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Get Organized with Customized Microsoft Outlook Rules

Jan 21st, 2010 in Tips & Advice by Michael Ferranti

I love the idea of organization.  But, somehow, the reality of it never quite works for me.  Until now.  My New Year’s Resolution this year is to get organized and I’m starting with my email.

Like you, I get tons of email.  Email from my boss.  Email from my wife.  Email for some service I signed up for and have just been too busy to opt out of.

To help organize all this email, I’ve set up rules in Outlook.  Rules are a like having an awesome secretary who knows when to put your calls through and when to tell the person calling that you’re at the dentist.  Really, besides using Hosted Exchange to get rid of the headaches associated with running your own mail server, Outlook rules are one of the simplest things you can do to get back to doing the things that matter.

Top 8 Rules You Can Use To Get Organized in Microsoft Outlook

  • File any email where my name is CC:d in the “My CC:’d emails” folder: Download Rule
  • File any email where I am the only recipient in the “Me, Myself and I” folder: Download Rule
  • File any email sent with high importance in the “Quick, the house is burning down” folder and flag for follow-up (just in case you missed it coming in) : Download Rule
  • File any email from my wife or husband or significant other or, oh…you get the point, in the “Love of My Life” folder : Download Rule
  • File any email with the word “Project” in the subject in the “My Projects” folder: Download Rule
  • Flag any email from my boss as high importance: Download Rule
  • Flag any email from my boss as low importance (Hey, we’ve all got different bosses, so wasn’t sure which you’d prefer!): Download Rule
  • Delay delivery of all emails except those marked as high importance by 1 minute—just in case I said something I’ll regret: Download Rule

Can’t decide which rules you want?  Download All

There are just a few steps that you need to follow to import these rules into Outlook and get them up and running (Note: These steps are designed for Outlook 2007).

1)     Click on the above rule you want to download, or download all. To specify where you want to save the file, right-click the ‘Download Rule’ link and ‘Save link as…’. Once you’ve saved the file, unzip it so that you’ll be able to import the rule into Outlook.

2)     Open Outlook, go to Tools > Rules and Alerts > Options > Import Rules.  Find the file that you downloaded and click ‘Open’, then ‘OK.’

3)     Make sure that the rule is enabled by selected the check box next to the rule (as in Step 1).

4)     Chances are you will have to modify each rule slightly to make it work for your exact situation.  For example, you probably don’t have a folder called “Me, Myself and I” already, as in the below example.  To create this folder, click on the blue text (as in Step 2), select “New” (as in Step 3), and finally, select your Inbox (as in Step 4), and name the folder “Me, Myself and I” or anything else that you’d like (maybe “Mine and only Mine” or simply “My Emails”).

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

5) For rules that specify to do something with an email coming from or going to a specific email address, follow the same general steps as above, except rather than creating a folder, specify the email address for your exact situation (see Steps 5 and 6 below). 

Step 5

Step 6

What rules have you created in Outlook that you can’t live without?  Let us know by submitting a comment.  Happy Organizing this New Year!

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Making the Cloud Work for You

Dec 2nd, 2009 in Email & Apps Industry by Michael Ferranti

There is a lot of confusion currently about cloud computing. Questions abound both in terms of what it is and what it is not. And of course, there is a healthy dose of disagreement on whether it is really the next big thing.

Here at Rackspace, we think that it is and we are investing heavly in making it work for your business. But many businesses are not quite sure, and understandably so. There is risk, as well as reward, in early adoption of new technology.

A new survey taken at the Mid-Sized Enterprise Summit West reveals that while some business are actively embracing the cloud, and others have already implemented 1-2 cloud-based apps, most are curious but hesitant (see graphic below).

This hesitation on the part of medium-size businesses comes in part, I believe, from not understanding what the cloud is and how it can work with, not against, their current IT setup. Moving to the cloud doesn’t mean ditching your current systems entirely. Instead, it can be a process that lasts a number of years, making sure that you’re comfortable with the changes and their impact on your business.

How many years? Well that depends on you and your business. Over time, the trend will be to the All Cloud Enterprise, but to get there, firms will move through a series of stages (see graphic above). The most important thing in all this, however, is making sure the cloud works for you, not the other way around.

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Rackspace Listens!…no really, we’re serious

Nov 12th, 2009 in Culture by Michael Ferranti

We’ve got a Nintendo Wii in the break room here at the Rackspace Blacksburg, VA office. We’ve even got a wicked ax for rocking out to Guitar Hero. But the reason that everyone was gathered in there yesterday was to watch our CEO, Lanham Napier, on Fox Business News. He told the Rackspace story to thousands of viewers. He told people what a ‘Racker’ is. He got called a ‘Gutsy Texan’ by Liz Claman. It was a great interview.

One point that he made several times was that Rackspace is different from the competition like Google because of our Fanatical Support. We don’t just provide commodity apps, we partner with businesses to run their IT so they can save money and work smarter.

Part of what all that means is that we actually listen to customers. If you fill out a survey to help us learn how we can better meet your needs, we actually review your feedback.

I read over a really great survey from a customer yesterday. His company is growing rapidly. They provide a free innovative budgeting tool called BudgetSketch. Long story short, BudgetSketch got mentioned on the popular personal productivity site Lifehacker.com and when a lot of customers signed up they exceeded their daily Gmail email limit.

When I read about this, and about how happy this customer was with his new Rackspace Email service (set up at 2am by our transition team, by the way), I wrote him a note saying how happy we were that his site was succeeding and offered to chat if there was anything else we could do to help him succeed as BudgetSketch keeps growing.

Here’s how that customer responded:

Hello Michael,

It is always refreshing when a company takes time to follow-up with something more than a form letter. That’s our philosophy too. We personally respond to every feedback submission we receive. Clearly you took the time to read my survey submission and it is clear that your intent is to help us grow BudgetSketch. We appreciate that very much also.

…….

Thanks again for your follow-up. You guys are doing a lot of things right and we appreciate your efforts very much.

Keep up the great work,

Bill Barnett
Vice President – Finagilous LLC

This is what real partnerships look like. We want our customers to succeed and we listen when they tell us something…good or bad. To Bill and all the customers who have responded to our surveys, Thank You. We’ve heard you and are doing our best to help your business grow. If there’s anything else we can do, please let us know.

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Why Philosophy Matters (for business and you)

Nov 6th, 2009 in Tips & Advice by Michael Ferranti

Philosophy is important. It changes history because big ideas lead to big actions. Some of the most transformative political movements in history started as a purely philosophical project.

The closest thing to philosophy in business is a company’s mission statement. These statements lay out a vision of what the company wants to be, not just what it is. One can use a firm’s mission statement to learn about the company and its competencies beyond what’s contained in its product offering.

Flying high?

Compare the mission statements of Delta and Southwest Airlines. First Delta:

We—Delta’s employees, customers, and community partners together form a force for positive local and global change, dedicated to bettering standards of living and the environment where we and our customers live and work.

Now Southwest:

The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.

Everyone knows that Southwest is widely regarded as a great U.S. airline; Delta is not. Could one deduce this from their mission statements? Of course! What the heck does “bettering standards of living and the environment” have to do with an airline? In short, nothing. It’s a noble goal and I applaud any company that embraces social responsibility among their goals. But as the central theme of their mission? How does that win customers and build enterprise value? This mission statement shows a lack of focus that might partially explain why Delta is in the financial trouble it is.

Southwest’s mission on the other hand is clear, to the point and makes sense in the context of their industry. One normally does not think of low-cost carriers as great service companies, but Southwest’s “disruptive technology” was service—so focusing on that element, rather than simply on cost or speed of service is reasonable, and differentiating.

Try before you buy

The take-away from this brief comparison is that, as a customer, an easy way to “try before you buy” is to look at the company’s mission statement. Does the statement provide a clear picture of how the business creates value? If the company does everything it says it will do, will you win? If the answer to these questions is not “yes,” then you may need to think about going with a different company. When the philosophy is not compelling, can you expect big actions are a result?

At Rackspace, we take philosophy seriously. It’s a part of everything we do here and drives our decision making process every day. So what’s our mission here at Rackspace? To state it simply — our mission is to be recognized as one of the world’s greatest service companies.

Learn more about how we are delivering on our mission at Rackspace.

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Congratulations Google, Your Win in Los Angeles is a Win for Us All

Oct 28th, 2009 in Email & Apps Industry by Michael Ferranti

Congratulations Google from all of us at Rackspace. Los Angeles, California is going with Google Apps for its new city-wide email solution. This is a big win for you and for Los Angeles.

We’re your competitor. We believe that we beat you on price and on service. But on the point that moving email and apps to the cloud makes sense for huge numbers of customers, we couldn’t agree with you more. When customers get in the cloud, they save money and work smarter. Whether they’re looking for the power of Microsoft Exchange without the headache of managing it or great web-based POP and IMAP, email hosting frees customers up to focus on their core competencies. Whether we call it Going Google or getting in the cloud, the point is the same. The future of email is cloud-based and we’re happy that you’re right along with us helping customers get there.

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Email in the Cloud: There’s real money to save says Gartner

Oct 22nd, 2009 in Email & Apps Industry by Michael Ferranti

We’ve been arguing for a while now on our blog that for SMBs (small to medium sized businesses), moving your email to the cloud is a good idea. It saves money, helps make IT staff more productive, and increases reliability in general for the businesses that drive our economy. But we want to help you move your email to the cloud, so we would think that, right?

Well Gartner agrees: the cost savings of email in the cloud are very real. In a presentation this week at the Gartner Symposium IT Expo, analysts Matthew Cain and James Lundy argue that by 2012, cloud email will cost over 50% less than the in-house alternative. And for storage costs, the savings will be even more dramatic: cost in the cloud is predicted to be 85% less than in-house.

Source: ZDNet

For small businesses who are leading the charge toward 20% of all email seats being in the cloud by 2012, this is huge. Better email cheaper. Simple, and powerful, as that.

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How Happy is Your IT Staff?

Oct 15th, 2009 in Email & Apps Industry by Michael Ferranti

As companies continue to need to lay off workers, the workload for the remaining lucky few has increased markedly. The recession is forcing us all to work smarter and faster, and IT is the natural place for businesses to look for ways to make that happen. It’s no surprise then that average hours worked per week for IT professionals are on the rise and that lives outside of work are suffering. According to a recent poll conducted by The IT Job Board, a full two-thirds of IT professionals feel that these long hours negatively affect their personal lives. Oh, and on the job performance is going down, too (34% of respondents believe that their productivity at work had decreased due to long hours).

In light of this gloomy situation, why not cut costs and increase morale? If you aren’t already, maybe it’s time to look at hosting for your business. If you are currently hosting with us, why not tell a friend what a winning proposition it is to free up precious IT hours to focus on core business objectives. Email Hosting saves significant money while freeing up IT staff to focus on core business problems, not routine maintenance, server upgrades, and service patch installs. We take care of all that, leaving tech-savvy employees to add value where it makes the biggest impact on the business. And, of course, if they can make it to that 6pm Happy Hour, we’ll all be the better for it.

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