Share what you know with millions of people

Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content

×

Dan Stalker

Follow Following Unfollow

0 points

June 23, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by Mark Gandy

Any tips for learning how to model business plans in Excel?

I started doing 'heavy lifting' Excel business models in the early 90s when the business I worked for was doing a fair amount of M&A work.
During that time, I never really found a good book with an accompanying tutorial. They probably exist if you ... more

Information Technology

June 23, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by David Goodwin

How reliable is business voip?

I couldn't agree more with Dave. We have probably helped close to 100 clients research, procure and implement VoIP phone systems, both hosted and premise-based. When they are done correctly by the supplier (which happens more now that we have garnered enough experience to offer ... more

Information Technology

Voip Phone Systems

June 23, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by Steve Heusser

Suggestions for managing user file data (backup, deduplication, versioning, etc.)?

Alan,
1. From my anecdotal information I would say only 20% of SMB’s would have 3TB or more data to backup. The majority of SMB’s do not have an incredible amount of data.
2. From the technical perspective one of the largest inhibitors from going to ... more

Information Technology

Cloud Computing

June 23, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by Ajay Gupta

How should businesses keep up with the constant innovation in the BI marketplace?

I agree with John - this is a technology space without a clear "first mover advantage" as many marketplace innovations either do not work or do not address an organization's true needs. In fact, its more than that the latest innovations intended for a wide ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Information Management

June 23, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by Louis Columbus

Do good APIs have common characteristics? If so, what are they?

Yes, good APIs share a series of common characteristics, and they are listed below:
Intuitive design and syntax that makes them easy to use, troubleshoot and extend. This is one of the most often requested characteristics of APIs by developers and was mentioned in a presentation ... more

Information Technology

Cloud Computing

June 23, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by Patricia Dudziec

Which hosted PBX/VoIP providers do you recommend and why?

8X8 and Vocalocity are the biggest vendors in the hosted phones market, but a lot of people I speak with are also looking at Aptela, Nextiva, and Jive Communications. Those are the 5 that I would consider as a good starting point. Focus has some ... more

Information Technology

June 23, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by Andrew Baker

What do you perceive to be the industry direction of cloud computing?

Paul,
I don't know that I agree that cloud computing is "IT as a Service". In fact, I think that this is a misconception that leads many to think that the cloud is somehow a replacement for IT in an organization.
First off, cloud computing is a ... more

Information Technology

Cloud Computing

Future of Web Technology

June 14, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by bob kaput

Does anyone know of a Facebook style tool that can be used securely by a company?

IBM Lotus Connections integrates with the Microsoft Outlook and Office toolbars. Likewise there are several integration points with SharePoint. Connections is built on and leverages WebSphere Application Server's security and integrates with Active Directory and other corporate directories.
We are an IT consultancy and rely on ... more

June 14, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by Govinda Kamtamneni

Who are the top 3-4 cloud service providers today, regardless of industry?

Amazon (AWS) - EC2 (Dev), S3 (Storage), SQS, VPC etc..
Google - Apps for Business (Gmail, Docs, Calendar etc.), App Engine (Dev)
Salesforce - Sales Cloud 2 (CRM), Service Cloud 2 (Support), Force.com (Dev), Chatter (collaboration)
Rackspace - Servers (Infrastructure), Files (Storage), Sites (Dev)
IBM - Smart Business Development ... more

Information Technology

Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing Service Providers

Feb. 18, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by Dennis Head

Lead qualification: Insource, outsource, or both?

For the teleprospecting lead function, I would recommend that this be outsourced rather than internal.
The key to the success of any lead program depends on the alignment of sales and the teleprospecting team in the definition of a qualified lead. If there is a ... more

Feb. 18, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by Michael Damphousse

Inside Sales Best Practices: What are your 3 tips for aligning inside sales with field sales?

I'll let Trish take the long answer. Mine is a quick 1.2.3:
1. Make sure inside sales and sales have an SLA between them that defines leads, what happens to leads, or other functions they share process with
2. Have comp plans aligned for both performance and ... more

Feb. 16, 2011

Dan Stalker is now following Craig Rosenberg and 1 other person

Feb. 4, 2011

Dan Stalker is now following

Feb. 4, 2011

Dan Stalker is now following

Feb. 3, 2011

Dan Stalker is now following

Jan. 26, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by Candyce Edelen

Looking for information on Routers for VoIP.

What kind of VoIP system are you installing? Hosted PBX or in-house system?
We use a hosted PBX system from Aptela with SIP phones from Polycom set up in multiple home-based offices using residential cable internet access. In that setup, we definitely get better performance with ... more

Information Technology

Jan. 26, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by JP Morgenthal

What are some examples of major hazards to IT operations that virtualization can introduce?

Think scale. If you have one single server or blade and that's all it represents, then you know the physical boundary around your operational environment. When you realize that with a hypervisor layer sitting on top of those blades you now facilitate the potential for ... more

Information Technology

IT Infrastructure

Operating Systems

Jan. 26, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by Bruce Pellegrino

How would you characterize virtualization for 2010 and what can we look forward to in 2011?

2010 was a year in which many companies increased their level of virtualization and many companies tinkered with Virtual Desktop Pilots or POCs.
In 2011 I expect companies to continue to virtualize their production workloads and to begin to implementing virtualization aware management tools including ... more

Information Technology

Desktop Virtualization

Servers and Storage

Jan. 26, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by Dave Graham

What are the top/leading 5 cloud server solutions available to large enterprises?

Sarah,
So that you're aware, "cloud server solutions" is rather vague. For example:
Dell, Oracle/Sun, SGI/Rackable, HP, Cisco, IBM all manufacture x86 servers that can be integrated into "cloud" offerings, both public and/or private.
In the case of Microsoft's Azure platform, for example, they use Dell Cloud Solutions ... more

General Management

Information Technology

Servers and Storage

Jan. 26, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by Ken Krogue

What are the 5 things that every SMB owner should ask before going to the cloud?

1. Are there cloud-based resources I can leverage right now that don't require going to an additional vendor? (You'd be surprised)
2. Am I prepared to accept that there's going to be a learning curve? I.e., just because it's in the cloud, doesn't mean I can ... more

Information Technology

Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing Adoption

Jan. 26, 2011

Dan Stalker recommends this answer by JP Morgenthal

Best practices for server virtualization and your IT infrastructure?

I often tell clients to avoid the one-size-fits-all Cloud trap, which means that you need to be aware of what will be running inside your virtualized environment once it is completed. Will users be running basic business applications or does this need to be a ... more

Information Technology

IT Infrastructure

Server Virtualization

Following 13 Topics

Cloud Computing

Focus Interactive Summit

Information Technology

Marketing Automation

Mobile Wireless

...

Unified Communications

Following 2 People

Followed by 0 People