Convoq App Melds With Salesforce
SellASAP for AppExchange does a good job of blending Convoqs Web conferencing features into the context of selling in Salesforce. coms namesake service.
SellASAP for AppExchange is a tool that allows sales and support staff to host one-to-many meetings—either to present information or demonstrate an application—and its priced at an affordable $8,750 per year for 25 presenter seats. Each presenter can present to 15 participants.
Convoq delivers SellASAP through two components: the dedicated ASAP Pro client that manages Web-conference-based meetings and embedded links to the ASAP client within the Salesforce.com interface. The ASAP Pro client is a good Web conferencing tool that includes an instant messaging client with robust contact management.
On the Salesforce.com side, I liked the way Convoq has integrated the ASAP components into the Salesforce experience. These integration points include embedded links, fields that ASAP populates with presentation metadata and a dashboard. The links consist primarily of launching points for meetings in specific areas of the Salesforce interface.
For more information, go to www.convoq.com.
–Michael Caton
Spare Backup Gets Users in Good Habit
I dont back up my data nearly as often as I should.
Targeting users such as myself (and Im guessing there are many), Spare Backup is an automated service that allows you to do a secure and remote restore of your data from anywhere with an Internet connection.
A basic subscription with 1GB of storage costs $9.99 a month, with each additional gigabyte costing an extra $1.99 per month. An annual subscription with 1GB of storage costs $7.99 a month and $1.59 for each additional gigabyte. A 45-day trial with 500MB of storage is free.
The service, from Spare Backup Inc., requires Windows 2000 or later, as well as a broadband connection. All data stored by the service is secured via AES 1,024-bit SSL encryption, a user name and password, and a “spare key” password required to open files recovered using the service.
After installing the service, I was able to configure it to back up only certain types of files and to set a backup schedule. Spare Backup then scanned my hard drive for files, including all my Microsoft Outlook e-mail.
After the initial scan, only new files and those that have been changed are added by the service during the next scheduled backup. Spare Backup also has Web-based account access that let me recover data from the service and search all my files.
More information is available at www.sparebackup.com.
–Anne Chen
F-Secure Maps Out Malware
With threat information culled from its worldwide customer installed base, F-Secures new World Map (check it out at worldmap.f-secure.com and above) offers a quick glimpse at the current and historical virus and malware threat posture worldwide.
From the color-coded display, the F-Secure World Map highlights overall infection rates worldwide during the previous hour or day, or I could view historical data for last month or last year. (But last year is as far back as it goes.)
I could drill down to focus the map on a specific country or continent, and, within the United States, I could even focus on a single state.
The global threat posture tools are fun to monkey with, but I was more interested in the specific information the World Map offers about currently active threats. The World Map interface breaks out the most common threats (and threat families) detected, and I could drill down to view outbreak information worldwide for a specific threat, tracking a virus or Trojan as it spreads internationally over time.
F-Secure clients automatically report the infections that make up the trending information shown in the World Map. Customers that dont want their infection data automatically reported should give F-Secure an earful.
Upon request, F-Secure also will provide instructions to add a World Map banner to your Web site, which makes for an abnormally informative advertisement.
–Andrew Garcia