Microsoft wares can help you muzzle the gas guzzle

A friend of mine wrote a book a few years back titled “Muzzle the Guzzle”, which offers 50 gas-saving tips and tricks. Today’s high gas prices made me wonder how sales were doing — but they also got me started thinking about some of the technology out there from Microsoft (and other companies) that can help save on fuel costs.

For starters, I put out some feelers into the network consultant and client servicing markets to see what admins are using to avoid extra driving. Tim Duggan, the lead network admin for Solution 32, with a clientele base that spans the New York tri-state area, says his company is a huge fan of LogMeIn for avoiding sitting in traffic, wasting more and more fuel. LogMeIn offers a variety of different tools but the more popular ones relate to remote access and remote management. Tim says, “We use LogMeIn pretty extensively. Not only can we take control of a server, but it allows us to have system alerts setup, and we’re able to check on events and other things without taking control.”

That sounded like a great option for saving on driving. But for Windows admins, Microsoft offers a couple of great tools similar to LogMeIn’s within the OS, Remote Assistance, and Remote Desktop.

Remote Assistance provides an elegant way to assist people within your organization, no matter where in the world they might be, with problems on their computer. It enables an admin to take control of the desktop to fix problems — without having to travel.

[Looking for other ways to ease gas pains? Please read “Give telecommuting the green light” and “Fight rising fuel surcharges with e-signatures.”]

There are three ways to use Remote Assistance: through Windows Messenger; by initiating a Remote Assistance session through e-mail; or via the Web-based e-mail service. The latter entails filling out a form and attaching it to an e-mail. To get this working you need a computer with Windows XP or Windows Vista, and Remote Assistance must be enabled in the System properties (which it usually is by default).

Remote Desktop is another great tool to allow you to connect up to servers and other systems from a distance. In fact, you can connect to your work desktop from home through a Remote Desktop connection if the ports are open on the firewall. Now that would save you some gas! In order for it to work, you must have either Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista Business, Ultimate and Enterprise editions.

Notably, although the Home and Premium versions have Remote Desktop, it’s disabled because MS doesn’t want you to be able to use if unless you’ve paid for a higher version of Vista. However, Frans Go Blog offers a means of fixing (or breaking, depending on how you look at it) it so that Remote Desktop works in other versions of Vista.

So with these aforementioned tools, you may have to go to central office, but when a problem comes up at a branch office location, you won’t have to make the long drive. Not too long ago InfoWorld SMB IT Curtis Franklin wrote about a few other options you might want to consider.

What else can save you some gas? Collaboration software, communication software, unified messaging software, telepresence — really, anything that takes travel out of the mix right?

[For more on telepresence, please read “Telepresence breaks down communication barriers.”]

Groove 2007 is an excellent example of collaboration software that can save you gas. Not only does it provide you a way to discuss topics and share documents, but it provides the capability to have online meetings through chat features. It even connects back with a SharePoint library if you use one so that documentation stays in order. Designed by Groove Networks, Ray Ozzie’s company that Microsoft acquired, Groove is a tool that can keep a team working together, even when they aren’t at the same physical location.

[For more about Groove, please read part one and part two of “Getting into the Groove.”]

But another tool that gives you more of that face-to-face togetherness is the new Communications Server with Communicator 2007. The server side expands on the unified messaging features in Exchange 2007, which allows for integrated voicemail, e-mail, and incoming fax, along with providing voice/e-mail access to your messages, calendar and so forth. Users ends up with presence and contact information, audio and video conferencing, speech technology-enabled interactive voice response and everyone’s favorite: instant messaging.

The flexibility of Communicator 2007 when used in conjunction with the backend servers Microsoft provides let’s you move from an IM conversation to a voice call within a click, or escalate to Group IM, voice or video on the fly. And with some of the new hardware being developed to move all of this work away from the PC, you have phones developed to link in with your Communicator, integration with Windows Mobile, and even a 360 degree video conference solution called Roundtable that offers high-quality audio and voice activated video tracking. I had the chance to see these tools demonstrated at Microsoft TechEd and they were impressive. Most importantly, though, they demonstrate how we have the technology to work, collaborate, and communicate — without traveling.

[Find out more about how Communications Server and Exchange get along by reading “Microsoft’s marriage of easy communications.”]

These types of technology save not only on gas for the car but also on travel by plane as well. Sure, for years we’ve had the video conferencing solutions coming our way. But only now is the speed available and the technology smooth enough to ensure the quality we desire. If we cannot have a face-to-face with a client or our team, we want to at least be able to see them clearly and hear them clearly, rather than looking at some fuzzy Max Headroom look-alike. (Yes, that is an 1980s reference. He was quite popular back in the day).

What tools are you using to keep you out of the car and either in your office or in your home? How have you been able to manage the enterprise while muzzling the guzzle?