Many believe that integrated banking technology solutions are beyond the resources of many community banks. This assumption is based on the belief that high costs and intricate management skills that are associated with the design, installation, and maintenance of such systems. Thus, the return on investment is insufficient to make an adequate business case for small or mid-size banks.
Times have changed. Gone are the days when custom-built solutions required high dollar integrations, lengthy implementations and extensive human resources. Through outsourced web-based banking technology, community bankers now have the opportunity to enhance the value of each customer interaction. Community bankers now have access to affordable web-based banking tools that help banks make quality and proactive business decisions, which leads to a distinct competitive advantage.
A business case can easily be built for the many benefits of integrated banking technology solutions, not only for the bottom line but also for customer contentment.
Focus on the Customer
Community banks now can concentrate on standing out from the competition. It benefits the bottom line to avoid tedious, imprecise paper-based processes, because these require considerable time and effort from employees. Using web-based banking tools to expedite routine processes allows employees to focus on their most important role—serving the customer.
Affordable for Every Institution
With minimal capital outlay, community banks can afford web-based banking technology. Many solutions offer transactional-based pricing, which allows banks to pay only for the services they request and execute. Today’s technology allows every size institution to utilize the same web-based banking tools that were developed to serve the largest financial institutions. These technological advancements help community banks to compete on an even playing field.
Easy to Implement & Update
Implementation of integrated banking technology solutions is highly flexible, so that community banks can quickly transition with few internal resources. Many web-based banking tools require only an Internet browser and can easily be incorporated into existing operations. As regulations change, technology updates are seamless, requiring no disruption of day-to-day services.
Today community banks are faced with a daunting challenge. They must protect customers, transactions and the bottom line, while simultaneously delivering excellent service, complying with regulatory mandates and meeting business objectives. Outsourced web-based banking technology provides a clear choice to respond to this complex challenge. By choosing integrated banking technology solutions, community bankers can benefit from technology and better compete.
About the Expert Web-based Banking Tools Author:
Cleve Shultz has spent more than 14 years helping financial institutions run more profitable organizations through increasing efficiencies and improving service levels. Currently, Shultz is a director at eFunds Corporation.

Costa Rica - CELL Phone Cards 4.6

The better a person understands software, the more flexibility there is when designing with typography especially when it comes to versals. According the Google’s dictionary, versals are the “oversized initial letters usually colored in red or blue and characterized by exaggerated curves, vertical strokes, and serifs (also called Lombardic Capitals).” To clarify, graphic designers not only have an oversized letter start out the body of text, but they make the text wrap around it too. Any given software tool can be the single answer to polishing up an awesome design. This is why graphic designers need to thoroughly understand the tools in which they work with. To get the desired professional look for their layouts, they have to thoroughly understand software tools first.
Graphic designers can learn from the stage play called “Lion King.” The play has unforgettable stunning colors and perfectly orchestrated choreography. Everything about the play was artistic and cleverly done. In addition, the music perfectly harmonized with the stage play too. Amazingly, layers and layers of information were presented harmoniously as the audience watched in admiration. From this, graphic designers can learn the importance of orchestrating and fine-tuning as they bring together all the required information for their layouts. In theory, it sounds easy, and if measuring the “Lion King” to the challenge of a layout, it is easy comparatively. At times, I wonder how I am going to organize my racing thoughts as I attempt to pull my projects together. But, I try to stay mentally organized by dividing up my ideas which helps me to organize my thoughts. Then, I methodically and strategically put it all together.
For instance, when starting a layout, I first try to pinpoint what my message is going to be and determine who is going to be my audience. Next, I start thinking about the design elements such as the heading and subheadings, the versal, graphics, and color scheme. Usually, the versal is one of the last design decisions I make for a layout. It seems that a versal to a layout is like the icing on the cake.
If you are not sure if you have made your versal correctly, show your layout to others or open up some books and magazines and make some comparisons. In fact, you should always solicit critiques and feedback from your peers. Everyone seems to see and interpret information differently, and artists should welcome feedback because of this. You’ll find with every versal you make, it’ll get easier. Nothing beats time and experience. (revised 2/14/2006)

Debbie Jensen, http://www.debjensendesigns.com
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It never ceases to amaze me how sophisticated and incredibly original some software developers are. Here is a fresh batch of handy software with cool, sometimes weird, applications.
WaveToText (United Research Labs)
WaveToText is an English speech recognition-based dictation pad with a WAV to text converter. The dictation pad lets you convert your voice to text in real-time, while the program’s wizard enables you to convert your Windows Audio WAV files (speech recorded) offline. This speech utility is probably the fastest way to convert speech to text, you don’t need to be conscious of what the computer is going to write, you also don’t miss a word as its stored in a wav file. You may then high speed edit the converted text using a special editor which plays back every word which you can mark for editing purposes. In addition, the text can be searched and easily cut, copied, and pasted into any application.
PDFToHTML (VeryPDF)
The PDFToHTML is a specialized tool for quickly and easily converting Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) documents into HTML files. PDFToHTML provides all the power to convert sophisticated PDF documents, by remaining all the text layout, along with the coordinate, color, style of every object. Here are some things I love about this particular software:
First, it boasts high speed in processing and supports command line, so you can call it from yourself program. Importantly, you don’t need to have Adobe Acrobat software installed and the program will work on any Win98/ME/NT/2000/XP machine.
NET Observe (Explore Anywhere Software)
NET Observe 2.9 is a powerful, discrete remote web based surveillance and administration suite. It includes the ability to monitor Internet chat conversations, websites visited, windows, applications ran, clipboard activity, printed documents, and more. It can also take screen shot shots at set intervals, as well as take pictures from external video devices such as a web cam. All logs are viewable securely from a remote location through a web browser. All logs can also be exported into four different formats, such as HTML, Excel spreadsheets, plain text, or CSV.
Free Download Links:
WaveToText http://www.deprice.com/wavetotext.htm
PDFToHTML http://www.deprice.com/pdf2html.htm
NET Observe http://www.deprice.com/netobserve.htm

For other cool software picks from John Deprice, visit http://www.deprice.com/photo2vcdstudio.htm
Antigua - CELL Phone Cards 10.0

I had an application that I was working where the client insisted on using an Access database for the application. The application was running on a two node server farm so the Access database had to be located on a seperated machine and accessed over the network. When upgrading the server farm from 2000 to 2003 the client ran into an issue accessing the database.
After checking to make sure it wasn’t an error with the connection to the location where the database was held I attempted to put the database underneath the site and connect to it there. Well that connection worked fine and the data could be accessed.
Long story short after some research and some long hours on this I found that the issue was a combination of things. First under IIS 6 all applications are run under application pools. The application pools do not pass the identity along that they run under. This creates a problem when trying to access a remote drive. To solve this issue you can enable impersonation of the account that you had IIS to run as the anonymous user. To do this you need to open the web.config file of your application. Under the and then insert a line that is similar to this:
< IDENTITY impersonate="”true”/" >
This line should be used if you wish to impersonate the user as the account that the user is logged in as on their desktop.
or
< IDENTITY impersonate="”true”" userName="”< your" user name >” password=”< USER account password > ”/>
This line should be used if you want to specify one specific account to impersonate.
After I turned on the impersonation in my project another issue appeared. I got the dreded /< YOUR name application > Application Error. This issue was addressed in Microsoft KB82719 Article.
When a .NET application executes it uses the TEMP folder of the ASPNET user, or whatever user you have specified to run your .NET applications, to run and store temporary files. When you run an Access database/application temporary files are opened but since you are impersonating a user that user does not have access to open these files under the ASPNET temp directory. The solution for this is simple, go into the file structure and grant the account access to the temp folder in C:Document settingsServerNameASPNETlocal settings folder. Only give the account access to the Temp folder so that a security risk is not created.

Jason Fortner is co-founder of Total Productivity Solutions, http://www.totalproductivitysolutions.com, a company that specilizes in SharePoint, Webpart and .NET development. More tips on web development visit Total Productivity Solutions.
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The Windows registry is the nerve center of your PC its made up of information called Keys and strings which simply put are directions for your software so it knows how to run.
Installing an application is an easy task for most users. But what about uninstalling? Do you know how to completely remove an application from your system? Did you know that most applications leave permanent files or registry entries on your system? In order to keep your system clean, you need to properly install and uninstall applications. Correctly uninstalling an application can ensure that it will not cause you any problems in the future.
The right way to uninstall software is definitely not the delete key. And it’s not always the familiar Add/Remove Programs dialog. In many cases, you need to follow a series of steps in order to completely remove a program from your system.
Add/Remove Programs: This is the familiar application you can find on your Control Panel. It is (obviously) the most important tool that you use to remove an application. It is primarily intended for applications that don’t offer an Uninstall program on their own. Most of the times however, it can be safely used to uninstall these applications as well, since their own uninstall program will be started by the Add/Remove Programs dialog. It can be found at Start - Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs.
Many applications tend to leave permanent files laying around on your hard disk. Your system does not need these files and so, apart from wasting space, sometimes they may adversely affect the performance of your system (e.g. an older version of a library may cause compatibility issues with newer applications). On the other hand, there are also programs that leave useless registry entries on your Windows registry that can cause similar problems.
A Registry cleaning program can be used to find and delete all registry keys, strings, files and folders that the program has left on your machine. This will result is a faster PC and a PC less Prone to errors.
For more information visit about registry cleaners visit http://www.yourpcprotection.com
Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Glenn Munn is an IT professional with many years of experinece with PC Threats. Qualifications include Microsoft Certified Professional Comptia A+ hardware Comptia A+ software Website: PC Protection
Laos - CELL Phone Cards 5.0

Ever since my college days, I always loved to have my own
compiled
kernel. It gave me that special feeling of “my machine is better
than
yours”. I am sure each time my new kernel boots up the feeling I
have
is is the same as what Super Man has when he bashs up the bad
people.
A custom kernel boots up the system faster, it takes up lesser
memory space and one can install drivers for hardware not
supported by a default kernel. Besides these benefits, a custom
kernel
serves as an interesting conversation topic with geeks. Just ask
them
“What is your kernel size ?”. This would keep the Geek busy for
sometime where he would explain all the great things he did to
the
kernel options to optimize his box.

If you happen to be a geek yourself, this is a great question to
put forward to those lowly Nubies. They’ll never trouble you
with stories of their nephew or kid sister after this
Before we get down to compiling our own kernel, it is a
wonderful idea
to backup the present kernel.
# cd /boot
# cp -pvr kernel kernel.orig

The original generic kernel is now stored as kernel.orig. In
case the
kernel does not boot (which has happened with me many times)
boot up
with the generic kernel and try again. Booting any other kernel
is
simple. At the boot time goto to the boot prompt and simple say
“boot
kernel.orig” and the default kernel would boot up.
The kernel sources are located in the /usr/src/sys directory. If
not
installed, the kernel sources can be installed with the
following
commands. First insert the FreeBSD install CD in your CD drive.
# mount /cdrom# mkdir -p /usr/src/sys# ln -s /usr/src/sys /sys# cat /cdrom/src/ssys.[a-d]* | tar -xzvf
-

Then go to the director where the configuration files are
located.
#cd /sys/i386/conf

In this directory the GENERIC kernel configuration file is
located.
Copy this file and it as your custom name.
#cp -pvr GENERIC BABYBSD
# vi BABYBSD

First change the ident value from GENERIC to BABYBSD (or
whatever name
you prefer). I have given my sample configuration file at the
end of
this article. The options are quite easy to understand and a
good
starting point would be the FreeBSD
Handbook which has documented most of the kernel options.

You can also go to a shell and run the command #make LINT
in
this directory which would create a file called LINT which has
all the
options supported by the kernel listed.
After this stage just run the following commands

#/usr/sbin/config BABYBSD
#cd ../compile/BABYBSD
#make depend
#make
#make install

Please note that you must be root to run the make install.
Reboot and
the kernel should boot with your shining new kernel.

# My Sample Kernel Configuration File for FreeBSD/i386
machine i386
cpu
I586_CPU
cpu
I686_CPU
ident
BABYBSD

options SCHED_4BSD
# 4BSD scheduler
options INET
# InterNETworking
options INET6
# IPv6 communications protocols
options FFS
# Berkeley Fast Filesystem
options SOFTUPDATES
# Enable FFS soft updates support
options UFS_ACL
# Support for access control lists
options UFS_DIRHASH
# Improve performance on big directories
options MD_ROOT
# MD is a potential root device
options NFSCLIENT
# Network Filesystem Client
options NFSSERVER
# Network Filesystem Server
options NFS_ROOT
# NFS usable as /, requires NFSCLIENT
options MSDOSFS
# MSDOS Filesystem
options NTFS
options CD9660
# ISO 9660 Filesystem
options PROCFS
# Process filesystem (requires PSEUDOFS)
options PSEUDOFS
# Pseudo-filesystem framework
options GEOM_GPT
# GUID Partition Tables.
options COMPAT_43
# Compatible with BSD 4.3 [KEEP THIS!]
options COMPAT_FREEBSD4
# Compatible with FreeBSD4
options SCSI_DELAY=15000 #
Delay
(in ms) before probing SCSI
options KTRACE
# ktrace(1) support
options SYSVSHM
# SYSV-style shared memory
options SYSVMSG
# SYSV-style message queues
options SYSVSEM
# SYSV-style semaphores
options _KPOSIX_PRIORITY_SCHEDULING # POSIX
P1003_1B
real-time extensions
options KBD_INSTALL_CDEV #
install
a CDEV entry in /dev
options
AHC_REG_PRETTY_PRINT #
Print register bitfields in debug
# output. Adds ~128k
to
driver.
options
AHD_REG_PRETTY_PRINT #
Print register bitfields in debug
# output. Adds ~215k
to
driver.
options ADAPTIVE_GIANT
# Giant mutex is adaptive.
device
apic
# I/O APIC
# Bus support. Do not remove isa, even if you have no isa
slots
device isa
device eisa
device pci
# Floppy drives
device fdc
# ATA and ATAPI devices
device ata
device
atadisk
# ATA disk drives
device
atapicd
# ATAPI CDROM drives
options ATA_STATIC_ID #
Static
device numbering

# SCSI peripherals
device
scbus
# SCSI bus (required for SCSI)
device ch
# SCSI media changers
device da
# Direct Access (disks)
device cd
# CD
device
pass
# Passthrough device (direct SCSI access)
device
ses
# SCSI Environmental Services (and
SAF-TE)
# atkbdc0 controls both the keyboard and the PS/2 mouse
device
atkbdc
# AT keyboard controller
device
atkbd
# AT keyboard
device
psm
# PS/2 mouse
device
vga
# VGA video card driver
device
splash
# Splash screen and screen saver support
# syscons is the default console driver, resembling an SCO
console
device sc
# Enable this for the pcvt (VT220 compatible) console driver
#device vt
#options XSERVER
# support for X server on a vt console
#options FAT_CURSOR # start
with
block cursor
device
agp
# support several AGP chipsets
# Floating point support - do not disable.
device npx
# Power management support (see NOTES for more options)
#device apm
# Add suspend/resume support for the i8254.
device pmtimer

# PCI Ethernet NICs that use the common MII bus controller
code.
# NOTE: Be sure to keep the ‘device miibus’ line in order to use
these
NICs!
device
miibus
# MII bus support
device rl
# RealTek 8129/8139
# Wireless NIC cards
device
wlan
# 802.11 support
# Pseudo devices.
device
loop
# Network loopback
device
mem
# Memory and kernel memory devices
device io
# I/O device
device
random
# Entropy device
device
ether
# Ethernet support
device sl
# Kernel SLIP
device
ppp
# Kernel PPP
device
tun
# Packet tunnel.
device
pty
# Pseudo-ttys (telnet etc)
device md
# Memory “disks”
device
gif
# IPv6 and IPv4 tunneling
device
faith
# IPv6-to-IPv4 relaying (translation)
# The `bpf’ device enables the Berkeley Packet Filter.
# Be aware of the administrative consequences of enabling
this!
# Note that ‘bpf’ is required for DHCP.
device
bpf
# Berkeley packet filter
# USB support
device
uhci
# UHCI PCI->USB interface
device
ohci
# OHCI PCI->USB interface
device
ehci
# EHCI PCI->USB interface (USB 2.0)
device
usb
# USB Bus (required)
#device
udbp
# USB Double Bulk Pipe devices
device
ugen
# Generic
device
uhid
# “Human Interface Devices”
device
ukbd
# Keyboard
device
umass
# Disks/Mass storage - Requires scbus and
da
device
ums
# Mouse
# Specific to my Machine
device
atapicam
# for CD Writer to be detected by K3B and other CD writing
software
device
sound
# To Enable Sound
device
“snd_ad1816″
device
“snd_als4000″
device
snd_cmi
device
“snd_cs4281″
device
snd_csa
device
“snd_ds1″
device
“snd_emu10k1″
device
“snd_es137x”
device
snd_ess
device
“snd_fm801″
device
snd_gusc
device
snd_ich
device
snd_maestro
device
“snd_maestro3″
device
snd_mss
device
snd_neomagic
device
“snd_sb16″
device
snd_sbc
device
snd_solo
device
“snd_t4dwave”
device
“snd_via8233″
device
“snd_via82c686″
device
snd_vibes
device
snd_uaudio
device pcii
device
acpi
device
acpi_asus
device
acpi_video
device
cbb
# cardbus (yenta) bridge
device
pccard #
PC Card
(16-bit) bus
device
cardbus #
CardBus
(32-bit) bus
options DEVICE_POLLING
options HZ=1000
options PERFMON
device
apm_saver # Requires APM
options
AUTO_EOI_1
options AUTO_EOI_2
options VESA

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At this moment, as we write this article in the beginning of 2006, two international ERP vendors are aggressively launching their campaigns on the Brazilian ground: Microsoft Business Solutions with Microsoft Dynamics AX / Axapta (first quarter 2006) and SAP with SAP Business One (end of January/February 2006). Both companies have presence on the market in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro: SAP has mySAP-SAP R/3, sold, implemented and supported directly by SAP consultants (Sao Paulo SAP office) and Microsoft has Navision, supported by MBS partner channel. Plus SAP has SAP all-in-one, implemented through the partners. Here we are presenting our opinion on these campaigns and targeted clientele.
• Local ERPs: Microsiga has over 10% of the market and both Microsoft Business Solutions and SAP plan to appeal to Microsiga clientele. We could understand the plans, and obviously Microsiga has its own defense strategy – it fits to Brazilian taxation, payroll, government reporting. At the same time Microsoft, SAP and Oracle could play the card of international business requirements, especially from the management reporting standpoint.
• SAP Business One. If you look at SAP Business One market niche in the USA or Europe, all-in-one named user licensing program usually has minimum requirement of 2 users. In Brazil, SAP recently reconsidered it to be 5 users, that means that SAP BO doesn’t go down to the small businesses, but rather targets mid-size and even upper mid-size clients.
• Microsoft Axapta / Dynamics AX. As you know Microsoft has new name for its Project Green – now it is in the conception of Microsoft Dynamics. With Axapta and really ‘starting from the ground’ – Microsoft is probably staking on Axapta as its future technology, and again it is probably would go down to the mid-market and even low mid-market with Axapta licensing. Currently Axapta is in localization beta testing mode – Brazilian taxes, Portuguese language (language is not a concern – taxes are a way more challenging).
• Oracle Financials / Applications. Oracle has long-time presence on the market here. If you are Oracle professional – you should be familiar with Oracle customization and localization technology. Oracle has LATAM localized code and portion of this is applicable to Brazil specifics.
• Multinational Companies. Both Microsoft Axapta and SAP Business One have very good positions to be chosen by Multinational corporation for it Brazilian subsidiary ERP. Both of them are localized, support Multilanguage (English and Portuguese are required in Brazil)
• Implementation Partner. In the case of multinational corporation – you need the ERP partner who is very familiar and experienced in international business, has presence in USA, Europe and Brazil
• CRM. Navision, Axapta, SAP Business One, Oracle Financials have CRM module / granule. Microsoft and Oracle have advanced CRM solutions: Microsoft CRM and Siebel respectively. Microsoft CRM has connectors to Microsoft Great Plains / Dynamics GP, Navision (through third party integration module) and Axapta integration is on the way. Also Microsoft CRM has connector to IBM Lotus Notes Domino, developed by Alba Spectrum Group, allowing you to protect the investment into Lotus Domino licenses.
• POS Connection (Point of Sale). Navision and Axapta have POS modules, for the small stores connection could be achieved via Microsoft Retail Management (Microsoft RMS)
Feel free to call us in US & Canada: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, Latin America: São Paulo 55-11-3444-4949, Europe: Deutschland (0177) 8349 806, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Office, Alba Spectrum Group serves corporate clients in the following industries: Oil & Gas, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Tools & Machinery, Pharmaceutical, Mining, Services, Non-Profit, Advertising & Publishing, Distribution & Logistics, Transportation, Consignment, Food & Beverages, Restaurants Supply Chain, Textile, Building & Construction, Real Estate, Engineering & Project Management.
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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 1.2 and now 3.0 could be considered as extremely flexible platform, suitable for small, mid-size and corporate businesses, it is easily customizable via C# or VB.Net in MS VisualStudio, however you can deploy MS CRM as is for sophisticated task, such employee timecards, consultant billable hours tracking, contract management, etc. Assuming that you as business owner have IT department or even Microsoft savvy consultant – you are ready to launch employee timelog process right away, without annoying customization and custom reporting.
• Procedure. MS CRM is flexible in the sense that you can create and attach activity to virtually any object – Account, Contact, Lead, Quote, Order, Invoice, etc. If you have your consultants do just that – it will help (all the documents and info will be in CRM), however it would be no structure and you would be spending your time digging CRM in the search of historical information. Remember Lotus Notes Domino? Where you could also keep attaching and expanding lists and tree-like structure? You need the procedure and the procedure will help you structurize the data in MS CRM
• Structure. The structure, deployed for employee time management should be like this. Customer (Account) should have Contracts. Each Contract should have contract lines (where you can allocate the budget per line), then each line should have Cases (when you fulfill the contract – you assign your consultants to the cases, such as install software, fix bugs, replace old server with the new one, etc.). And finally, consultants should log cases, such as appointments (if the date and time is known) and tasks (if the date and time is now known, however you know the deadline)
• Scenario. Customer ABC has ERP Implementation contract. This contract has two lines: Software Installation (24 hours budget) and User Training (40 hours budget). You activate contract, open two cases for Installation: SQL Installation and Client installation. You assign SQL case to John and Client case to Bill. You book John for Monday onsite visit (appointment, from 8am till 4pm) to install SQL, for bill you create task – install clients for Nancy and Marilyn (you ask Bill to stop by next week, but you leave him to schedule and decide on the date). When John finishes installation, he opens MS CRM, appointment (either web or outlook client), goes to the appointment->action->close appointment (action Close Applintment->Completed) and 8 hours are logged toward SQL Installation case. When finally you close the case – you decide on the number of billable hours (you will be shown the actual and budgeted time).
• Reporting. You will probably need two reports: consultant/employee time, were you should be able to see budgeted, actual, written off time – here you evaluate consultant performance. The second report is Project status.
Feel free to call us in US & Canada: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, Latin America: São Paulo 55-11-3444-4949, Europe: Deutschland (0177) 8349 806, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Office, Alba Spectrum Group ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) serves corporate clients in the following industries: Oil & Gas, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Tools & Machinery, Pharmaceutical, Mining, Services, Non-Profit, Advertising & Publishing, Distribution & Logistics, Transportation, Consignment, Food & Beverages, Restaurants Supply Chain, Textile, Building & Construction, Real Estate, Engineering & Project Management.
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Most of MSIE’s advantages are Firefox’s disadvantages, and vice-versa. This article will discuss some advantages and disadvantages of MSIE in relation to Firefox.
Advantages
Integration with other Microsoft products
Microsoft often offers its customers good integration among its products, and MSIE is no exception. One can drag an Excel bar graph from an MSIE webpage onto an existing Excel document, or view a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation from within MSIE. Within a Microsoft-only corporate intranet, this integration is very helpful. However, for a business interacting with the outside world, the argument weakens since the foundation of the Internet is to share among different platforms. Outside users expect documents to be in platform-agnostic formats such as HTML or Acrobat PDF files.
MSIE also offers strong integration with its Microsoft operating system, though is a double-edged sword, since it contributes to its security woes.
ActiveX and VBScript support
ActiveX refers to small Windows executable programs that can be run from MSIE, and VBScript is a client-side script for Windows code.
Some business have heavily invested in either developing or purchasing custom ActiveX software (and/or VBScript), for applications ranging from web-based accounting to e-learning simulators.
The Firefox team made a conscious decision to support neither ActiveX nor VBScript, since they are not accepted web standards and are often the source of the security vulnerabilities within MSIE.
Since Firefox will not likely ever support ActiveX and VBScript, businesses whose products revolve around these technologies would be better served with MSIE than with Firefox.
Still some MSIE-only webpages
Since MSIE formerly had such a large marketshare, some businesses’ webpages still only display correctly in MSIE.
However, Firefox’s increasing marketshare has caused many companies to revamp their pages to work correctly in Firefox also.
There are several reasons. Businesses want to ensure that they can sell to the Firefox customers. Moreover, many of the users who purchase with credit cards have moved to Firefox because of the extra security for that sensitive transaction. Finally, many businesses see that it costs less to fix the pages, than to cover the “Why doesn’t work in Firefox?” technical support calls support calls.
Arrives with a new Windows computer
MSIE arrives installed new Windows and Mac computers; Firebird does not.
However, the initial MSIE is unpatched and thus riddled with security holes. Thus, novice Windows users are often disappointed as their computers become increasingly unresponsive with viruses and spyware.
Thus, the convenience of having MSIE preinstalled on Windows is minimal, since Firebird can be downloaded and installed about as easily as patching the initial insecure MSIE.
Microsoft has ceased new development of MSIE for the Mac, so it has decreasing usefulness on the Mac as an out-of-box browser.
Disadvantages
Closed source and tied to a U.S. company
Closed source prevents users from reviewing the code to ensure that there are no security backdoors included in the software.
This is particularly important for Internet communication software, as the U.S. government may approach Microsoft to either divulge or include security backdoors that can be used for information surveillance, especially on foreign governments or high-risk suspects. Some governments don’t want to have a foreign country’s closed source software at the heart of their information network. This may partially account for the higher adoption rate of open-sourced Firefox in countries outside the U.S.
Selling of other Microsoft items and forced end-of-life
Part of any corporation’s mission is to maximize profits. For Microsoft, this includes selling the maximum number of its own products and services.
So to use the newest MSIE, one has to purchase a license of their newest OS. MSIE’s built-in search only works with Microsoft’s MSN search, versus Firefox’s built-in search toolbar that uses technically superior Google as the default and is user-selectable.
Moreover, since MSIE is closed-source software, users always face the possibility of forced end-of-life of the MSIE software and anything the user has built around it.
Total cost of ownership
Both browsers can be downloaded and used free of charge, so their initial cost is equal.
For technical support questions, both are widely enough used that many solutions to common problems can be found in free online public forums. Telephone support for Firefox costs $39.95 per incident, and Microsoft costs between $35.00 per incident and can cost over $200.00 for advanced issues.
However, MSIE has heavier ongoing support costs due to the nearly monthly security patches that are required. Also, there are ongoing costs from lost work time due to the poor stability and viruses when using MSIE. Finally, with MSIE requiring the newest version of their operating system, it forces the total cost of ownership to include the cost of updating all licenses to Windows XP SP2.

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Most of Firefox’s advantages are MSIE’s disadvantages, and vice-versa. This article will look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of Firefox in relation to MSIE.
Advantages
Security
Security is often cited as the primary reason for users switching from MSIE to Firefox. Security is of utmost importance for software that interacts with remote computers, in an era of high security risk activities such as online banking.
Firefox has fewer security holes and a tighter schedule of disclosing them. The enhanced security in Firefox is due to a multitude of factors the system’s inclusion of more source code reviewers and a better bug reporting system and exclusion of VBScript/ActiveX, often the source of vulnerabilities.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has been clamoring for years to try to clamp down on the MSIE security holes. It acquired an anti-spyware product, which it released under the banner of Microsoft AntiSpyware. It also promises its new Windows Vista platform will be more secure. However, Microsoft’s track record to date has done little to boost the confidence of today’s user.
Standards compliance
Firefox has vaulted ahead of MSIE with improved support for standard web protocols, such as its superior stylesheet compatibility.
Since MSIE had a leading marketshare, the company had less interest in conforming to web standards, and instead focused on proprietary protocols, with the goal of maintaining their market position. That is, the focus of Microsoft was to try to convert as much of its userbase to writing webpages and web applications that required a proprietary MSIE-approach, so that down the road, users would be less able to move off a Microsoft platform.
As a result, Microsoft neglected for years to improve support for basic open standards. For example, transparent PNG graphics did not work all the way through to MSIE version 6.
Multiple operating system platforms
Firefox is available for users who runs Windows (Windows 98 through to Windows XP), Mac OS X, all the leading versions of Linux, as well as some lesser-used operating systems. In comparison, Microsoft has dropped development for Mac, and other non-Windows systems. Furthermore, Microsoft has ceased new development even on their own versions of Windows, making the new MSIE only available to users who have a license for Windows XP.
Firefox also has a similar user interface among the different operating platforms. For deployments that have a mix of operating platforms (such as Linux for the techs, Macs for the graphic designers, and Windows for the accounts department), moving to Firefox for everyone thus brings technical support costs down.
Time-saving browser innovations
Internet communication and interaction is a core component for most modern businesses. Efficient use of web browser time translates to increased profits, so innovations to help workers do their tasks faster are welcomed.
Firefox leads MSIE in this regard, with out-of-the-box features such as integrated Google search in the toolbar, placing the find-within-page box at the bottom of the browser window so as not to obscure the text, and so on.
Disadvantages
Retraining
Any switch of software incurs a retraining cost. However, a switch from MSIE to Firefox requires only a mild amount of retraining.
The switch from MSIE to Firefox is designed to be easy, with proper import of bookmarks and other settings.
Browser interfaces are becoming standard, so understanding how to get up and running is not usually a problem. There are some only minor adjustments. For example, “Internet Files” in MSIE is called “Cache” in Firefox. One can use a downloaded MSIE theme so that the Firefox user interface even more closely resembles that of MSIE.
Incomplete migration
In a business with Windows computers, if the switch from MSIE to Firefox is incomplete, it can cost more to offer technical support for both browsers. This argument would only apply to shops whose Windows computers are all Windows XP. Since the new MSIE is only available for Windows XP, if there are different Windows versions (such as Windows NT or 2000), then the technical support team already needs to support different types of MSIE browsers.
Another consideration, however, is that even an incomplete switch from MSIE to Firefox could result in less technical support, since the Firefox users would be less likely to need help with fixing their computer after an MSIE-related security breach.

Matt Bacak became “#1 Best Selling Author” in just a few short hours.
Recent Entrepreneur Magazine’s e-Biz radio show host is
turning Authors, Speakers, and Experts into Overnight Success Stories.
Discover The Secrets To Unleash The Powerful Promoter In You! Sign up
for Matt Bacak’s Promoting Tips Ezine ($100 value) just visit his
website at http://www.powerfulpromoter.com or http://promotingtips.com
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