
If you are like me, I dread the annual budgeting process; I would rather have a root canal than...
Business Intelligence | What is Business Intelligence? (Part 2)
I think of Business Intelligence (BI) as more of a reporting tool rather than a conglomeration of data. Granted, having all...
Rethinking CRM on premise versus online and the Cloud
I’ve had a change of thinking regarding CRM on premise versus online. You can find detailed information on the technical...
Capture the Cloud | it’s here . . . get your head in the clouds
Capture the Cloud | it’s here . . . get your head in the clouds is a blog written by McGladrey’s...