General
General Questions
Moving your documents and files to OBT's Document Management Systems has the following benefits:
Your data is accessible from anywhere.
Your data is safe, secure, and backed up.
Your data is re-printable, should you lose your original copy.
No more lines at the filing cabinets!
No more searching for misfiled documents!
No more MASSIVE FLOOR SPACE required to house MASSIVE FILING CABINETS!
OBT wants to ensure that you can access your email from anywhere, be it mobile device, office computer, or a laptop in a hotel room. In the event you are using a temporary computer that does not have email software installed or configured, feel free to use OBT WebMail to send, receive, and manage your email.
OBT WebMail is accessible via http://webmail.openbusinesstech.com/ Simply login with your username (you@your-domain.com) and password and you're ready to go!
Different mobile devices access email differently. The iPhone, for instance, can be configured simply by using the above settings in the "Mail, Contacts, and Calendars" section of your iPhone's "Settings" application. Blackberry phones, however, require you to first setup your email account with the Blackberry Information Services (BIS) website. You will need to contact your Cell Provider for information on using their data network with email services.
Use these settings to configure your email account using Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora, Apple's Mail.app, etc. If you have problems, as always, please contact OBT Support -
Mail Account/Server Type: IMAP (required for proper synching to your various devices)
Incoming Mail Server: mail.your-domain.com
Outgoing Mail Server: mail.your-domain.com
Outgoing Server Authentication: "Password" or "Plain Text Password"
Outgoing Server Username: your.username@your-domain.com
Mail Username: your.username@your-domain.com (i.e. brent@openbusinesstech.com)
Currently OBT does not limit the number of accounts you can have, but we do limit the amount of disk space used by all your accounts. Currently these restrictions are around 10GB of disk space, so unless you have a habit of zipping and emailing entire DVD's to coworkers, you should never see this limit in actual practice. Keep in mind that email is a SIMPLE service, so large attachments (over 20MB) should be sent by other methods, such as CD, DVD, flash drive, or an OBT File Repository (ask your OBT Account Representative about this service!)
Backups are just as valuable as the original data, though are seldom viewed as such until needed. If you complete work on your computer daily, you should backup daily. How and what your computer actually backs up is determined by your backup software. OBT will be more than happy to setup and configure this software for you to ensure you are getting the best protection in the event of data loss or hardware failure.
Our Systems Team monitors the network 24/7, so we're aware of outages just as soon as you are. Every night, 7 days a week, the Systems Team connects to the servers, verifies their status, and runs maintenance routines to ensure they are available to you and running at their best. OBT will never intentionally cause a disruption in service during business hours, and we make every effort to take into account "late workers" by performing our maintenance routines well after hours. However, no system is perfect and outages are bound to occur.
For immediate responses, the OBT Support Line is your best bet. This support line is designed to ring the first available technician, no matter where they are or what they are doing. Phone support is available 8:00am to 6:00pm Central, Monday through Friday.
OBT Support: 918.948.6945
For less urgent assistance, feel free to use our online forums or email support directly at support@openbusinesstech.com We will make every effort to have your solution within 1 hour.
OBT uses a fairly robust Trouble Ticketing System to keep track of your issues, on-going related tasks, status reports, problem ownership, and solutions. The system archives these tickets, so if you've had a problem in the past, we can quickly reference the problem and steps taken to remedy the situation, allowing us to more quickly address your issue. OBT also uses this ticketing system to constantly update our internal technical documentation, so you can rest assured that any OBT tech assigned to you will know of your problem as well as any relevant history.
The various utilities that OBT uses can be very dangerous if not used properly. Improper use can (and often does) result in data loss, requiring you to contact OBT support to correct. Sometimes the lost data cannot be recovered, forcing you to lose man hours and possibly incur more support costs to correct the issue (if possible). In practice, we've found that once a month is sufficient for maintenance, and most problems that occur are not easily remedied by simply performing the maintenance routines.
Once a month, OBT technicians will make a visit to your office to make sure things are running properly. During this visit, we'll also take time with each of your machines to ensure they are operating at their best. OBT will run diagnostics, clean things up, and make sure your systems are clean of Malware, Spyware, and Adware. We keep track of all your software and their expiration dates, and will inform you when it is time to renew your varied subscriptions. We will place the order and renew them for you, saving you the headache of dealing with software vendors directly.