MC+A

Full Article:
http://www.crn.com/software/21290062

Michael was interviewed by crn.com for an article posted today. CRN’s article covers the growing Google Partner channel and how it compares to Microsoft robust partner channel.

Keypoints

• Google believes their new reseller program for Google Apps Premier will put them on par with Microsoft, as a channel vendor
• Google has been open and willing to included partner feedback moving forward.
• As a Partner, MC+A has observed Googles williness to educate partners, and pass on leads.

The Quote:
“Google has been very helpful in educating the partner community and providing training, marketing and lead referrals,” Cizmar said. “We’ve encountered no channel conflict.”

As always, if you have any questions about Google, SharePoint or how we can help you more efficiently integrate those or other technologies for your business, contact us at sales@mcplusa.com.

In this difficult economic environment, it’s easy to see why many companies will look to slash 2009 IT budgets in an effort to reduce costs and streamline operations. While this may be justifiable in some instances, it shouldn’t be a given that IT is a wise area in which to cut spending.

Case in point:  In a recent keynote address at the Gartner Symposium/IT Expo, John Chambers stated that Cisco will increase its IT budget for 2009 as they look to increase productivity and cut travel expenses through the use of collaboration tools. Chambers noted that internal use of collaboration and Web 2.0 technologies has helped Cisco save over $150 million on travel costs. In addition, Chambers said that IT managers need to look closely at the use of blogging and video collaboration as a way to reduce long term expenses and gain near term competitive advantage (source:eWeek).

Other leading companies are doing the same. Difficulty breeds distinction, and as the saying aptly states, “When the tide goes out, it’s easy to see who’s been swimming naked”.

In short, companies that view IT as a strategic business enabler that can reduce overall costs and increase productivity are using this economic downturn to ramp up innovation and take market share from less savvy competitors who are forced into slash and burn mode.

While cutting IT costs now may seem to be an easy short-term band-aid, it most likely will have negative long- term consequences as stronger, more able competitors use the mismatch to leapfrog ahead. By the time the business environment actually improves, most of the weak players will be too far behind to catch up.

Undoubtedly, this is one of the most challenging business environments in decades. In spite of these challenges, however, it is also a time when great companies will seek to turn short-term obstacles into long-term opportunities.

About MC+A:
MC+A is a leading IT solutions provider.  We work with clients seeking to leverage and extract the business value of a well planned IT strategy. Our core focus includes helping companies create, find, share, and protect their business intelligence assets in a way that reduces overall costs, improves efficiency, and drives more revenue to the bottom line.  For more information, please contact us.

MC+A is proud to announce the launch of it’s online store. The store will allow for streamlined purchasing of our hardware and software solutions.

MC+A President, Michael Cizmar welcomed the stores launch. “We are extremely excited about the store coming online. It should allow for a streamline purchasing experience for our clients and expand our reach in the marketplace.”

You can visit our store at: http://stop.mcplusa.com

Earlier this week, Google announced their new browser Chrome.  Our clients have been asking us what impact this has on their enterprise and the reasons behind the new browser.

Scott McCloud, who is a heavy weight in the comic book industry, drew up a explanation in this online comic for create for Google. It is the best place to start investigating.  We’ll update more as we test out the tool (this blog entry is being written with Chrome).

In a recent Tech Target interview, MC+A’s president, Michael Cizmar, outlined his opinions on the growing popularity of cloud computing and how it will affect both IT solutions companies and enterprise end-users. 

 While a strong advocate for innovation, Michael believes that even in a “cloudy” world, there will still be a great need for solution companies who can add value by efficiently implementing new technologies across the enterprise.

According to Michael, those who prove their expertise by developing applications that make the cloud more efficient and productive, will continue to play a vital role in the technology world.  In addition, enterprise users win as talented developers are incented to showcase their abilities to an otherwise difficult to reach audience.   

As Michael notes, “If you have an application, and put it on the Google marketplace, you’re immediately exposed to 500,000 customers.”  With this type of opportunity for developers, and the resulting benefits to enterprise users, cloud computing – and innovative companies like MC+A – may be in the process of creating the perfect storm. 

Read the full interview here: 

http://channelmarker.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/06/12/the-impending-cloud/

Google Enterprise has released the long awaited 5.0.4 release.  Most notably in this release is support Microsoft Office 2007 documents and the connector manager auth prompt bug fix.

Existing customers can goto:

https://support.google.com/enterprise/doc/gsa/00/update_index_page.html

to download the new system and software versions.  I’ll updated this thread with any discoveries that we find in our upgrades.  Please write your findings as well.

Update:

We’ve attempted to update two GSAs.  The first last week went fine.  The one we attempted today twice had a checksum error….

Downloading URL http://support.google.com/enterprise/updates/XXXXXXX

Percent completed: 100%
MD5 Checksum = 74f78e89c09d4be143c3b1d5ca1a4fb7

** Unpacking downloaded file **

ERROR: Downloaded file is not properly signed or corrupted. Please try again one more time.

Tuesday, Dieselpoint announced the release of a new pipeline architecture as open source software. MC+A’s president, Michael Cizmar, will be serving on the advisory board.

Thursday, May 08, 2008, (Worldwide Headquarters – Chicago, IL)

Today, MC+A announces that Michael Cizmar, president of MC+A, will be serving on the advisory board of Dieselpoint’s OpenPipeline. Currently, search, text analytics and connector vendors find themselves constantly reengineering their software to integrate with closed, proprietary systems. OpenPipeline works out-of-the-box with Dieselpoint Search, but can be used with any search engine.

“Since 2002, we have been working with our clients to implement search technologies. We see a tremendous potential for our clients because OpenPipeline simplifies many of the complexities of the UIMA.”, said Michael Cizmar, President of MC+A.

Both broader and simpler than IBM’s UIMA (Unstructured Information Management Architecture), OpenPipeline provides a common architecture for connectors to data sources, file filters, text analyzers and modules to distribute documents across a network. It is fully functional out of the box and includes an installer, a job scheduler, file scanner and crawlers, doc filters, and point and click interface with drag and drop module installation. Document processing can be centralized or parallelized as needed. The transport mechanism is simple, web-services XML over HTTP. RSS/Atom feeds are also possible. The development philosophy behind OpenPipeline stresses simple, elegant design, and massive scalability. Minimal external dependencies and straightforward plug-in implementation ensure that the learning curve is low. OpenPipeline Beta is available for free download via the Apache License 2.0.

Current Advisory Board members include individuals from enterprise search, text analytics and connector firms and consultancies. More information can be found at www.openpipeline.org. MC+A is dedicated to solving business challenges by enabling organizations to derive maximum value from their business intelligence assets. With expertise in areas of portal development, management and architecture, and supporting technologies.

About MC+A

MC+A provide solutions around managing business intelligence. We focus on helping our clients build, find and share those assets securely. Additionally, MC+A provides managed services implementing enterprise 2.0 initiatives.

MC+A is proud to announce the opening of an office to serve clients in the San Fransico area.

MC+A, A North America leader in technologies related to enterprise search, today is announcing the opening of its newest office in Santa Cruz, CA. The new office will provide technology products, service and support to MC+A’s expanding customer base in the San Fransico Bay area. This office expands MC+A’s global footprint and underscores the company’s standing as the leading figure implementing Google enterprise technologies.

San Francisco, CA
1213 Ocean Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060