How do you prevent the spread of flu, create happier, more productive employees and "inoculate" your organization against disruption? It starts with making technology simple and adding the right organizational support. Let me explain.

The other day my eight-year-old boy, Alex, woke up complaining vaguely that he was not feeling well. He didn't have a fever, and he really didn't have other specific symptoms. At that point, I had a choice. I could send him to school and see if it went away, or I could keep him home.

Since my husband and I both work, the temptation could be to send the kids to school unless they're clearly ill. Only I didn't. At this point it's finally gotten so easy for me to seamlessly work from home at a moment's notice, there's no need to take the risk of exposing our germs to anyone else.

After getting my son to work on his homework, I logged into GoToMyPC which lets me securely view and control my office computer and work on my documents and programs as if I were sitting there in the office. I reviewed my meetings for the day, and informed the organizers I would join remotely via GoToMeeting.

Over the years, I have seen firsthand how these remote work tools have empowered myself and my husband - as well as co-workers, friends and customers who have shared their stories - to keep up with demanding jobs while balancing the rest of their lives. I helped launch GoToMyPC in 2001 then used it to work from home with a new baby. My husband could take the kids to soccer practice in the afternoon, and finish work from home at night. We're not tempted to bring our cold germs to work, and we always know we can get things done even if we're not in the office. It's no wonder work flexibility tops the list of most desired employee benefits.

Not everyone must get a vaccine for the general population to be protected so I imagine the same is true of remote work. Not everyone needs to be able to do it, but those of us "inoculated" with the ability to do so easily, at a moments notice, protect a much larger group. In so doing, we help prevent flu contagion, get work done when traffic or other disruptions threaten business, take better care of our families, and generally increase our well-being and productivity.

For organizations wanting to see these benefits, there are two potential pitfalls:

1. The key to adoption is making technology simple. For instance, I rely on GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting because they are easy-to-use and dependable. The more I use them, the more I benefit my employer with increased productivity - even when I might otherwise be unavailable. Some organizations think putting the tools in place is enough. However, they must also be easy and convenient before they will be widely adopted.

2. Work flexibility is a privilege. Organizations must provide remote work tools and encourage employees to make use of them in a responsible way. This requires a results-oriented culture of accountability. Measure task completion, not hours logged at a particular place. Plan for a future of increased work mobility and family-friendly policies. You may not want sick employees in the office, traveling employees to be out of touch, or new parents to quit, but if you don't publicly and frequently encourage remote work as a solution, that's what you may get.

My son, incidentally, was fine and back to school the next day. Perhaps I was overly cautious, but I'm sure glad it's easy for me to make that choice...

See Workshifting for more on working from anywhere.

What is the number one way of aquiring customers for most businesses – whether you're a cafe, a dentist or a software company?

The big driver is word of mouth. It can make or break the success of many different kinds of organizations. Recently I heard a story that illustrates one way you can tell if you're on the right track.

A co-worker of mine, Kelley Smith, was competing in the Santa Barbara Triathlon last weekend. She was doing the challenging and highly competitive long course last Saturday (1m swim, 34m bike, 10m run) wearing her Citrix Online cycling jersey. She was almost 1/2 way through the bike portion heading up a steep canyon road when a fellow racer caught up to her and said, "Hey, you work for Citrix Online? I LOVE your products!" He then slowed down to keep pace with her so he could tell her a story about a recent situation where he was not going to be able to make a meeting on time and decided to use GoToMeeting instead. He went on to say he was going to start using GoToMeeting more since it was so convenient. Then presumably he sped back up and continued the race.

This is a great product/customer experience test which I'll call the Tri Test: Would someone slow down mid-race to tell you about their experience with your business?

In this case, the two main drivers for his enthusiasm were the following:

1. The product was convenient and easy to use – it worked as it was supposed to.
2. The product was a "life-saver" – it solved a real problem for him.

Having analyzed a lot of customer data, I can tell you that these are consistent drivers of word of mouth across different products and industries. This is why these kind of anecdotes are so revealing. When I bring up Citrix in conversations, I listen carefully to the reactions. If they have heard of one of our products and use words like "easy" and tell "life-saver" stories, I know we're on the right track. Conversely, if they haven't heard anything or mention some other solution, that is equally revealing.

A formal way of measuring this phenomenon is NPS or net promoter score. This is a survey where you ask your customers how likely they are to recommend your products and you subtract the detractors (very low scores) from the promotors (high scores) to measure how you are doing. Research shows that companies with higher scores tend to do better.

The nice thing about the "Tri Test" is that you could use it hypothetically to think about a potential market. For instance, if you're thinking about a new product, can you imagine someone slowing down to rave about their experience with it? If not everyone, is there a particular market segment or target that would be more likely to find it "convenient" and "life-saving" enough they would stop mid-race to tell you about it?

Kelley pointed out that triathaletes themselves represent a valuable market. Statisticly there are a high percentage of business professionals that participate in the sport with a mean income of $126,000/year. Many of these athletes train hours upon hours each week and travel long distances for races, thus flexibility within their work environment and the need for tools to support this lifestyle is huge.

Hence, a web conferencing tool like GoToMeeting is particularly good for the Tri Test. If your product was targeted to a different type of person, you could replace the Tri with another sport or activity that person would be passionate about. The goal is the same: to really think about who would be a passionate advocate for your product. Finding those people and making it easy for them to use and really benefit from your service is the key to growth.

Photo by jimmyharris

If you are providing IT services to your customers in the form of hosted solutions, growing revenues depends on your ability to market your offering in a very focused way.  It's just not enough to put a data center together, hang a shingle on the street and wait.  That's a recipe for disaster and why should you fail with so much opportunity at hand.  Follow these simple steps and I promise your results will be much more predictable.

Step 1 - Know Thy Product and Value

The question most of your customers will ask is "What would I do if I didn't use this service?"  If there is an alternate solution then customers will usually seek the lowest cost, easiest implementation.  So you must clearly articulate the value of your product and services.  As an example, if you are offering a hosted desktop (using XenApp) with Microsoft Office as the key service offering, then your customer has a choice to load the applications locally and manage them locally or use a hosting service.  A great tag line for this type of implementation might be "Lower total cost of ownership for Microsoft Office by 50% using our hosted desktop solution!"  If your value is lowering cost, state it right up front.  If your value is flexibility, then state it.  Remember that the customer always has other options so you'll want to clearly articulate why your solution is better.

Step 2 - Know Thy Customer

Who is it that you're selling to?  Is it the Small Office Home Office (SOHO)?  Is it the CEO of a 100 employee firm?  Is it specific to a market segment such as Finance, Legal, Manufacturing.  Messaging to the decision maker who owns a manufacturing firm with task workers is much different than messaging to a Law firm.  If the problem you are solving in a manufacturing firm is product line efficiency then you'll want to hit hard on the "up time" of the factory floor because your service offers higher reliability than on-premise solutions.  If on the other hand you are allowing attorneys to better focus on their workloads (vs. focusing on constantly rebooting their local machines) then you should put the highlighter on higher revenues through increased billable hours.  Focus on just a few of these types of customers and then show case examples of how their business will grow as a result of using your service(s).

Step 3 - Know Thy Marketing Approach

The ability to pick the right Content, Collateral and Context will mean the difference between success and failure.  What do you want to say?  What format do you want to say it in and what is the context in which a customer will hear it?  The content should be succinct and to the point.  Don't color your message too much or it just sounds like marketing jargon.  Put it in a form that is most easily understood.  If your customers are more likely to read a trade publication than the Wall Street Journal then call the editor and see if they will do a feature story on your services.  Don't talk in generality if the context calls for specifics.  For instance if you are an ISV who has developed software for the insurance business, don't talk about IT infrastructure savings.  In that case, the context demands you explicitly point out the benefits of using your specific software features to complete tasks or simplify the work.  If you have $10,000 of marketing budget make sure you've got the right mix of message and messaging.  In other words, if you can't measure with certainty the return on your investment (qualified sales leads) from your marketing, DON'T DO IT!  Even awareness can be measured in terms of the Average Sales Price of your service.  If you command a higher price than your competition for similar service types, this can be a measurement of your brand. 

Step 4 - Know Thy Support Plan

If you market your product or services but don't adequately support your customer then your brand will turn on you.  Further, your marketing content will be diminished by your reputation or lack thereof.  A perfect example of this was the Ford Motor Company "Quality is Job One" campaign run in the 70's, 80's and early 90's.  Wildly popular and producing great results at first, over time, the slogan began to wane in street cred as Ford's light trucks began to flip over on the highway. While Consumer Reports was slamming Ford products (such as the Explorer) as being substandard and losing quality to Japanese manufacturers, Ford continued to run advertisements to the contrary. The savvy consumer was not only put off by the ads but began to show distain for the product every time they had to take their car in for repairs while their neighbors had no significant problems with their Japanese equivalents.  Your products/service need to be supported when launched, during use and when upgrades are needed.  Using support tools like GoToAssist will aid you.

Follow this formula, and you'll find that customers will not only understand your value and purchase your product/services, but will also provide word of mouth advertising that is priceless in this business.

 
I was out on PTO (vacation) last week and have to admit I did a little work while away.  It dawned on me how awesome it was to take advantage of our implementation of SaaS and Application Delivery through the Cloud. 

I take this stuff for granted sometimes but with the market exploding around off-premise services and using the Internet as a means to access everything from applications to support I wanted to share my experience from a users perspective.  After all, it's the user who ultimately will determine whether or not Cloud Computing actually works.

Citrix uses Single Sign On (SSO) as a feature of XenApp so I first logged into our corporate portal with one click and then accessed my profile using two factor authentication.  Immediately I was configured with secure access through our Access Gateway product.  I was presented with a portal of applications I could access for the user profile preset from our IT group.  I also had access to all of the data files and Sharepoint files under my user name and password.  I wanted to check my blog for comments so I used the internally controlled corporate web site to get to my landing page (didn't have to sign in again because of SSO).  I then opened up an Excel spread sheet where I log some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) metrics.  The spread sheet was part of my personal directory structure loaded on the corporate XenServer farm so I can access it from anywhere even though I created it from a local PC in Florida.

Next I checked my Citrix Online Webinar metrics page to view participants who were accessing the recorded webinars I had done a couple of weeks ago.  I was having some problems viewing them so I called our IT Hotline and they immediately had me start a GoToAssist session.  It took about 30 seconds for them to see that I didn't have the Windows Media Player loaded so we accomplished that while on the call and it solved my problem.  I decided to set up a meeting for when I returned from vacation with some sales folks in Europe so I opened a GoToMeeting session, added participants and it automatically saved the meeting (date/time/participants) to my Outlook Calendar.

Just for grins I wanted to show my family one of my blogs so I disconnected the laptop I was on from the cabled connection and it switched over to the wireless router at my son's apartment.  I never lost the connection and everything (Outlook, IE, Excel) continued to work seamlessly... and STILL connected to my corporate server.  I passed the laptop around to get comments... family can be brutal sometimes .

I answered a couple of emails and then logged off so I could get back to my vacation.  I was 2,500 miles from my office, connected via wireless router/cable modem from a PC I didn't own, accessing files and applications in my corporate environment.  The cool thing was you couldn't tell I was out of the office!  All of this possible because I was using Citrix Online, Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenServer to get to my information.  And all of it over the open Internet.

It would take another couple of pages to go through all of the technology wizardry that allowed me to "work" through Citrix Cloud Center technology... but at the end of the day that doesn't matter to the user, does it?  I'm just glad we have the technology to do what I need to do, whenever I need to do it .  The other cool thing is I get to sell the stuff I use and it works... flawlessly.  This IS the next big thing for Cloud providers who want to use state of the art technology and get it at a decent price.  That's why we created the Citrix Service Provider Program and I'm proud to be a part of the team!

Please take a minute and complete the poll below so that we can continue to evolve our program... 

So what do you do if you are called to fix someone's computer and you just KNOW that this person is going to need your help later?

GoToAssist Express just added the capability to easily set up unattended support while at a customer's computer.
 
For instance, say you make a site visit to a customer to help install a program, and you don't quite finish. You'd love to be able to log in and finish up remotely later. Now you can. Just add their computer to your account and you can finish at your leisure at a time convenient for you and your customer. This has been the #1 request from GoToAssist Express customers, so I guess it's a common scenario!
 
By way of background, GoToAssist Express includes unlimited live remote support (tell your customer to enter a remote support ID and then take over the computer on the spot) as well as the ability to add and connect to an unlimited number of "unattended" computers, that is, computers you add to your account so you can log in and work on them when your customers are not using them.
 
This July 09 release has a number of other cool and useful enhancements such being able to reboot and reconnect to a Windows computer from a Mac. Also, if you're on a Mac, you can request diagnostic information from a Mac or Windows computer.
 
For all the details, check out the release notes on the GoToAssist blog.
 
photo by marstheinfomage.

Small and Medium businesses.  The SMB!  Why are they so important to the market we are in?  Because there are over 50 million of them worldwide.  Who services them and how much money is there to be made in this space?  Some say that the SMB will be the key to recovery from this worldwide recession.

SMBs are not so different from larger enterprises.  They have employees, products, and even computers and software applications.  Just like larger enterprises they have a top line (Revenue) and a bottom line (Profit).  They also have operations costs that come between their top and bottom lines.  Which is where they spend money on things like Information Technology. 

Most SMBs go through plateaus in their growth where they make major decisions about their operations and IT is no exception.  When a company reaches about 99 employees they begin to be faced with a major decision... What am I going to do about all of these information technology issues I have today? This ranges from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to Communications (Email and VoIP) to plain old vanilla business productivity applications (Microsoft Office).  The problems begin to occur at this growth period because there are enough software application versions and data repository issues that day-to-day operations could be at risk with any and all disruption caused by IT.  And so, for the most part IT becomes a necessary evil that requires additional outlay of cash to keep it under control. 

But now there are products that come through the "Ether" and don't require an entire staff of IT professionals to run them.  So when the guy who has to cut the check each month is looking at decreasing profits because he keeps paying for applications to be loaded (and they don't seem to work together because of a lack of version control or service packs missing or O/S problems) it shouldn't surprise anybody that he is looking for alternatives.  He keeps hearing about this thing called "Cloud Computing" but can't quite get his head around how "The Cloud" is going to help him with his bottom line. 

Enter the Citrix Service Provider...  These companies are supplying services to the SMB so that they don't have to worry about application version control and O/S service packs and additional IT staff.  It's really kind of funny because I was on the phone with one of our large enterprise customers this week and he told me "what these Citrix Service Providers are doing is exactly how I run my IT group".  In other words, the Citrix Service Provider is kind of like a co-op for the SMB so that they can get the same economy of scale that a large enterprise gets, only without the encumbrance of a full fledged IT staff.

There is a company in Manchester, U.K. that provides just these types of services... IT Farm.  They've got a nifty 90 second demo of just how easy it is to offload all of your IT issues and let someone else deal with it...  Just sign up and overnight you've got instant access to all of the applications you want without the worries of having to do-it-yourself.  And they are firm believers that Citrix is the only company on the planet that has the technology to fit their business model.  Dr. James Huntington, the Managing Director at IT Farm had this to say about it... "IT Farm has enjoyed a long lasting relationship with Citrix.  With the advent of the newly developed Citrix Service Provider program, we now have the ability to rapidly expand our base and provide our customers with the best technology on the market for the delivery of applications and desktops."  With over a hundred SMBs serviced with their offering, thousands of desktops are no longer a problem for the guy who writes the check.

Would you believe that up to twenty percent of the 50 Million SMBs worldwide are at this stage of growth and trying to find companies who will offload their IT... that's about 10 Million by my count.  So if you're one of those companies who want to get in the game and become "the Cloud" for the millions of subscribers looking for an alternative, what's stopping you?  We have the technology if you've got the desire!

We recently challenged people to create the next GoToMeeting commercial. We received a total of 44 entries for the contest and narrowed them down to the five best.  The winner will receive $30,000.

A Citrix Online group had a great time picking the top 5 entries from the many clever funny submissions received, and are now opening it up to you. Check out www.gotomeetingtv.com to view the 5 top entries and vote for your favorite. (You have to register to vote.)

Cast a 5-star vote for your favorite of the five semifinalists. The video that receives the most votes will be the winner. The last day to vote is July 31, 2009 - so get your vote in today!

If you need to get back on the rails with Citrix XenApp and more importantly if you are a Service Provider just getting started with XenApp then boy do we have an event you won't want to miss.  Two of our best field readiness managers, Jo Harder and Craig Marinella will be leading a webinar on the 22nd of July to cover the following topics.

XenApp Premium Overview -
Designing and Implementing XenApp - App Delivery and Management
Designing and Implementing EdgeSight - Your built in reporting tool
Information Resources and References

Don't miss this great opportunity to learn about implementing the technology used around the world with 230,000 customers and servicing over a million users for application delivery.

Just click on the links below to get access to this invaluable session from Citrix... the new kid on the block for Windows based SaaS.

EMEA - XenApp Premium Overview

Americas - XenApp Premium Overview

APAC - XenApp Premium Overview

...and if you missed the Business Overview Webinar for CSPs you can take a look at the recorded session link below...

CSP Business Overview Webinar

Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Talk, Grand Central, Google Voice, Goog-411, Adroid, Chrome, Chrome O/S, Google Earth, Google Maps, Street View, Google Maps Mobile, Google Maps GPS, Adroid Phone, Android Applications... free downloads, free service, free open source.  All of it free?  Free, free, free! 

2004 - $100 per share, 2005 - $200 per share... $300 per share, 2006 - $400 per share, 2007 - $500 per share... $600 per share... $700 per share, 2008 - $470 -> $262 per share (poor Google), 2009 - $400 per share.  Wanna buy some... too expensive.... too too expensive.

Google, no more beta... nope.  No more beta!  What?  Why not?  "We realize this puzzles some people".  Whatayamean?  "More than 1.75 million companies around the world run their business on Google apps... We've focused our efforts on reaching our high bar for taking products out of beta, and all the applications in the Apps suite have met that mark." 

Still free?  "We have much more in store, and IT managers can read more about how to make the switch to Apps..."  No I said, is it free?  "Ever since we launched Google Apps suite for business two years ago, it's had a service level agreement, 24/7 support, and met or exceeded all the other standards of non-beta software."  Oh, then I guess it isn't free anymore is it? 

What's that your saying?  I can't hear you.  Can you come down off that pile of money?  What?  You say this is what a $130 billion market cap looks like? 

Hey, are you trying to take over the telecommunications market?  You launched that 411 service that's taking all of the money away from the phone company, right? "We launched 1-800-GOOG-411."  Yeah but doesn't it use someone else's network?  "It's a free service that let's you search for businesses by voice".  Yeah but aren't you using their network and it costs them money but you don't have to pay anything? "[You] get connected to those businesses for free".  Aren't you also using your mapping technology to build awareness in that market so that you can take it over some day?  "...just say map it and you'll get a text message with the details of your search plus a link to a map of your results right on your mobile phone."  Oh I see.  You don't won't to talk about it.  Well O.K. then.

You launched Chrome to take over the browser business right? "It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Chrome browser. Already over 30 million people use it regularly."  Didn't someone get in big trouble for doing that a few years ago? "We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web...".  Yeah but aren't you using your search engine optimization algorithms as an unfair advantage? "...searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends."  Yeah but now you're trying to turn it into an Operating System aren't you? "...the Operating System that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web."  Isn't that kind of arrogant?  I mean, there are still a lot of people using great applications on the existing operating systems aren't they? "Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so that everyone understands what we are trying to do."

So let me get this right.  You're sitting on a pile of cash... about $18 billion.  Up until now you've given away all of your products for free.  But now all of your software is being officially released. You've got your own operating system and applications for mobile phones, your own operating system and applications for computers and netbooks, your own search engine, mapping routines and advertising analytics engine like no one else's in the world.  You own the largest data center in the world and you've got your hands in everything from mobile phones to web browsers and now a new operating system?

Isn't there other ways to evolve the existing Information Technology world based on existing proven technology?  Isn't there a way to allow businesses to utilize their existing infrastructure by delivering applications to any device? Aren't there other players in the space that have been offering up solutions that are now being defined as Cloud Computing?

Can you say Microsoft and Citrix Systems?

Twitter

GoToMyPC is adding support for Mac OS X!

I've been been anxiously waiting for "GoToMyMac" since I converted to Macs, and recently Citrix Online made one of my "Mac-user wishes" come true, "GoToMyMac" err GoToMyPC for Mac beta was privately rolled out to some existing customers, aka beta testers.
The official GA date is not available yet, however the development team keeps cranking out awesome features, nearly matching the ones already available on the PC today. In the meantime allow me to share a brief demo video showcasing the new Mac support feature.

 
 
best,
Gus
 
twitter.com/guspinto

Do you ever work from home, the road, an alternate office location, a train, a hotel business center, a coffee shop, the beach - in short somewhere, anywhere other than physically sitting in your official place of work? 

If so, snap a picture and upload it with the tag "workshifting" on Flikr. Then, check out www.workshifting.com to see the photo feed and read what others have to say about the world of remote work. 

Work is going mobile, remote and online. Companies that support flexible working arrangements and provide employees with the tools they need to get work done anywhere and collaborate with others via the web attract and retain talent and achieve higher degrees of productivity and satisfaction.  In short, we get more done and have more fun.

As many of you know, I'm not a Ft. Lauderdale or San Jose based Citrix employee. I work out of the grand Citrix office in Minneapolis (my basement).  I've been a remote Citrix person since I started here almost 10 years ago.  And I can tell you this, being a virtual worker used to suck pretty bad.  Sure I could use any XenApp application over my internet connection effectively, but what was missing was being able to have an active part in brainstorming meetings and the feeling of being part of the team.  I can't tell you how many times I've been in a meeting when people started white boarding. Not much for someone on the phone to do. Nothing to look at, nothing to see, nothing to contribute.

I tried to travel to Ft. Lauderdale once a month and this was pretty effective. Unfortunately, as we all experienced, the economy crumbled and so did travel budgets (which was my only monthly escape from cold Minnesota winters).

This got me thinking about virtual workers. What do they need to be effective and still feel like a member of the team?  What have we done in our group to make our virtual workforce more effective?  From a user's perspective, they only need a few things:

1. Resources
2. People Interaction
   

These are actually pretty easy to come by nowadays. 

First, let's start with resources.

That was then...

• I had to have a local install for most of my apps. Sure I could have used XenApp, but many times I was disconnected from the internet and out of luck. 
  

This is now...

• I now use Application Streaming. Many of my applications are streamed down to my laptop. I figure that 90% of the applications I use are streamed, while the remaining 10% are not because they require a backend data connection in order to function.  What's the point in streaming something for offline use if it requires a backend data connection?  I don't see one.

What about people interaction?

That was then...

• Trying to have discussions with coworkers was done via phone and required my own business line (Costs $$$).
• Trying to work on the same doc was done by XenApp shadowing.
• Trying to  whiteboard was a joke (have you ever tried it with your mouse? I don't recommend it)
• Trying to get peoples facial expressions/reactions was impossible. At one point I went 6-9 months without seeing my boss or other coworkers.
  

This is now...

• Voice conversations no longer requires a separate business line. If I'm just doing a one-to-one conversation, I can use EasyCall.  If I'm taking part in an online meeting, I can simply use the integrated VoIP functionality within GoToMeeting.  No more long distance charges for me
• Collaboration on the same doc is now easy with GoToMeeting. Anyone can modify the one open document and comment on the fly.
• White boarding is done online, but instead of using a mouse we use sketch pads (Wacom, AIPTEK, UC-Logic). I even used mine during a recent Citrix TechTalk on offline mobility. And my manager just used it during a brainstorming meeting. Much more effective (and entertaining because my boss is not a very good artist.)
• Face-to-face conversations are done with video conferencing (Microsoft Communicator, TokBox, Oovoo).  Actually makes you feel like you are part of the team.
• Quick conversations are done via any number of Instant Messenger providers
• Training is done online and collaboratively.  One of my coworkers used video conferencing and GoToMeeting to train others that were located on a different continent.  The feedback was extremely positive because the webinars was much more interesting when you can see everyone else.

Things have definitely improved for virtual workers.  The technology has matured and become more integrated, which is making our lives easier.  Are any of you virtual workers? What enhancements/technologies have you found to be helpful?

If you are interested in more information regarding virtual workers, take a look at the materials on this site.

Daniel - Lead Architect - Worldwide Consulting Solutions
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/djfeller
Follow me in the Blogs: http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/danielf

I need to be clear up front that this is not a blog about our Citrix Online products.  Although there is a way to resell the Online SaaS products, that is a discussion for another blog.  This blog is about setting up your data center to host Windows applications in a Software as a Service model using the Citrix Cloud Center (C3) products. 

I recently spoke to Byron Altridge, Vice President at ClubDrive, one of our new Citrix Service Providers in the U.S. about his company's success in this space and he was kind enough to share with me how they are becoming one of the fastest growing companies in Atlanta.  From a business perspective, Byron told me they are pretty much doing everything by the book in regards to finding the target market and providing a valued service to their customers.  Like so many other Service Providers however, they were lacking the tools to make the delivery of applications over the open Internet seamless and simple.

When the team at ClubDrive found out about the Citrix Service Provider Program, they were one of the first in line to pick it up and put it into action.  Byron turned me on to his CTO, Nathan Kelly and we went over the configuration of his data center using C3.  Nathan told me, "It's really quite simple.  We use the inherent security of XenApp by managing the applications from a single instance.  There are 2 NetScaler devices in the DMZ at each location that monitor each other locally in the event of failure and also monitor the other location devices in case of failure - this provides High Availability for the users.  And because there is so much efficiency in XenApp workloads using XenServer, the combination provides us with the best approach to making our hosting center work."  The diagram below depicts the configuration of the ClubDrive hosting center using C3 technologies.

Note that ClubDrive also opted to create fail-over redundancy using a mirrored approach deploying C3.  The combination of network optimization with NetScaler, single instance management with XenApp and server virtualization with XenServer creates the best revenue generating, cost optimized approach to hosting Windows apps.
 
Based on the popularity of this offering we will be providing both a business webinar and a follow up technical webinar for hosting service providers in July.
 
Stay tuned.

There are many security issues with remote workers. One in ten laptops is stolen. USB flash drives or memory sticks can hold large amounts of sensitive data and are easily lost, misplaced or stolen. One estimate was that 1,985 USB drives are stolen from the average major corporation every year. Home computers are unsecured and out of your control. Public wi-fi can be hacked. People can email themselves documents that can be misdirected.

 However, the reality is remote work is only going to continue to grow. From a security perspective, perhaps it would be easier if you could keep everyone behind locked and secured doors working offline, but the world of work is going mobile whether we like it or not. People travel. They use iphones and blackberries. They work on their home computers. They use public wi-fi networks. They carry laptops and flash drives. Technology and the internet is enabling increased work mobility. People want that work flexibility. And business benefits incredibly from the increased productivity, not to mention employee retention and the other benefits of enabling remote work.

How do you reconcile the two?

You can look at the security issues above and decide not to allow people to work remotely at all. The problem is it's like trying to reverse the tide. People will do it anyway. Consider the case of the government worker who copied the entire veteran's database on their laptop, which was then stolen.

Or, you could look at the security issues and determine the most prudent course is to provide every tool you can to enable remote workers to do it safely. GoToMyPC is one such tool. GoToMyPC performance and reliability is such that it's easy for people to work on documents and programs directly on their office computer – from home or while traveling. Traveling users know that they can get to a file back on their computer if they need it, so are far less likely to carry everything with them. That means workers more often leave data on a secured office computer and view it remotely and only when needed. This greatly reduces the risk that employees will carry that data out of the office where it could be lost or stolen.

GoToMyPC doesn't make the home computer or laptop part of the Corporate network. You are just using any Internet connection as a portal back to view the secured and protected office PC. That means you don't need to worry about the home computer and home security just to enable occasional after-hours remote work from home.

Because all connections are encrypted end-to-end, you can safely use public wi-fi networks, and GoToMyPC will encrypt everything you do. It's more secure to use GoToMyPC to work remotely on an office PC from a relatively blank laptop at an airport, than to be working directly from that laptop using local documents and public wi-fi.

If you think about it, GoToMyPC is no riskier than giving workers a key to the office. They can't do anything with GoToMyPC they can't do by walking into the office every day and turning on their computer. In fact, in some ways it is a lesser exposure since their access is restricted to their computer only. (You can't steal office supplies if you're working remotely.)

GoToMyPC has many built-in security features that greatly reduce the risk of connecting to a computer remotely.  As with most things, the biggest risk is password exposure. Unlike some other products, GoToMyPC requires two passwords with strong requirements, an account password and a computer access code that resides on the computer and is never transmitted or stored on GoToMyPC servers. These can be used in conjunction with a separate windows password so there are many levels of safeguards. Limited log-in attempts also offer protection, and it's easy to change passwords at any time. You can also choose (or require) people to use a new password for every log in with the one-time password feature. The Corporate version can also integrate with RSA SecurID. 

Other security features include automatic disconnection after inactivity, screen blanking and keyboard and mouse lockout protection, HIPAA and GLBA compliance, VeriSign, SSL, 128-bit AES encryption, etc.

GoToMyPC Pro and GoToMyPC Corporate let you administer access for your entire company. You can add, remove and manage users, even report on exactly when they were working. Best of all, it's incredibly simple to roll out and administer so it won't tap your IT resources – and you can save money by not supplying and maintaining as many laptops to remote workers.

The next time an employee asks if they can use GoToMyPC, consider – do you want a more productive employee safely connecting to their office computer from home or while traveling? Or do you want them copying your customer database or product roadmap to a flash drive and carrying it around in their pocket?

The idea of allowing people to connect in to your office from anywhere may seem risky, but not allowing it may actually prove riskier.

For additional IT questions about GoToMyPC, call 888-646-0016.

GoToMyPC Product Comparison 

GoToMyPC Security FAQs 

GoToMyPC Corporate Security Whitepapers and Documentation

A customer calls describing a baffling problem on their computer. You try to explain what they should do to diagnose and fix the problem, but it's excruciating.  If you could just SEE their computer, you know you could fix it in a minute.

The great thing is taking over a computer remotely is now fast and easy. Provided there is internet access on both sides, there's no reason to make on-site visits or labor over the phone.

You can use a number of the Citrix products for remote support and trouble-shooting, but how do they differ and which one is best for you?  It depends on who you are and your needs:

The Heavy Lifter: You run a support organization. Your department provides software support for a large number of customers (maybe even internationally). You want to get into remote support session via the phone, but also let people ask questions on your web site and easily go from chat to full screen-sharing and remote control. You want to record the sessions for quality assurance, monitor and transfer sessions, survey customers, run reports and even integrate into your business systems. You should use GoToAssist Corporate, the best-in-breed solution for remote support.

The One-Man (or Woman) Shop: You are an IT or computer consultant or you work on an internal help desk. What you really need is just a super-easy way to quickly take over someone's computer and fix it. Basic diagnostics, file transfer and chat would be nice, but key is it's easy for you and the people you are supporting. You may even have multiple sessions going at one time, and want to switch between them, or access a customer's computer later when they aren't using it. You should use try GoToAssist Express. Cost after trial is $69/month or less for an annual plan.

The One-Timer: You just want to take over someone's computer right now. Today. For as little money as possible. You don't need a long-term solution. You should use GoToAssist Express. If you've already done a free trial, buy a day pass for $9.95.

The Trusted Advisor: You are in a position to recommend technology to your customers, many of whom are small businesses who care about their own productivity and need to be able to work remotely. Encourage them to sign up for GoToMyPC so they can work on their office computers from home or while traveling. They increase their work flexibility for only $19.95/month. Anyone who has GoToMyPC can right-click the icon in their system tray and select "Invite Guest to PC". Have them invite you whenever they need help - no cost to you.

The Family Fix-it: Your mom or dad is hopeless on the computer and you're sick of traveling to their house for every little computer issue they have. The next time you visit, install GoToMyPC on their computer for regular help.  If it's infrequent or an immediate one-time need, consider that GoToAssist Express day pass.

The Social Butterfly: You provide support and training to groups of people. You would get value from a web conferencing solution to reduce travel and increase your productivity. Sometimes you need to take over someone's computer remotely and fix it, but it's not your primary need. You should try GoToMeeting, which lets you share your screen with up to 15 attendees and comes with integrated phone or VOIP audio conferencing. Cost after trial is $49/month or less for an annual plan. You can use it for support by starting a meeting, then making your customer the presenter to view their screen.  

In a previous post I mentioned a free podcast of a GoToWebinar we did with Seth Godin. Among Seth's accomplishments is a top-rated blog as ranked by ad age.  Another blogger on this list, Chris Brogan, happened to be visiting our Citrix Online offices in Santa Barbara last week to train a group of us on the topic of "social media". Dreading the hard chairs and long monologue, I prepped myself for a long training session with a large cup of coffee laced with espresso.

Little did I know that Chris had once offered to shave his head if he ever hit #1 on the ad age list. As it turns out, that day he popped to the top spot just above Seth Godin, and as a result, we enjoyed a highly interactive and rewarding lesson in social media. More on that in a minute.

At first I was skeptical of Chris's claims about the profound implications of social media (My rule of thumb, if anyone says something is going to be "as big as email," be skeptical.) However, after a hands-on lesson, I think there are some profound and positive implications.

1. Social media is highly relevant to your career. The larger and more engaged your online networking, the better able you are to get help from others, find a job, etc. The secret is to help others first. Take Chris Brogan as an example. His blog is influential because he creates content useful to other people. He has over a hundred LinkedIn recommendations, but he's also recommended more people than that. People help him because he has helped them. Social networking has always been the best way to find a job -- or create a movement. Chris' big, fat online network means he's better off than most of us in that area (not without cost as he doesn't sleep). His world of social media is just the old-world social contract writ large.

2. Social media could bring an unprecedented level of transparency to the world of business and perhaps even humanize the corporation. For companies accustomed to controlling the message, this could be scary. With Twitter, an Amazon glitch can spread like wildfire through social networks. When everyone can review your products, you have to be more open about the good and bad. What's more, when you respond to customers in a format like twitter, or speak in a blog like this, it is from a person, not a corporate entity. I am writing this post, not all of us at Citrix. And when you put your name on something, you take more personal responsibility for it. It becomes more real. More human, and more powerful.

3. Great content will get people's attention. In a more fragmented world, we may not be able to interrupt people with mass advertising as easily, but if we engage each other with useful information, the traffic will come. When you look at the top-ranked posts on Digg or Stumbleupon or Delicious, lots of them are helpful, well-ordered information, such as "40 Awesome iPhone Application Websites." (Anything with iPhone in it seems instantly popular.) Once you provide useful and educational content, perhaps people will be more interested in what you have to sell.

4. Emotion is powerful. Some of the most viral content on the web connects on an emotional level. In reflecting on the Susan Doyle phenomenon or a popular viral video like, Where is Matt, I'm struck by how they both involve an ordinary person inspiring strangers - through music or a silly dance - in a way that's surprising and delightful. Both have moral resonance. Don't pre-judge. We are all connected. I love that the social web rewards this.

5. Charity begins online. We convinced Chris to go ahead and shave his head right then and there during our training class last week - with a live online video stream and twitter updates, documented via iPhone and Flip. Plus, Chris put out the call for donations, and then it was truly a commitment. Charity is another viral lightening rod. From this impromptu event, Chris has raised $4355 (last I checked) from lots of individual donors, not including Corporate donators including Citrix. The dollars went up, the hair came off, his network buzzed. It was incredible to watch because this shows the true power of social media and the impact it can have for the greater good.

Where all this leaves me is feeling generally optimistic. There are negatives and drawbacks to unfiltered mob-created information (and misinformation), but if social media also rewards generosity, transparency, humanity and charity, all I can say is, count me in.

Our GoToWebinar team puts on web events with leading industry experts and invites target audiences to attend. What you might not know is that they also record these webinars and now post them to iTunes where they are available as free podcasts that anyone can listen to at any time. Some of the speakers and topics include:

• Seth Godin and the Future of marketing on the 14 trends that are changing the way we do business.
• Selling in Tough Times, an interview with Jim Dickie of CSO Insights
• The ROI of Moving Training Online
• Communicating Effectively with your Employees
• Make Training Online as Effective as in Person with Roger Courville, founder of the 1080 Group
• Presentations That Make the Sale
• Managing a Mobile and Remote Workforce
• Using Webinars to Engage Prospects with webinar expert Ken Molay
• Increase Reach with Webinars, an interview with Webinar guru David Cleary
  

Note that to listen to the podcasts, you have to have iTunes.  While you're in iTunes, a couple of other business podcasts that I enjoy and recommend:

• Harvard Ideacast: Generally short, interesting interviews with business authors and academics.
• TEDTalks: The conferences are hard to get into and sell out way in advance, but you can watch the very diverse and often compelling presentations on innovation and ideas as podcasts for free.

Inside tip from Citrix Online: Check out www.goview.com. This is an easy way to record, edit and share content, available as a free limited beta. (If you register and it's full, just wait until they allow more people in.) We're finding tons of ways to use it. 

First, How It Works:

1. Click "record" and it starts recording audio and everything on your screen.
2. Click "stop" and it provides a URL you can use to share your recording.
3. If desired, you can edit your recording, add title slides, or export it.

10 Cool Ways to Use it: 

1. Training: Create short training videos. It's so simple, anyone can create a fast recorded training explaining how to do something on your computer and send it out to customers, co-workers or customize for an individual customer. 
2. Marketing Demos: This is an easy way to create demos highlighting product functionality for use on web sites or wherever. 
3. Sales: Answer prospect questions. If you have frequent questions that require detailed explanation - show, don't just tell. Record the answer on your screen and send the link to your prospect.  
4. Customer Service: Answer questions faster. Record snippets answering frequent questions and send those out to people. If you can't reach someone, send them a video answer.  
5. QA, Catch Bugs: Use it to record funky or malfunctioning behavior and report it. 
6. Collaboration: An employee recently sent me a screen recording of proposed survey functionality so I could approve it. This is great. You can show how something might work on your computer and send out a link to get other people's feedback. 
7. Record a presentation: Record and talk through your presentation then share it. 
8. Side-by-Side Comparisons: I recently recorded a comparison of myself using GoToMyPC to work remotely vs. a competitor and shared it in an internal meeting. It helped drive home my point which was how fast and easy GoToMyPC is for after-hours remote work. 
9. IT, Help Desk and Support: Tired of answering the same questions? Record the on-screen steps to take and refer people to those. 
10. Usability: You could record someone interacting with your web site or product and then share that with others.  
What have I missed?  I'd love to hear how other people are using GoView.

In 1993 Bell Atlantic was frantically trying to figure out how to deploy television services over their network to compete with the then emerging Cable companies.  They failed.  In 1998 Verizon embarked on a campaign to provide television through their network starting with high rise apartments and condominium complexes in order to quicken the pace of deployment through what was then called MDU (Multi Dwelling Unit) delivery.  Deals were struck with huge developers and a 50 city roll out started in 2000.  They failed.  In 2001 BellSouth began deploying FTTC (Fiber to the Curb) in an effort to deliver entertainment services to their subscribers through high bandwidth fiber optic cable.  They failed.  In 2005 Southwestern Bell Communications (SBC) announced U-verse, a Very high speed Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (VHDSL) based Internet Protocol (IP) television service in Texas.  On December 16, 2008 SBC (now AT&T) announced it had signed its 1 million^th U-Verse customer.  This is a far cry from the tens of millions of customers that the cable companies have secured, but finally shows some traction. 

Why is AT&T succeeding when there has been such a long history of failure in this space?  Because over the past 10 years while Telcos have been failing at providing Cable entertainment services, cable companies like Comcast have been devouring phone subscribers.  In fact, Comcast just announced they are the fourth largest phone operator in the U.S. with 6.47 million subscribers.  It's a matter of business.  The Telco now has to succeed at providing alternate services because they have fierce competition over their core business... namely telephony.

The moral of the story is not to sell your Telco stocks or even be dismayed by the lethargic progress of these monoliths.  The moral is that whenever large corporations attempt large game changing moves, time is the only way to measure success.  Secondly, the measure of technology push and consequently adoption sometimes has to do with market pressure from competition and not just increasing revenues but protecting them as well.

So what does all of this have to do with Software as a Service?  Well, take for instance the fact that Microsoft (as well as others) started to deliver their software over the Internet in 2000, created ASP.net in 2002 and has been hard at it ever since.  With hundreds of thousands of hosted Exchange licenses in this space it's safe to say that Microsoft is entrenched and growing.  With all of the business customers that Telcos like AT&T have, why aren't they also growing this (SaaS) business?  The answer is simple.  It has not yet begun to encroach on the core telephony business.  Or has it?  The enterprise space is usually the place that large telephony companies start new services.  One only has to look at Voice over IP (VoIP) implementations to see this.  Adoption of VoIP in the Telco subscription base has grown dramatically over the past few years.  And even though the growth has slowed in this economy, there is an extending strategy emerging for mobile use of VoIP.  This is the first entry of IP delivery services to business from the Telco showing traction.

Will the big Telcos or Service Providers be competition or partners for applications hosting providers?

All of this creates opportunity for existing Tier 2 Hosting/Managed Service Providers.  Why?  Large service providers do not set the pace for early adoption.  The iPhone is one exception but even then it was actually Apple who set the pace and not AT&T.  As more businesses adopt SaaS and the market share grows, Tier 1 service providers will be forced to reckon with the delivery of applications over their networks.

Since brand is the number one asset among these service providers they will be looking to purchase "white label" offerings which have a proven track record in services, especially those that scale.  These will be the Tier 2 applications hosting companies who show promise in their subscription growth, but more importantly have adopted a strategy for growth of their data centers which adds scale and flexibility.  Since Xen is used prolifically today in large service implementations XenServer would be a likely choice for HA (High Availability) and management.  And since XenApp is the most prolific application delivery platform on the planet and has the highest utilization capacity on XenServer of any hypervisor/SBC combination, it would make sense to use it in a hosting environment for scale.

If you want to grow your current hosting business beyond Microsoft Exchange, you need to look at what a long term strategy is for servicing millions of subscribers, not just a few thousand.  Sure, in this economy you will need to pay the light bills with your core business and not throw money (CapEx and OpEx) to the wind.  But you better have a plan for sustained growth or you will be eaten alive by those companies who see the storm on the horizon for mass market application delivery.  If you don't believe me all you have to do is look to what happened last year at GE.  Even Google Apps won't compete in this market when there is an alternative that scales better like Zoho.

This is not to say you should dump all of your Windows apps... quite the opposite, for the Tier 1 service provider to pick up your service in mass, the applications will have to be in the main stream.  Launch what SMBs want and need, do it cost effectively and form a strategy for growth... that's the road to the big leagues.

If you want to learn more about a holistic approach that scales, check out the podcast that Doug Brown did a few weeks ago entitled, "Citrix Cloud Computing".

"What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists...and it becomes available only when you are in that state of mind in which you know exactly what you want...and are fully determined not to quit until you get it." - Alexander Graham Bell  (Kind of ironic don't you think?)

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In reference to hosting applications in this new Cloud world I recently heard from a guy I admire and respect, "We've been here before and all that came out of this was a bunch of hype." When we consider what happened to the Application Service Providers in 2000 that is a fair assessment. So the million dollar question(s) today is who is making money hosting applications, what applications are they using and who are they selling these subscriptions to?

The answer is a bit complex because hosting service providers come in many shapes and sizes. However, if we only take into consideration those service providers who are actually charging for application delivery (subscription of applications) and not outsourcing companies who are mainly infrastructure providers, we can distill the market down to just a few distinct categories. The chart below is a depiction of the types of applications most subscribed to in this emerging space.

Human Resource Management Systems, Collaboration and Communications, Customer Relationship Management and Content Management Systems top the list of applications being delivered via hosting among Small and Medium Businesses (SMB). When we look at the practical application of these services, there is a business reason for why this is happening. 

Smaller companies do not have the capacity for overhead related to support functions within Human Resources such as Payroll, Talent Management, Employee Review processes, etc.  It makes absolute sense that these services would be either completely outsourced or applications hosted that perform the needed function. 

In order to cut the cost of expense items such as travel, Collaboration and Conferencing using the Internet and hosted applications is a sure fired way to accomplish this.  I've got to plug Citrix Online here... some say the 3^rd largest SaaS concern in the world for this category.  Corporate email is a good fit in this category as well.  There are currently over one hundred million unmanaged electronic mailboxes worldwide today and using email that has no business continuity is dangerous and unprofessional.  SMBs use hosted business email such as Microsoft Exchange to mitigate this issue.

Customer Relationship Management services shouldn't be a surprise to anyone with the success of Saleforce.com.  But there are many CRM packages used in this space.  Using a product like XenApp to virtualize applications opens the door to products typically used in the Enterprise but can now be scaled to operate in the larger Internet cloud.  Citrix has customers today who (internally) host CRM software using XenApp to thousands of end points in remote locations worldwide.

Content Management Systems may be a bit of a surprise for some.  However, document management and workflow is a critical need especially in market verticals such as Healthcare (HIPAA) and Finance (SOX).  When requirements of this magnitude are levied on the SMB the overhead can be overwhelming.  So the IT management of a system like this is a burden not many SMBs are willing to bear.  Application hosting is a cost effective alternative.  I recently spoke to an ISV in this space who started selling his application to SMBs in the insurance industry.  It became unmanageable to scale his business so he started to host the application 8 years ago.  Now he has 12,000 SMBs using the software.

Order Management, Enterprise Relationship Planning, Web 2.0 applications and Supply Chain Management round out the list.  And there it is... the applications making the most impact and therefore the most revenue in the SaaS space among SMBs. 

What if business productivity applications such as Microsoft Office could be offered up through the Internet (Cloud)?  Service providers who have tried this before might say that this is impossible because Office wasn't designed to be hosted... but what if you could do it using a platform that could make Office run as though it were local?  Wouldn't that be great?  Citrix has the technology and the products to accomplish this and my guess is it won't be long until service providers (in 2009) actually use it to host these types of applications.

Here's another surprise.  In an economy that is shrinking in virtually every other aspect of IT, applications hosting is still growing.  What are you waiting for?

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