INSERT INTO `wp_posts` VALUES (8634,15,'2013-08-27 13:05:00','2013-08-27 17:05:00','As everyone is talking about the <a href=\"https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;gl=us&amp;tbm=nws&amp;authuser=0&amp;q=VMworld&amp;oq=VMworld&amp;gs_l=news-cc.3..43j43i53.42534.43599.0.43735.7.2.0.5.5.0.67.129.2.2.0...0.0...1ac.1.rcs8WuhVo6I\" target=\"_blank\">news from VMworld</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/search?q=vmworld&amp;src=typd\" target=\"_blank\">Twittering on about buzz</a> happening from the show floor, we polled a few of our team members for their thoughts. Here\'s a quick Q&amp;A.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=31347442&amp;authType=NAME_SEARCH&amp;authToken=0Nc9&amp;locale=en_US&amp;srchid=149251911377575759327&amp;srchindex=1&amp;srchtotal=2747&amp;trk=vsrp_people_res_name&amp;trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A149251911377575759327%2CVSRPtargetId%3A31347442%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary\"><b>Ian Jones</b></a><b>: </b>Ian manages a diverse team of <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/services/application-services/\">Application &amp; Data Services</a> Engineers focused on BI, Data Warehousing &amp;Data Analytics at eGroup. Ian will be presenting at VMworld this year.\r\n\r\n<b> <img alt=\"\" src=\"data:image/png;base64,[encoded data, 38188 characters]\" /></b>\r\n\r\n<strong>Chad Lanman (CL): </strong>Ian, this is your second consecutive trip to SF for VMworld. How does this year compare to last year\'s event?\r\n\r\n<strong>Ian Jones (IJ): </strong>VMware dedicated a lot of time to explaining the vision for the software defined data center (SDDC) last year, but this year there is greater substance around the specifics and how that vision will play out. The acquisition of Nicira provided a catalyst for VMware in the software defined networking (SND) space and has accelerated the advancement for VMware in the area of heterogeneous infrastructure environments and clouds. Expect to see similar advancements and acquisitions in storage.\r\n\r\n<strong>CL:</strong> <a href=\"https://vmworld2013.activeevents.com/connect/sessionDetail.ww?SESSION_ID=5369\" target=\"_blank\">Tell us about your speaking session with</a> Ed Ricks (CIO at Beaufort Memorial Hospital) scheduled for later today (Tuesday, August 27).\r\n\r\n<strong>IJ: </strong>Sure - it\'s titled, \"Beaufort Memorial Hospital Enhances Patient Care with Secure Mobile Solutions. We\'ll be discussing how secure, one-touch roaming sessions helped to encourage use of electronic medical records (EMR) and pave the way for CPOE at Beaufort Memorial Hospital. What\'s intersting is that even though the move to EMR was a foregone conclusion from the start, PHI security and improved patient outcomes were substantial, the immediate impact on caregiver workflow had the potential to turn clinicians away. But by rethinking the way clinicians access the data they need, the IT team was able to develop an electronic system that delivered faster workflows and higher efficiency. Through a combination of virtual desktops, single sign-on and strong authentication, BMH clinicians today have secure, one-touch access to roaming sessions that follow them throughout their shifts.\r\n\r\nEd and I will describe the path that his team took to reach Stage 1 Meaningful Use and how they won over doctors and nurses by redefining the parameters of access to PHI.\r\n\r\n<strong>CL: </strong>What session are you looking forward to the most &amp; why?\r\n\r\n<strong>IJ:</strong> As a member of eGroup’s leadership team, I don’t spend a lot of time attending sessions, but do dedicate the majority of my time to speaking with key customers, vendors, and partners. The relationships that are fostered and strengthened at VMworld are invaluable to eGroup’s success. I very much enjoyed the time spent with Pat Gelsinger and other senior VMware leadership in several meetings during VMworld in that it helps to understand the vision and direction of VMware in the years to come. The partner ecosystem is strong and a valuable part of eGroup’s offering.\r\n\r\n<strong>CL:</strong> Ian, where have you been so far? What places would you recommend for others at the event this week or planning future trips to the Bay?\r\n\r\n<strong>IJ:</strong> San Francisco offers a wide variety of world-class restaurants. eGroup organized several dinners for valued customers and partners while at VMworld that included venues in the SOMA, Financial District, and Fisherman’s Wharf areas. A particular favorite is The House of Shields which has existed in its current location since 1908. It has a fun and relatively quiet atmosphere that allows for great interaction.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=66145774&amp;locale=en_US&amp;trk=tyah\"><b>Daniel Navarro</b></a><strong>:</strong> Daniel has been with eGroup for nearly four years. He began his career working with VMware in 2010 on the eGroup Inside Sales Team and now works as a territory Account Executive covering the SC &amp; Eastern NC markets.\r\n\r\n<b> <img alt=\"\" src=\"data:image/png;base64,[encoded data, 40704 characters]\" /></b>\r\n\r\n<strong>CL:</strong> I believe this is your first VMworld, correct? Imagine all of us have never been before... How would you describe the event, the venue and the crowd?\r\n\r\n<strong>Daniel Navarro (DN):</strong> Yes, this is my first time to VMworld! I am pumped. The event is filled with a wealth of knowledge around the VMware technology, strategic vision &amp; partner ecosystem.\r\n\r\nThere are ample events and sessions constantly running outside of the main exhibitor floor. Until now, I haven\'t experienced many events yet other than the welcome reception on Sunday night, which was very cool! Numerous booths with many companies I have never heard of. I learned a lot and even ran into one of our valued customers (Phillip from Williams and Fudge) and I somehow managed to spill some beer on his shirt - oops! I plan to attend the following this week – Trend Micro Data Protection on Monday, EMC - Cisco focused sessions on Tuesday  and VMworld 2013 main party Wednesday, among others.\r\n\r\n<strong>CL:</strong> What session are you looking forward to the most &amp; why?<b>  </b>\r\n\r\n<strong>DN:</strong> Attacking the high cost of Desktop Virtualization. The speaker is Gartner Analyst, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/gunnarwb\" target=\"_blank\">Gunnar Berger</a> (Gunnar used to work at eGroup as an Engineer). <a href=\"https://vmworld2013.activeevents.com/connect/sessionDetail.ww?SESSION_ID=5369\">Beaufort Memorial Hospital Enhances Patient Care with Secure Mobile Solutions</a> with speakers Ed Ricks (CIO) and Ian Jones (eGroup Application/Data Services Manager). I am really interested in sessions around cloud (building a hybrid cloud) and how that will apply to eGroup and our offerings.\r\n\r\n<strong>CL:</strong> You mentioned big plans to explore The Bay Area. Where do you think you will spend most of your free time? Any recommendations for others that will be in San Fran this week?\r\n\r\n<strong>DN:</strong> The only exploring I have done thus far is the area surrounding the <a href=\"http://www.moscone.com/site/do/index\">Moscone Center</a> &amp; <a href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/neighborhoods/sf/marina/\">the Marina District. </a>I definitely recommend the Marina District. I really would like to visit Fisherman’s Wharf if I have time!\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=183782044&amp;authType=NAME_SEARCH&amp;authToken=xn95&amp;locale=en_US&amp;srchid=149251911377575801025&amp;srchindex=1&amp;srchtotal=1653&amp;trk=vsrp_people_res_name&amp;trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A149251911377575801025%2CVSRPtargetId%3A183782044%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary\"><b>Chris Ermis</b></a><strong>:</strong> Chris joined the eGroup team in early 2013 and works out of the eGroup HQ office in Mt. Pleasant, SC as a Coastal SC Technical Consultant providing Pre-Sales Engineering, Design and Architecture Support for the field sales teams.\r\n\r\n<img alt=\"\" src=\"data:image/png;base64,[encoded data, 35992 characters]\" />\r\n\r\n<b>CL: </b>Chris, you have years of experience working with VMware\'s technology dating back to your time working in the Public Sector with SunGard. What is the single most important takeaway you are trying to obtain while at VMworld this year?\r\n\r\n<strong>Chris Ermis (CE):</strong> I am looking forward to seeing what new and innovative ideas that startups are implementing in order to simplify data center administration.\r\n\r\n<strong>CL:</strong> What session are you looking forward to the most and why?\r\n\r\n<strong>CE:</strong> There are so many! But definitely looking forward to <a href=\"http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/virtualization/vmware-launches-software-defined-data-ce/240160406\">NSX. Software Defined networking, o</a>ne of the last untamed frontiers of Virtualization.\r\n\r\n<strong>CL:</strong> Tell us the most interesting fact, story or piece of the Bay Area during your time there so far.\r\n\r\n<strong>CE:</strong> I have been most impressed with the public transportation system – design and architecture. Trains, buses, trams, and bicycles. Very well thought out and executed!<i></i>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=92525439&amp;authType=NAME_SEARCH&amp;authToken=Azgf&amp;locale=en_US&amp;srchid=149251911377575826164&amp;srchindex=1&amp;srchtotal=1367&amp;trk=vsrp_people_res_name&amp;trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A149251911377575826164%2CVSRPtargetId%3A92525439%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary\"><b>Dave Strum</b></a><b>:</b> Dave works out of the Columbia, SC office as an Application Services Engineer specializing in End-User Computing and Virtual Environments. Previously, Dave worked as a Distributed Support Engineering Lead for Aetna.\r\n\r\n<img alt=\"\" src=\"data:image/png;base64,[encoded data, 61144 characters]\" />\r\n\r\n<strong>CL:</strong> Dave, what events have you attended previously in your career that compare to VMworld?\r\n\r\n<strong>Dave Strum (DS):</strong> <a href=\"http://www.citrixsynergy.com/\">Citrix Synergy</a> in 2011.\r\n\r\n<b>CL: </b>What session are you looking forward to the most and why?\r\n\r\n<strong>DS:</strong> <a href=\"http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/features-drs-dpm\">DRS</a>: New Features, Best Practices and Future Directions - DRS is awesome because of what it does. It has the ability to monitor your clusters in order to optimize host and vm performance. DRS/vMotion technology is what made me fall in love with virtualization technology.\r\n\r\n<strong>CL:</strong> Being a long distance runner, help us understand the best running routes that you have mapped throughout the city for this week.\r\n\r\n<strong>DS:</strong> I have a few maps made up for this week. The coolest is the route from Moscone Center to the <a href=\"http://www.golden-gate-park.com/\">Golden Gate Park</a>. If I feel adventurous, I might take the challenge to cross the bridge!','eGroup Descends on SF for VMworld','','publish','open','open','','egroup-descends-sf-vmworld','','','2013-08-28 13:00:04','2013-08-28 17:00:04','',0,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/?p=8634',0,'post','',0),(8542,4,'2013-08-19 15:40:47','2013-08-19 19:40:47','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/think.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8549\" alt=\"culture\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/think-225x300.jpeg\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\n(courtesy of Thinkstock)\r\n\r\nAs anyone on our team will tell you, there’s never a dull moment at eGroup – a common saying at eGroup is that “even when there is nothing scheduled, you will always have plenty to do.” True words.\r\n\r\nThe action at eGroup is fast, ever-changing, and full of fun challenges. Time literally flies each and every day. I can’t think of a healthier, more engaging workplace. Some folks define the work/life balance as equal time at home or office, we define it as zero transition between the two – when you love what you do so much that harmony exists and you never see the move from one context to the other.\r\n\r\nRecently, I had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with someone I respect immensely. We had a great conversation but I could tell something was on his mind. Ultimately, after the obvious topics were covered he looked at me and said, “Mike, after 15 years how do you find the energy to come into work and do what you do every day at the level you do it at?”\r\n\r\nThis gave me a pause because I had to really consider what that “harmonious” and energizing thread is that provides such congruency between my home and work life – I don’t necessarily see them as two distinct things – just different outlets of the same energy.\r\n\r\nSo, thinking about this for a few minutes and after thinking of the myriad ways this “energy” comes out at eGroup and through our quarterly meetings (we get the ENTIRE eGroup team together for each quarterly meeting – an aspect of our culture since the early days of our existence and providing a completely transparent review of everything going on at eGroup – and also a great opportunity for us to review and reflect on both what we did well and what we should do differently) I simply said “because I like making things better” – and that’s it – we like to make things better.\r\n\r\nFor me, this embodies several core characteristics of the culture at eGroup, as well sets up the proverbial “head fake” that keeps outsiders guessing what truly makes us tick beyond what they see as our actions.\r\n<h2><b>Key Characteristics</b></h2>\r\nI learned long ago, both directly and indirectly, through my time as the son of a fighter pilot (think Great Santini - *really*), and through my own experiences at The Citadel, and through my experiences as a husband and a father, that the keys to making things better are in everyone’s hands and can be achieved by adhering to several specific attributes – those are:\r\n<h3><i>Be Humble</i></h3>\r\nObvious enough, though you’d be surprised how many people miss this. Humility defined is the low estimation of one’s sense of importance. This is vital to the process of continuous improvement because it ensures that no matter how good things are, you’re not done yet – you can always make them better.\r\n\r\nHumility is the antidote to complacency and the catalyst for innovation. Humility kick-starts the process every time.\r\n\r\nOne of our clients has a phrase on the desk of every customer service representative that says, “Treat every customer as if you are about to lose them,” – sage advice – and borne from humility.\r\n<h3><i>Ask Questions</i></h3>\r\nKey to improvement, asking questions allows for the assessment of field position and progress, divining an understanding of how you’re doing, or what you could do differently.\r\n\r\nAs part of our flawless execution service delivery model, eGroupers peel off all the rank and conduct valuable debrief sessions for all actions to ensure we’re capturing vital information that makes what we do that much better. We constantly question what we’re doing, and how to make it better. We immediately put any answers into motion.\r\n<h3><i>Avoid Assumptions</i></h3>\r\nTactically, keeping an open mind – or more to the point – “go with what you know” – helps keep you on track. Since we recruit people for passion and attitude, rarely do we deal with assumptive behavior, but it helps to revisit this in everything we do to ensure that we’re operating with a clear mind.\r\n\r\nStrategically, the one assumption we do allow ourselves to make is with our clients in mind. That is, our clients engage us to deliver something that is “Faster, Better, or Cheaper” – and every time we engage, we assume we can. Since we’re in the technology services field, we always have faster, better, and less expensive options each time we revisit a situation – we believe we can always make things better – no matter what.\r\n<h3><i>Seek Wisdom</i></h3>\r\nWe employ a 30-minute rule on just about everything. That is, everyone at any level is always given 30 minutes (and it is expected that you spend at least 30 minutes - as we like people to learn to fish, not just give them fish, as the saying goes) to work through challenges.\r\n\r\n30 minutes gives a talented person time to learn something new within a reasonable period of time, with the expectation that they will reach out for new ideas afterwards.\r\n\r\nIt’s this aspect of who we are that appeals immensely to resourceful and creative people. Beyond being techies, we see ourselves as craftsmen, and engage speakers at our quarterly meetings that allow us to see how other industries do it (Thanks <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfyw2fdaABQ\">Dave Dawson!</a>)\r\n\r\nRather than consulting the manual for the answer, our team members are given the freedom and latitude to innovate in every action they perform for a reasonable period of time. This ability to improve the process dynamically has yielded fantastic results – yet, if you hit a roadblock, you now have the force multiplier of the team at your disposal.\r\n\r\nAfter 30 minutes, we fully support and request that anyone “stuck” utilize our extended team for assistance. This community of committed team members and expertise is a potent response to the trickiest of situations, since it allows any member of the team to seek wisdom from any other, and we actively promote the action of roping in expertise from any angle – team member, manufacturer, industry expert, etc.\r\n<h2><b>The “head fake”</b></h2>\r\nAt the end of the day, it’s about corporate purpose – and what we’re really after with our mindset is to find those people who fit with our belief in building a culture that is based less on <em>quantitative measurements</em> (how many people, how much revenue, blah, blah, blah) but based on <em>qualitative measurements</em> (what did our customer think of our last service engagement, did we sell them the “right” solution for their needs, how do I feel my career performance is to date, do I feel great about what I’m doing for them, am I making an impact for the positive?)\r\n\r\nThis aspect of eGroup has been with us our entire time – and it’s a key cultural differentiator for us.\r\n\r\nAre we debt free? Yes.\r\n\r\nDid we grow at a realistic and sustainable 30-40% YoY for the last 10 years? Yes.\r\n\r\nAre we accomplishing our objectives of brand establishment, staff development, and sales expansion? Yes.\r\n\r\nBut aside from all of that, what we <b>really</b> want to make better are the folks on our team.\r\n\r\nAside from delivering a <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/\" target=\"_blank\">valuable and innovative set of services</a>, eGroup builds technology services leaders out of our people – with a tendency to focus heavily on the leadership aspect.\r\n\r\nThese leaders – whether they’ve stayed or moved on – have accomplished great things. They embody confidence, competence, and deliver results in all walks of life.\r\n\r\nOur people are our greatest product – and we do everything we can to support them by empowering them to make themselves better. The result is nothing short of magical.\r\n\r\n<strong>That’s the head fake.</strong>\r\n\r\nIf you’re passionate about improvement – whether for yourself, for your career, for an aspect of the industry that you think needs attention, give us a shout – <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers/\" target=\"_blank\">we’re always looking for people who share our culture</a> and would be glad to have you on the journey.','We Like to Make Things Better. Do You?','','publish','open','open','','we-like-to-make-things-better','','','2013-08-19 16:10:20','2013-08-19 20:10:20','',0,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/?p=8542',0,'post','',0),(8543,40,'2013-08-19 15:11:37','2013-08-19 19:11:37','As anyone on our team will tell you, there’s never a dull moment at eGroup – a common saying at eGroup is that “even when there is nothing scheduled, you will always have plenty to do.” True words.\r\n\r\nThe action at eGroup is fast, ever-changing, and full of fun challenges. Time literally flies each and every day. I can’t think of a healthier, more engaging workplace. Some folks define the work/life balance as equal time at home or office, we define it as zero transition between the two – when you love what you do so much that harmony exists and you never see the move from one context to the other.\r\n\r\nRecently, I had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with someone I respect immensely. We had a great conversation but I could tell something was on his mind. Ultimately, after the obvious topics were covered he looked at me and said, “Mike, after 15 years how do you find the energy to come into work and do what you do every day at the level you do it at?”\r\n\r\nThis gave me a pause because I had to really consider what that “harmonious” and energizing thread is that provides such congruency between my home and work life – I don’t necessarily see them as two distinct things – just different outlets of the same energy.\r\n\r\nSo, thinking about this for a few minutes and after thinking of the myriad many ways this “energy” comes out at eGroup and through our quarterly meetings (we get the ENTIRE eGroup team together for each quarterly meeting – an aspect of our culture since the early days of our existence and providing a completely transparent review of everything going on at eGroup – and also a great opportunity for us to review and reflect on both what we did well and what we should do differently) I simply said “because I like making things better” – and that’s it – we like to make things better.\r\n\r\nFor me, this embodies several core characteristics of the culture at eGroup, as well sets up the proverbial “head fake” that keeps outsiders guessing what truly makes us tick beyond what they see as our actions.\r\n<h2><b>Key Characteristics</b></h2>\r\nI learned long ago, both directly and indirectly, through my time as the son of a fighter pilot (think Great Santini - *really*), and through my own experiences at The Citadel, and through my experiences as a husband and a father, that the keys to making things better are in everyone’s hands and can be achieved by adhering to several specific attributes – those are:\r\n<h3><i>Be Humble</i></h3>\r\nObvious enough, though you’d be surprised how many people miss this. Humility defined is the low estimation of one’s sense of importance. This is vital to the process of continuous improvement because it ensures that no matter how good things are, you’re not done yet – you can always make them better.\r\n\r\nHumility is the antidote to complacency and the catalyst for innovation. Humility kick-starts the process every time.\r\n\r\nOne of our clients has a phrase on the desk of every customer service representative that says, “Treat every customer as if you are about to lose them,” – sage advice – and borne from humility.\r\n<h3><i>Ask Questions</i></h3>\r\nKey to improvement, asking questions allows for the assessment of field position and progress, divining an understanding of how you’re doing, or what you could do differently.\r\n\r\nAs part of our flawless execution service delivery model, eGroupers peel off all the rank and conduct valuable debrief sessions for all actions to ensure we’re capturing vital information that makes what we do that much better. We constantly question what we’re doing, and how to make it better. We immediately put any answers into motion.\r\n<h3><i>Avoid Assumptions</i></h3>\r\nTactically, keeping an open mind – or more to the point – “go with what you know” – helps keep you on track. Since we recruit people for passion and attitude, rarely do we deal with assumptive behavior, but it helps to revisit this in everything we do to ensure that we’re operating with a clear mind.\r\n\r\nStrategically, the one assumption we do allow ourselves to make is with our clients in mind. That is, our clients engage us to deliver something that is “Faster, Better, or Cheaper” – and every time we engage, we assume we can. Since we’re in the technology services field, we always have faster, better, and less expensive options each time we revisit a situation – we believe we can always make things better – no matter what.\r\n<h3><i>Seek Wisdom</i></h3>\r\nWe employ a 30-minute rule on just about everything. That is, everyone at any level is always given 30 minutes (and it is expected that you spend at least 30 minutes - as we like people to learn to fish, not just give them fish, as the saying goes) to work through challenges.\r\n\r\n30 minutes gives a talented person time to learn something new within a reasonable period of time, with the expectation that they will reach out for new ideas afterwards.\r\n\r\nIt’s this aspect of who we are that appeals immensely to resourceful and creative people. Beyond being techies, we see ourselves as craftsmen, and engage speakers at our quarterly meetings that allow us to see how other industries do it (Thanks <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfyw2fdaABQ\">Dave Dawson!</a>)\r\n\r\nRather than consulting the manual for the answer, our team members are given the freedom and latitude to innovate in every action they perform for a reasonable period of time. This ability to improve the process dynamically has yielded fantastic results – yet, if you hit a roadblock, you now have the force multiplier of the team at your disposal.\r\n\r\nAfter 30 minutes, we fully support and request that anyone “stuck” utilize our extended team for assistance. This community of committed team members and expertise is a potent response to the trickiest of situations, since it allows any member of the team to seek wisdom from any other, and we actively promote the action of roping in expertise from any angle – team member, manufacturer, industry expert, etc.\r\n<h2><b>The “head fake”</b></h2>\r\nAt the end of the day, it’s about corporate purpose – and what we’re really after with our mindset is to find those people who fit with our belief in building a culture that is based less on quantitative measurements (how many people, how much revenue, blah, blah, blah) but based on qualitative measurements (what did our customer think of our last service engagement, did we sell them the “right” solution for their needs, how do I feel my career performance is to date, do I feel great about what I’m doing for them, am I making an impact for the positive?)\r\n\r\nThis aspect of eGroup has been with us our entire time – and it’s a key cultural differentiator for us.\r\n\r\nAre we debt free? Yes.\r\n\r\nDid we grow at a realistic and sustainable 30-40% YoY for the last 10 years? Yes.\r\n\r\nAre we accomplishing our objectives of brand establishment, staff development, and sales expansion? Yes.\r\n\r\nBut aside from all of that, what we <b>really</b> want to make better are the folks on our team.\r\n\r\nAside from delivering a valuable and innovative set of services, eGroup builds technology services leaders out of our people – with a tendency to focus heavily on the leadership aspect.\r\n\r\nThese leaders – whether they’ve stayed or moved on – have accomplished great things. They embody confidence, competence, and deliver results in all walks of life.\r\n\r\nOur people are our greatest product – and we do everything we can to support them by empowering them to make themselves better. The result is nothing short of magical.\r\n\r\n<strong>That’s the head fake.</strong>\r\n\r\nIf you’re passionate about improvement – whether for yourself, for your career, for an aspect of the industry that you think needs attention, give us a shout – we’re always looking for people who share our culture and would be glad to have you on the journey.','How Do You make Things Better?','','inherit','open','open','','8542-revision-v1','','','2013-08-19 15:11:37','2013-08-19 19:11:37','',8542,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8542-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8544,40,'2013-08-19 15:20:51','2013-08-19 19:20:51','As anyone on our team will tell you, there’s never a dull moment at eGroup – a common saying at eGroup is that “even when there is nothing scheduled, you will always have plenty to do.” True words.\r\n\r\nThe action at eGroup is fast, ever-changing, and full of fun challenges. Time literally flies each and every day. I can’t think of a healthier, more engaging workplace. Some folks define the work/life balance as equal time at home or office, we define it as zero transition between the two – when you love what you do so much that harmony exists and you never see the move from one context to the other.\r\n\r\nRecently, I had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with someone I respect immensely. We had a great conversation but I could tell something was on his mind. Ultimately, after the obvious topics were covered he looked at me and said, “Mike, after 15 years how do you find the energy to come into work and do what you do every day at the level you do it at?”\r\n\r\nThis gave me a pause because I had to really consider what that “harmonious” and energizing thread is that provides such congruency between my home and work life – I don’t necessarily see them as two distinct things – just different outlets of the same energy.\r\n\r\nSo, thinking about this for a few minutes and after thinking of the myriad many ways this “energy” comes out at eGroup and through our quarterly meetings (we get the ENTIRE eGroup team together for each quarterly meeting – an aspect of our culture since the early days of our existence and providing a completely transparent review of everything going on at eGroup – and also a great opportunity for us to review and reflect on both what we did well and what we should do differently) I simply said “because I like making things better” – and that’s it – we like to make things better.\r\n\r\nFor me, this embodies several core characteristics of the culture at eGroup, as well sets up the proverbial “head fake” that keeps outsiders guessing what truly makes us tick beyond what they see as our actions.\r\n<h2><b>Key Characteristics</b></h2>\r\nI learned long ago, both directly and indirectly, through my time as the son of a fighter pilot (think Great Santini - *really*), and through my own experiences at The Citadel, and through my experiences as a husband and a father, that the keys to making things better are in everyone’s hands and can be achieved by adhering to several specific attributes – those are:\r\n<h3><i>Be Humble</i></h3>\r\nObvious enough, though you’d be surprised how many people miss this. Humility defined is the low estimation of one’s sense of importance. This is vital to the process of continuous improvement because it ensures that no matter how good things are, you’re not done yet – you can always make them better.\r\n\r\nHumility is the antidote to complacency and the catalyst for innovation. Humility kick-starts the process every time.\r\n\r\nOne of our clients has a phrase on the desk of every customer service representative that says, “Treat every customer as if you are about to lose them,” – sage advice – and borne from humility.\r\n<h3><i>Ask Questions</i></h3>\r\nKey to improvement, asking questions allows for the assessment of field position and progress, divining an understanding of how you’re doing, or what you could do differently.\r\n\r\nAs part of our flawless execution service delivery model, eGroupers peel off all the rank and conduct valuable debrief sessions for all actions to ensure we’re capturing vital information that makes what we do that much better. We constantly question what we’re doing, and how to make it better. We immediately put any answers into motion.\r\n<h3><i>Avoid Assumptions</i></h3>\r\nTactically, keeping an open mind – or more to the point – “go with what you know” – helps keep you on track. Since we recruit people for passion and attitude, rarely do we deal with assumptive behavior, but it helps to revisit this in everything we do to ensure that we’re operating with a clear mind.\r\n\r\nStrategically, the one assumption we do allow ourselves to make is with our clients in mind. That is, our clients engage us to deliver something that is “Faster, Better, or Cheaper” – and every time we engage, we assume we can. Since we’re in the technology services field, we always have faster, better, and less expensive options each time we revisit a situation – we believe we can always make things better – no matter what.\r\n<h3><i>Seek Wisdom</i></h3>\r\nWe employ a 30-minute rule on just about everything. That is, everyone at any level is always given 30 minutes (and it is expected that you spend at least 30 minutes - as we like people to learn to fish, not just give them fish, as the saying goes) to work through challenges.\r\n\r\n30 minutes gives a talented person time to learn something new within a reasonable period of time, with the expectation that they will reach out for new ideas afterwards.\r\n\r\nIt’s this aspect of who we are that appeals immensely to resourceful and creative people. Beyond being techies, we see ourselves as craftsmen, and engage speakers at our quarterly meetings that allow us to see how other industries do it (Thanks <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfyw2fdaABQ\">Dave Dawson!</a>)\r\n\r\nRather than consulting the manual for the answer, our team members are given the freedom and latitude to innovate in every action they perform for a reasonable period of time. This ability to improve the process dynamically has yielded fantastic results – yet, if you hit a roadblock, you now have the force multiplier of the team at your disposal.\r\n\r\nAfter 30 minutes, we fully support and request that anyone “stuck” utilize our extended team for assistance. This community of committed team members and expertise is a potent response to the trickiest of situations, since it allows any member of the team to seek wisdom from any other, and we actively promote the action of roping in expertise from any angle – team member, manufacturer, industry expert, etc.\r\n<h2><b>The “head fake”</b></h2>\r\nAt the end of the day, it’s about corporate purpose – and what we’re really after with our mindset is to find those people who fit with our belief in building a culture that is based less on <em>quantitative measurements</em> (how many people, how much revenue, blah, blah, blah) but based on <em>qualitative measurements</em> (what did our customer think of our last service engagement, did we sell them the “right” solution for their needs, how do I feel my career performance is to date, do I feel great about what I’m doing for them, am I making an impact for the positive?)\r\n\r\nThis aspect of eGroup has been with us our entire time – and it’s a key cultural differentiator for us.\r\n\r\nAre we debt free? Yes.\r\n\r\nDid we grow at a realistic and sustainable 30-40% YoY for the last 10 years? Yes.\r\n\r\nAre we accomplishing our objectives of brand establishment, staff development, and sales expansion? Yes.\r\n\r\nBut aside from all of that, what we <b>really</b> want to make better are the folks on our team.\r\n\r\nAside from delivering a valuable and innovative set of services, eGroup builds technology services leaders out of our people – with a tendency to focus heavily on the leadership aspect.\r\n\r\nThese leaders – whether they’ve stayed or moved on – have accomplished great things. They embody confidence, competence, and deliver results in all walks of life.\r\n\r\nOur people are our greatest product – and we do everything we can to support them by empowering them to make themselves better. The result is nothing short of magical.\r\n\r\n<strong>That’s the head fake.</strong>\r\n\r\nIf you’re passionate about improvement – whether for yourself, for your career, for an aspect of the industry that you think needs attention, give us a shout – we’re always looking for people who share our culture and would be glad to have you on the journey.','How To Become a Better Version of Yourself','','inherit','open','open','','8542-revision-v1','','','2013-08-19 15:20:51','2013-08-19 19:20:51','',8542,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8542-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8545,40,'2013-08-19 15:25:23','2013-08-19 19:25:23','As anyone on our team will tell you, there’s never a dull moment at eGroup – a common saying at eGroup is that “even when there is nothing scheduled, you will always have plenty to do.” True words.\r\n\r\nThe action at eGroup is fast, ever-changing, and full of fun challenges. Time literally flies each and every day. I can’t think of a healthier, more engaging workplace. Some folks define the work/life balance as equal time at home or office, we define it as zero transition between the two – when you love what you do so much that harmony exists and you never see the move from one context to the other.\r\n\r\nRecently, I had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with someone I respect immensely. We had a great conversation but I could tell something was on his mind. Ultimately, after the obvious topics were covered he looked at me and said, “Mike, after 15 years how do you find the energy to come into work and do what you do every day at the level you do it at?”\r\n\r\nThis gave me a pause because I had to really consider what that “harmonious” and energizing thread is that provides such congruency between my home and work life – I don’t necessarily see them as two distinct things – just different outlets of the same energy.\r\n\r\nSo, thinking about this for a few minutes and after thinking of the myriad ways this “energy” comes out at eGroup and through our quarterly meetings (we get the ENTIRE eGroup team together for each quarterly meeting – an aspect of our culture since the early days of our existence and providing a completely transparent review of everything going on at eGroup – and also a great opportunity for us to review and reflect on both what we did well and what we should do differently) I simply said “because I like making things better” – and that’s it – we like to make things better.\r\n\r\nFor me, this embodies several core characteristics of the culture at eGroup, as well sets up the proverbial “head fake” that keeps outsiders guessing what truly makes us tick beyond what they see as our actions.\r\n<h2><b>Key Characteristics</b></h2>\r\nI learned long ago, both directly and indirectly, through my time as the son of a fighter pilot (think Great Santini - *really*), and through my own experiences at The Citadel, and through my experiences as a husband and a father, that the keys to making things better are in everyone’s hands and can be achieved by adhering to several specific attributes – those are:\r\n<h3><i>Be Humble</i></h3>\r\nObvious enough, though you’d be surprised how many people miss this. Humility defined is the low estimation of one’s sense of importance. This is vital to the process of continuous improvement because it ensures that no matter how good things are, you’re not done yet – you can always make them better.\r\n\r\nHumility is the antidote to complacency and the catalyst for innovation. Humility kick-starts the process every time.\r\n\r\nOne of our clients has a phrase on the desk of every customer service representative that says, “Treat every customer as if you are about to lose them,” – sage advice – and borne from humility.\r\n<h3><i>Ask Questions</i></h3>\r\nKey to improvement, asking questions allows for the assessment of field position and progress, divining an understanding of how you’re doing, or what you could do differently.\r\n\r\nAs part of our flawless execution service delivery model, eGroupers peel off all the rank and conduct valuable debrief sessions for all actions to ensure we’re capturing vital information that makes what we do that much better. We constantly question what we’re doing, and how to make it better. We immediately put any answers into motion.\r\n<h3><i>Avoid Assumptions</i></h3>\r\nTactically, keeping an open mind – or more to the point – “go with what you know” – helps keep you on track. Since we recruit people for passion and attitude, rarely do we deal with assumptive behavior, but it helps to revisit this in everything we do to ensure that we’re operating with a clear mind.\r\n\r\nStrategically, the one assumption we do allow ourselves to make is with our clients in mind. That is, our clients engage us to deliver something that is “Faster, Better, or Cheaper” – and every time we engage, we assume we can. Since we’re in the technology services field, we always have faster, better, and less expensive options each time we revisit a situation – we believe we can always make things better – no matter what.\r\n<h3><i>Seek Wisdom</i></h3>\r\nWe employ a 30-minute rule on just about everything. That is, everyone at any level is always given 30 minutes (and it is expected that you spend at least 30 minutes - as we like people to learn to fish, not just give them fish, as the saying goes) to work through challenges.\r\n\r\n30 minutes gives a talented person time to learn something new within a reasonable period of time, with the expectation that they will reach out for new ideas afterwards.\r\n\r\nIt’s this aspect of who we are that appeals immensely to resourceful and creative people. Beyond being techies, we see ourselves as craftsmen, and engage speakers at our quarterly meetings that allow us to see how other industries do it (Thanks <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfyw2fdaABQ\">Dave Dawson!</a>)\r\n\r\nRather than consulting the manual for the answer, our team members are given the freedom and latitude to innovate in every action they perform for a reasonable period of time. This ability to improve the process dynamically has yielded fantastic results – yet, if you hit a roadblock, you now have the force multiplier of the team at your disposal.\r\n\r\nAfter 30 minutes, we fully support and request that anyone “stuck” utilize our extended team for assistance. This community of committed team members and expertise is a potent response to the trickiest of situations, since it allows any member of the team to seek wisdom from any other, and we actively promote the action of roping in expertise from any angle – team member, manufacturer, industry expert, etc.\r\n<h2><b>The “head fake”</b></h2>\r\nAt the end of the day, it’s about corporate purpose – and what we’re really after with our mindset is to find those people who fit with our belief in building a culture that is based less on <em>quantitative measurements</em> (how many people, how much revenue, blah, blah, blah) but based on <em>qualitative measurements</em> (what did our customer think of our last service engagement, did we sell them the “right” solution for their needs, how do I feel my career performance is to date, do I feel great about what I’m doing for them, am I making an impact for the positive?)\r\n\r\nThis aspect of eGroup has been with us our entire time – and it’s a key cultural differentiator for us.\r\n\r\nAre we debt free? Yes.\r\n\r\nDid we grow at a realistic and sustainable 30-40% YoY for the last 10 years? Yes.\r\n\r\nAre we accomplishing our objectives of brand establishment, staff development, and sales expansion? Yes.\r\n\r\nBut aside from all of that, what we <b>really</b> want to make better are the folks on our team.\r\n\r\nAside from delivering a valuable and innovative set of services, eGroup builds technology services leaders out of our people – with a tendency to focus heavily on the leadership aspect.\r\n\r\nThese leaders – whether they’ve stayed or moved on – have accomplished great things. They embody confidence, competence, and deliver results in all walks of life.\r\n\r\nOur people are our greatest product – and we do everything we can to support them by empowering them to make themselves better. The result is nothing short of magical.\r\n\r\n<strong>That’s the head fake.</strong>\r\n\r\nIf you’re passionate about improvement – whether for yourself, for your career, for an aspect of the industry that you think needs attention, give us a shout – we’re always looking for people who share our culture and would be glad to have you on the journey.','Do You Like to Make Things Better?','','inherit','open','open','','8542-revision-v1','','','2013-08-19 15:25:23','2013-08-19 19:25:23','',8542,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8542-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8546,40,'2013-08-19 15:40:34','2013-08-19 19:40:34','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/think.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8549\" alt=\"culture\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/think-225x300.jpeg\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\n(courtesy of Thinkstock)\r\n\r\nAs anyone on our team will tell you, there’s never a dull moment at eGroup – a common saying at eGroup is that “even when there is nothing scheduled, you will always have plenty to do.” True words.\r\n\r\nThe action at eGroup is fast, ever-changing, and full of fun challenges. Time literally flies each and every day. I can’t think of a healthier, more engaging workplace. Some folks define the work/life balance as equal time at home or office, we define it as zero transition between the two – when you love what you do so much that harmony exists and you never see the move from one context to the other.\r\n\r\nRecently, I had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with someone I respect immensely. We had a great conversation but I could tell something was on his mind. Ultimately, after the obvious topics were covered he looked at me and said, “Mike, after 15 years how do you find the energy to come into work and do what you do every day at the level you do it at?”\r\n\r\nThis gave me a pause because I had to really consider what that “harmonious” and energizing thread is that provides such congruency between my home and work life – I don’t necessarily see them as two distinct things – just different outlets of the same energy.\r\n\r\nSo, thinking about this for a few minutes and after thinking of the myriad ways this “energy” comes out at eGroup and through our quarterly meetings (we get the ENTIRE eGroup team together for each quarterly meeting – an aspect of our culture since the early days of our existence and providing a completely transparent review of everything going on at eGroup – and also a great opportunity for us to review and reflect on both what we did well and what we should do differently) I simply said “because I like making things better” – and that’s it – we like to make things better.\r\n\r\nFor me, this embodies several core characteristics of the culture at eGroup, as well sets up the proverbial “head fake” that keeps outsiders guessing what truly makes us tick beyond what they see as our actions.\r\n<h2><b>Key Characteristics</b></h2>\r\nI learned long ago, both directly and indirectly, through my time as the son of a fighter pilot (think Great Santini - *really*), and through my own experiences at The Citadel, and through my experiences as a husband and a father, that the keys to making things better are in everyone’s hands and can be achieved by adhering to several specific attributes – those are:\r\n<h3><i>Be Humble</i></h3>\r\nObvious enough, though you’d be surprised how many people miss this. Humility defined is the low estimation of one’s sense of importance. This is vital to the process of continuous improvement because it ensures that no matter how good things are, you’re not done yet – you can always make them better.\r\n\r\nHumility is the antidote to complacency and the catalyst for innovation. Humility kick-starts the process every time.\r\n\r\nOne of our clients has a phrase on the desk of every customer service representative that says, “Treat every customer as if you are about to lose them,” – sage advice – and borne from humility.\r\n<h3><i>Ask Questions</i></h3>\r\nKey to improvement, asking questions allows for the assessment of field position and progress, divining an understanding of how you’re doing, or what you could do differently.\r\n\r\nAs part of our flawless execution service delivery model, eGroupers peel off all the rank and conduct valuable debrief sessions for all actions to ensure we’re capturing vital information that makes what we do that much better. We constantly question what we’re doing, and how to make it better. We immediately put any answers into motion.\r\n<h3><i>Avoid Assumptions</i></h3>\r\nTactically, keeping an open mind – or more to the point – “go with what you know” – helps keep you on track. Since we recruit people for passion and attitude, rarely do we deal with assumptive behavior, but it helps to revisit this in everything we do to ensure that we’re operating with a clear mind.\r\n\r\nStrategically, the one assumption we do allow ourselves to make is with our clients in mind. That is, our clients engage us to deliver something that is “Faster, Better, or Cheaper” – and every time we engage, we assume we can. Since we’re in the technology services field, we always have faster, better, and less expensive options each time we revisit a situation – we believe we can always make things better – no matter what.\r\n<h3><i>Seek Wisdom</i></h3>\r\nWe employ a 30-minute rule on just about everything. That is, everyone at any level is always given 30 minutes (and it is expected that you spend at least 30 minutes - as we like people to learn to fish, not just give them fish, as the saying goes) to work through challenges.\r\n\r\n30 minutes gives a talented person time to learn something new within a reasonable period of time, with the expectation that they will reach out for new ideas afterwards.\r\n\r\nIt’s this aspect of who we are that appeals immensely to resourceful and creative people. Beyond being techies, we see ourselves as craftsmen, and engage speakers at our quarterly meetings that allow us to see how other industries do it (Thanks <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfyw2fdaABQ\">Dave Dawson!</a>)\r\n\r\nRather than consulting the manual for the answer, our team members are given the freedom and latitude to innovate in every action they perform for a reasonable period of time. This ability to improve the process dynamically has yielded fantastic results – yet, if you hit a roadblock, you now have the force multiplier of the team at your disposal.\r\n\r\nAfter 30 minutes, we fully support and request that anyone “stuck” utilize our extended team for assistance. This community of committed team members and expertise is a potent response to the trickiest of situations, since it allows any member of the team to seek wisdom from any other, and we actively promote the action of roping in expertise from any angle – team member, manufacturer, industry expert, etc.\r\n<h2><b>The “head fake”</b></h2>\r\nAt the end of the day, it’s about corporate purpose – and what we’re really after with our mindset is to find those people who fit with our belief in building a culture that is based less on <em>quantitative measurements</em> (how many people, how much revenue, blah, blah, blah) but based on <em>qualitative measurements</em> (what did our customer think of our last service engagement, did we sell them the “right” solution for their needs, how do I feel my career performance is to date, do I feel great about what I’m doing for them, am I making an impact for the positive?)\r\n\r\nThis aspect of eGroup has been with us our entire time – and it’s a key cultural differentiator for us.\r\n\r\nAre we debt free? Yes.\r\n\r\nDid we grow at a realistic and sustainable 30-40% YoY for the last 10 years? Yes.\r\n\r\nAre we accomplishing our objectives of brand establishment, staff development, and sales expansion? Yes.\r\n\r\nBut aside from all of that, what we <b>really</b> want to make better are the folks on our team.\r\n\r\nAside from delivering a <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/\" target=\"_blank\">valuable and innovative set of services</a>, eGroup builds technology services leaders out of our people – with a tendency to focus heavily on the leadership aspect.\r\n\r\nThese leaders – whether they’ve stayed or moved on – have accomplished great things. They embody confidence, competence, and deliver results in all walks of life.\r\n\r\nOur people are our greatest product – and we do everything we can to support them by empowering them to make themselves better. The result is nothing short of magical.\r\n\r\n<strong>That’s the head fake.</strong>\r\n\r\nIf you’re passionate about improvement – whether for yourself, for your career, for an aspect of the industry that you think needs attention, give us a shout – <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers/\" target=\"_blank\">we’re always looking for people who share our culture</a> and would be glad to have you on the journey.','We Like to Make Things Better. Do You?','','inherit','open','open','','8542-autosave-v1','','','2013-08-19 15:40:34','2013-08-19 19:40:34','',8542,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8542-autosave-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8547,40,'2013-08-19 15:30:45','2013-08-19 19:30:45','As anyone on our team will tell you, there’s never a dull moment at eGroup – a common saying at eGroup is that “even when there is nothing scheduled, you will always have plenty to do.” True words.\r\n\r\nThe action at eGroup is fast, ever-changing, and full of fun challenges. Time literally flies each and every day. I can’t think of a healthier, more engaging workplace. Some folks define the work/life balance as equal time at home or office, we define it as zero transition between the two – when you love what you do so much that harmony exists and you never see the move from one context to the other.\r\n\r\nRecently, I had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with someone I respect immensely. We had a great conversation but I could tell something was on his mind. Ultimately, after the obvious topics were covered he looked at me and said, “Mike, after 15 years how do you find the energy to come into work and do what you do every day at the level you do it at?”\r\n\r\nThis gave me a pause because I had to really consider what that “harmonious” and energizing thread is that provides such congruency between my home and work life – I don’t necessarily see them as two distinct things – just different outlets of the same energy.\r\n\r\nSo, thinking about this for a few minutes and after thinking of the myriad ways this “energy” comes out at eGroup and through our quarterly meetings (we get the ENTIRE eGroup team together for each quarterly meeting – an aspect of our culture since the early days of our existence and providing a completely transparent review of everything going on at eGroup – and also a great opportunity for us to review and reflect on both what we did well and what we should do differently) I simply said “because I like making things better” – and that’s it – we like to make things better.\r\n\r\nFor me, this embodies several core characteristics of the culture at eGroup, as well sets up the proverbial “head fake” that keeps outsiders guessing what truly makes us tick beyond what they see as our actions.\r\n<h2><b>Key Characteristics</b></h2>\r\nI learned long ago, both directly and indirectly, through my time as the son of a fighter pilot (think Great Santini - *really*), and through my own experiences at The Citadel, and through my experiences as a husband and a father, that the keys to making things better are in everyone’s hands and can be achieved by adhering to several specific attributes – those are:\r\n<h3><i>Be Humble</i></h3>\r\nObvious enough, though you’d be surprised how many people miss this. Humility defined is the low estimation of one’s sense of importance. This is vital to the process of continuous improvement because it ensures that no matter how good things are, you’re not done yet – you can always make them better.\r\n\r\nHumility is the antidote to complacency and the catalyst for innovation. Humility kick-starts the process every time.\r\n\r\nOne of our clients has a phrase on the desk of every customer service representative that says, “Treat every customer as if you are about to lose them,” – sage advice – and borne from humility.\r\n<h3><i>Ask Questions</i></h3>\r\nKey to improvement, asking questions allows for the assessment of field position and progress, divining an understanding of how you’re doing, or what you could do differently.\r\n\r\nAs part of our flawless execution service delivery model, eGroupers peel off all the rank and conduct valuable debrief sessions for all actions to ensure we’re capturing vital information that makes what we do that much better. We constantly question what we’re doing, and how to make it better. We immediately put any answers into motion.\r\n<h3><i>Avoid Assumptions</i></h3>\r\nTactically, keeping an open mind – or more to the point – “go with what you know” – helps keep you on track. Since we recruit people for passion and attitude, rarely do we deal with assumptive behavior, but it helps to revisit this in everything we do to ensure that we’re operating with a clear mind.\r\n\r\nStrategically, the one assumption we do allow ourselves to make is with our clients in mind. That is, our clients engage us to deliver something that is “Faster, Better, or Cheaper” – and every time we engage, we assume we can. Since we’re in the technology services field, we always have faster, better, and less expensive options each time we revisit a situation – we believe we can always make things better – no matter what.\r\n<h3><i>Seek Wisdom</i></h3>\r\nWe employ a 30-minute rule on just about everything. That is, everyone at any level is always given 30 minutes (and it is expected that you spend at least 30 minutes - as we like people to learn to fish, not just give them fish, as the saying goes) to work through challenges.\r\n\r\n30 minutes gives a talented person time to learn something new within a reasonable period of time, with the expectation that they will reach out for new ideas afterwards.\r\n\r\nIt’s this aspect of who we are that appeals immensely to resourceful and creative people. Beyond being techies, we see ourselves as craftsmen, and engage speakers at our quarterly meetings that allow us to see how other industries do it (Thanks <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfyw2fdaABQ\">Dave Dawson!</a>)\r\n\r\nRather than consulting the manual for the answer, our team members are given the freedom and latitude to innovate in every action they perform for a reasonable period of time. This ability to improve the process dynamically has yielded fantastic results – yet, if you hit a roadblock, you now have the force multiplier of the team at your disposal.\r\n\r\nAfter 30 minutes, we fully support and request that anyone “stuck” utilize our extended team for assistance. This community of committed team members and expertise is a potent response to the trickiest of situations, since it allows any member of the team to seek wisdom from any other, and we actively promote the action of roping in expertise from any angle – team member, manufacturer, industry expert, etc.\r\n<h2><b>The “head fake”</b></h2>\r\nAt the end of the day, it’s about corporate purpose – and what we’re really after with our mindset is to find those people who fit with our belief in building a culture that is based less on <em>quantitative measurements</em> (how many people, how much revenue, blah, blah, blah) but based on <em>qualitative measurements</em> (what did our customer think of our last service engagement, did we sell them the “right” solution for their needs, how do I feel my career performance is to date, do I feel great about what I’m doing for them, am I making an impact for the positive?)\r\n\r\nThis aspect of eGroup has been with us our entire time – and it’s a key cultural differentiator for us.\r\n\r\nAre we debt free? Yes.\r\n\r\nDid we grow at a realistic and sustainable 30-40% YoY for the last 10 years? Yes.\r\n\r\nAre we accomplishing our objectives of brand establishment, staff development, and sales expansion? Yes.\r\n\r\nBut aside from all of that, what we <b>really</b> want to make better are the folks on our team.\r\n\r\nAside from delivering a valuable and innovative set of services, eGroup builds technology services leaders out of our people – with a tendency to focus heavily on the leadership aspect.\r\n\r\nThese leaders – whether they’ve stayed or moved on – have accomplished great things. They embody confidence, competence, and deliver results in all walks of life.\r\n\r\nOur people are our greatest product – and we do everything we can to support them by empowering them to make themselves better. The result is nothing short of magical.\r\n\r\n<strong>That’s the head fake.</strong>\r\n\r\nIf you’re passionate about improvement – whether for yourself, for your career, for an aspect of the industry that you think needs attention, give us a shout – we’re always looking for people who share our culture and would be glad to have you on the journey.','We Like to Make Things Better. Do You?','','inherit','open','open','','8542-revision-v1','','','2013-08-19 15:30:45','2013-08-19 19:30:45','',8542,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8542-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8548,40,'2013-08-19 15:35:40','2013-08-19 19:35:40','As anyone on our team will tell you, there’s never a dull moment at eGroup – a common saying at eGroup is that “even when there is nothing scheduled, you will always have plenty to do.” True words.\r\n\r\nThe action at eGroup is fast, ever-changing, and full of fun challenges. Time literally flies each and every day. I can’t think of a healthier, more engaging workplace. Some folks define the work/life balance as equal time at home or office, we define it as zero transition between the two – when you love what you do so much that harmony exists and you never see the move from one context to the other.\r\n\r\nRecently, I had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with someone I respect immensely. We had a great conversation but I could tell something was on his mind. Ultimately, after the obvious topics were covered he looked at me and said, “Mike, after 15 years how do you find the energy to come into work and do what you do every day at the level you do it at?”\r\n\r\nThis gave me a pause because I had to really consider what that “harmonious” and energizing thread is that provides such congruency between my home and work life – I don’t necessarily see them as two distinct things – just different outlets of the same energy.\r\n\r\nSo, thinking about this for a few minutes and after thinking of the myriad ways this “energy” comes out at eGroup and through our quarterly meetings (we get the ENTIRE eGroup team together for each quarterly meeting – an aspect of our culture since the early days of our existence and providing a completely transparent review of everything going on at eGroup – and also a great opportunity for us to review and reflect on both what we did well and what we should do differently) I simply said “because I like making things better” – and that’s it – we like to make things better.\r\n\r\nFor me, this embodies several core characteristics of the culture at eGroup, as well sets up the proverbial “head fake” that keeps outsiders guessing what truly makes us tick beyond what they see as our actions.\r\n<h2><b>Key Characteristics</b></h2>\r\nI learned long ago, both directly and indirectly, through my time as the son of a fighter pilot (think Great Santini - *really*), and through my own experiences at The Citadel, and through my experiences as a husband and a father, that the keys to making things better are in everyone’s hands and can be achieved by adhering to several specific attributes – those are:\r\n<h3><i>Be Humble</i></h3>\r\nObvious enough, though you’d be surprised how many people miss this. Humility defined is the low estimation of one’s sense of importance. This is vital to the process of continuous improvement because it ensures that no matter how good things are, you’re not done yet – you can always make them better.\r\n\r\nHumility is the antidote to complacency and the catalyst for innovation. Humility kick-starts the process every time.\r\n\r\nOne of our clients has a phrase on the desk of every customer service representative that says, “Treat every customer as if you are about to lose them,” – sage advice – and borne from humility.\r\n<h3><i>Ask Questions</i></h3>\r\nKey to improvement, asking questions allows for the assessment of field position and progress, divining an understanding of how you’re doing, or what you could do differently.\r\n\r\nAs part of our flawless execution service delivery model, eGroupers peel off all the rank and conduct valuable debrief sessions for all actions to ensure we’re capturing vital information that makes what we do that much better. We constantly question what we’re doing, and how to make it better. We immediately put any answers into motion.\r\n<h3><i>Avoid Assumptions</i></h3>\r\nTactically, keeping an open mind – or more to the point – “go with what you know” – helps keep you on track. Since we recruit people for passion and attitude, rarely do we deal with assumptive behavior, but it helps to revisit this in everything we do to ensure that we’re operating with a clear mind.\r\n\r\nStrategically, the one assumption we do allow ourselves to make is with our clients in mind. That is, our clients engage us to deliver something that is “Faster, Better, or Cheaper” – and every time we engage, we assume we can. Since we’re in the technology services field, we always have faster, better, and less expensive options each time we revisit a situation – we believe we can always make things better – no matter what.\r\n<h3><i>Seek Wisdom</i></h3>\r\nWe employ a 30-minute rule on just about everything. That is, everyone at any level is always given 30 minutes (and it is expected that you spend at least 30 minutes - as we like people to learn to fish, not just give them fish, as the saying goes) to work through challenges.\r\n\r\n30 minutes gives a talented person time to learn something new within a reasonable period of time, with the expectation that they will reach out for new ideas afterwards.\r\n\r\nIt’s this aspect of who we are that appeals immensely to resourceful and creative people. Beyond being techies, we see ourselves as craftsmen, and engage speakers at our quarterly meetings that allow us to see how other industries do it (Thanks <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfyw2fdaABQ\">Dave Dawson!</a>)\r\n\r\nRather than consulting the manual for the answer, our team members are given the freedom and latitude to innovate in every action they perform for a reasonable period of time. This ability to improve the process dynamically has yielded fantastic results – yet, if you hit a roadblock, you now have the force multiplier of the team at your disposal.\r\n\r\nAfter 30 minutes, we fully support and request that anyone “stuck” utilize our extended team for assistance. This community of committed team members and expertise is a potent response to the trickiest of situations, since it allows any member of the team to seek wisdom from any other, and we actively promote the action of roping in expertise from any angle – team member, manufacturer, industry expert, etc.\r\n<h2><b>The “head fake”</b></h2>\r\nAt the end of the day, it’s about corporate purpose – and what we’re really after with our mindset is to find those people who fit with our belief in building a culture that is based less on <em>quantitative measurements</em> (how many people, how much revenue, blah, blah, blah) but based on <em>qualitative measurements</em> (what did our customer think of our last service engagement, did we sell them the “right” solution for their needs, how do I feel my career performance is to date, do I feel great about what I’m doing for them, am I making an impact for the positive?)\r\n\r\nThis aspect of eGroup has been with us our entire time – and it’s a key cultural differentiator for us.\r\n\r\nAre we debt free? Yes.\r\n\r\nDid we grow at a realistic and sustainable 30-40% YoY for the last 10 years? Yes.\r\n\r\nAre we accomplishing our objectives of brand establishment, staff development, and sales expansion? Yes.\r\n\r\nBut aside from all of that, what we <b>really</b> want to make better are the folks on our team.\r\n\r\nAside from delivering a <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/\" target=\"_blank\">valuable and innovative set of services</a>, eGroup builds technology services leaders out of our people – with a tendency to focus heavily on the leadership aspect.\r\n\r\nThese leaders – whether they’ve stayed or moved on – have accomplished great things. They embody confidence, competence, and deliver results in all walks of life.\r\n\r\nOur people are our greatest product – and we do everything we can to support them by empowering them to make themselves better. The result is nothing short of magical.\r\n\r\n<strong>That’s the head fake.</strong>\r\n\r\nIf you’re passionate about improvement – whether for yourself, for your career, for an aspect of the industry that you think needs attention, give us a shout – <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers/\" target=\"_blank\">we’re always looking for people who share our culture</a> and would be glad to have you on the journey.','We Like to Make Things Better. Do You?','','inherit','open','open','','8542-revision-v1','','','2013-08-19 15:35:40','2013-08-19 19:35:40','',8542,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8542-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8549,40,'2013-08-19 15:39:37','2013-08-19 19:39:37','','Think','','inherit','open','open','','think','','','2013-08-19 15:39:37','2013-08-19 19:39:37','',8542,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/think.jpeg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8550,40,'2013-08-19 15:39:54','2013-08-19 19:39:54','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/think.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8549\" alt=\"culture\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/think-225x300.jpeg\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\nAs anyone on our team will tell you, there’s never a dull moment at eGroup – a common saying at eGroup is that “even when there is nothing scheduled, you will always have plenty to do.” True words.\r\n\r\nThe action at eGroup is fast, ever-changing, and full of fun challenges. Time literally flies each and every day. I can’t think of a healthier, more engaging workplace. Some folks define the work/life balance as equal time at home or office, we define it as zero transition between the two – when you love what you do so much that harmony exists and you never see the move from one context to the other.\r\n\r\nRecently, I had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with someone I respect immensely. We had a great conversation but I could tell something was on his mind. Ultimately, after the obvious topics were covered he looked at me and said, “Mike, after 15 years how do you find the energy to come into work and do what you do every day at the level you do it at?”\r\n\r\nThis gave me a pause because I had to really consider what that “harmonious” and energizing thread is that provides such congruency between my home and work life – I don’t necessarily see them as two distinct things – just different outlets of the same energy.\r\n\r\nSo, thinking about this for a few minutes and after thinking of the myriad ways this “energy” comes out at eGroup and through our quarterly meetings (we get the ENTIRE eGroup team together for each quarterly meeting – an aspect of our culture since the early days of our existence and providing a completely transparent review of everything going on at eGroup – and also a great opportunity for us to review and reflect on both what we did well and what we should do differently) I simply said “because I like making things better” – and that’s it – we like to make things better.\r\n\r\nFor me, this embodies several core characteristics of the culture at eGroup, as well sets up the proverbial “head fake” that keeps outsiders guessing what truly makes us tick beyond what they see as our actions.\r\n<h2><b>Key Characteristics</b></h2>\r\nI learned long ago, both directly and indirectly, through my time as the son of a fighter pilot (think Great Santini - *really*), and through my own experiences at The Citadel, and through my experiences as a husband and a father, that the keys to making things better are in everyone’s hands and can be achieved by adhering to several specific attributes – those are:\r\n<h3><i>Be Humble</i></h3>\r\nObvious enough, though you’d be surprised how many people miss this. Humility defined is the low estimation of one’s sense of importance. This is vital to the process of continuous improvement because it ensures that no matter how good things are, you’re not done yet – you can always make them better.\r\n\r\nHumility is the antidote to complacency and the catalyst for innovation. Humility kick-starts the process every time.\r\n\r\nOne of our clients has a phrase on the desk of every customer service representative that says, “Treat every customer as if you are about to lose them,” – sage advice – and borne from humility.\r\n<h3><i>Ask Questions</i></h3>\r\nKey to improvement, asking questions allows for the assessment of field position and progress, divining an understanding of how you’re doing, or what you could do differently.\r\n\r\nAs part of our flawless execution service delivery model, eGroupers peel off all the rank and conduct valuable debrief sessions for all actions to ensure we’re capturing vital information that makes what we do that much better. We constantly question what we’re doing, and how to make it better. We immediately put any answers into motion.\r\n<h3><i>Avoid Assumptions</i></h3>\r\nTactically, keeping an open mind – or more to the point – “go with what you know” – helps keep you on track. Since we recruit people for passion and attitude, rarely do we deal with assumptive behavior, but it helps to revisit this in everything we do to ensure that we’re operating with a clear mind.\r\n\r\nStrategically, the one assumption we do allow ourselves to make is with our clients in mind. That is, our clients engage us to deliver something that is “Faster, Better, or Cheaper” – and every time we engage, we assume we can. Since we’re in the technology services field, we always have faster, better, and less expensive options each time we revisit a situation – we believe we can always make things better – no matter what.\r\n<h3><i>Seek Wisdom</i></h3>\r\nWe employ a 30-minute rule on just about everything. That is, everyone at any level is always given 30 minutes (and it is expected that you spend at least 30 minutes - as we like people to learn to fish, not just give them fish, as the saying goes) to work through challenges.\r\n\r\n30 minutes gives a talented person time to learn something new within a reasonable period of time, with the expectation that they will reach out for new ideas afterwards.\r\n\r\nIt’s this aspect of who we are that appeals immensely to resourceful and creative people. Beyond being techies, we see ourselves as craftsmen, and engage speakers at our quarterly meetings that allow us to see how other industries do it (Thanks <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfyw2fdaABQ\">Dave Dawson!</a>)\r\n\r\nRather than consulting the manual for the answer, our team members are given the freedom and latitude to innovate in every action they perform for a reasonable period of time. This ability to improve the process dynamically has yielded fantastic results – yet, if you hit a roadblock, you now have the force multiplier of the team at your disposal.\r\n\r\nAfter 30 minutes, we fully support and request that anyone “stuck” utilize our extended team for assistance. This community of committed team members and expertise is a potent response to the trickiest of situations, since it allows any member of the team to seek wisdom from any other, and we actively promote the action of roping in expertise from any angle – team member, manufacturer, industry expert, etc.\r\n<h2><b>The “head fake”</b></h2>\r\nAt the end of the day, it’s about corporate purpose – and what we’re really after with our mindset is to find those people who fit with our belief in building a culture that is based less on <em>quantitative measurements</em> (how many people, how much revenue, blah, blah, blah) but based on <em>qualitative measurements</em> (what did our customer think of our last service engagement, did we sell them the “right” solution for their needs, how do I feel my career performance is to date, do I feel great about what I’m doing for them, am I making an impact for the positive?)\r\n\r\nThis aspect of eGroup has been with us our entire time – and it’s a key cultural differentiator for us.\r\n\r\nAre we debt free? Yes.\r\n\r\nDid we grow at a realistic and sustainable 30-40% YoY for the last 10 years? Yes.\r\n\r\nAre we accomplishing our objectives of brand establishment, staff development, and sales expansion? Yes.\r\n\r\nBut aside from all of that, what we <b>really</b> want to make better are the folks on our team.\r\n\r\nAside from delivering a <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/\" target=\"_blank\">valuable and innovative set of services</a>, eGroup builds technology services leaders out of our people – with a tendency to focus heavily on the leadership aspect.\r\n\r\nThese leaders – whether they’ve stayed or moved on – have accomplished great things. They embody confidence, competence, and deliver results in all walks of life.\r\n\r\nOur people are our greatest product – and we do everything we can to support them by empowering them to make themselves better. The result is nothing short of magical.\r\n\r\n<strong>That’s the head fake.</strong>\r\n\r\nIf you’re passionate about improvement – whether for yourself, for your career, for an aspect of the industry that you think needs attention, give us a shout – <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers/\" target=\"_blank\">we’re always looking for people who share our culture</a> and would be glad to have you on the journey.','We Like to Make Things Better. Do You?','','inherit','open','open','','8542-revision-v1','','','2013-08-19 15:39:54','2013-08-19 19:39:54','',8542,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8542-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8551,40,'2013-08-19 15:40:27','2013-08-19 19:40:27','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/think.jpeg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8549\" alt=\"culture\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/think-225x300.jpeg\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\n(courtesy of Thinkstock)\r\n\r\nAs anyone on our team will tell you, there’s never a dull moment at eGroup – a common saying at eGroup is that “even when there is nothing scheduled, you will always have plenty to do.” True words.\r\n\r\nThe action at eGroup is fast, ever-changing, and full of fun challenges. Time literally flies each and every day. I can’t think of a healthier, more engaging workplace. Some folks define the work/life balance as equal time at home or office, we define it as zero transition between the two – when you love what you do so much that harmony exists and you never see the move from one context to the other.\r\n\r\nRecently, I had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with someone I respect immensely. We had a great conversation but I could tell something was on his mind. Ultimately, after the obvious topics were covered he looked at me and said, “Mike, after 15 years how do you find the energy to come into work and do what you do every day at the level you do it at?”\r\n\r\nThis gave me a pause because I had to really consider what that “harmonious” and energizing thread is that provides such congruency between my home and work life – I don’t necessarily see them as two distinct things – just different outlets of the same energy.\r\n\r\nSo, thinking about this for a few minutes and after thinking of the myriad ways this “energy” comes out at eGroup and through our quarterly meetings (we get the ENTIRE eGroup team together for each quarterly meeting – an aspect of our culture since the early days of our existence and providing a completely transparent review of everything going on at eGroup – and also a great opportunity for us to review and reflect on both what we did well and what we should do differently) I simply said “because I like making things better” – and that’s it – we like to make things better.\r\n\r\nFor me, this embodies several core characteristics of the culture at eGroup, as well sets up the proverbial “head fake” that keeps outsiders guessing what truly makes us tick beyond what they see as our actions.\r\n<h2><b>Key Characteristics</b></h2>\r\nI learned long ago, both directly and indirectly, through my time as the son of a fighter pilot (think Great Santini - *really*), and through my own experiences at The Citadel, and through my experiences as a husband and a father, that the keys to making things better are in everyone’s hands and can be achieved by adhering to several specific attributes – those are:\r\n<h3><i>Be Humble</i></h3>\r\nObvious enough, though you’d be surprised how many people miss this. Humility defined is the low estimation of one’s sense of importance. This is vital to the process of continuous improvement because it ensures that no matter how good things are, you’re not done yet – you can always make them better.\r\n\r\nHumility is the antidote to complacency and the catalyst for innovation. Humility kick-starts the process every time.\r\n\r\nOne of our clients has a phrase on the desk of every customer service representative that says, “Treat every customer as if you are about to lose them,” – sage advice – and borne from humility.\r\n<h3><i>Ask Questions</i></h3>\r\nKey to improvement, asking questions allows for the assessment of field position and progress, divining an understanding of how you’re doing, or what you could do differently.\r\n\r\nAs part of our flawless execution service delivery model, eGroupers peel off all the rank and conduct valuable debrief sessions for all actions to ensure we’re capturing vital information that makes what we do that much better. We constantly question what we’re doing, and how to make it better. We immediately put any answers into motion.\r\n<h3><i>Avoid Assumptions</i></h3>\r\nTactically, keeping an open mind – or more to the point – “go with what you know” – helps keep you on track. Since we recruit people for passion and attitude, rarely do we deal with assumptive behavior, but it helps to revisit this in everything we do to ensure that we’re operating with a clear mind.\r\n\r\nStrategically, the one assumption we do allow ourselves to make is with our clients in mind. That is, our clients engage us to deliver something that is “Faster, Better, or Cheaper” – and every time we engage, we assume we can. Since we’re in the technology services field, we always have faster, better, and less expensive options each time we revisit a situation – we believe we can always make things better – no matter what.\r\n<h3><i>Seek Wisdom</i></h3>\r\nWe employ a 30-minute rule on just about everything. That is, everyone at any level is always given 30 minutes (and it is expected that you spend at least 30 minutes - as we like people to learn to fish, not just give them fish, as the saying goes) to work through challenges.\r\n\r\n30 minutes gives a talented person time to learn something new within a reasonable period of time, with the expectation that they will reach out for new ideas afterwards.\r\n\r\nIt’s this aspect of who we are that appeals immensely to resourceful and creative people. Beyond being techies, we see ourselves as craftsmen, and engage speakers at our quarterly meetings that allow us to see how other industries do it (Thanks <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfyw2fdaABQ\">Dave Dawson!</a>)\r\n\r\nRather than consulting the manual for the answer, our team members are given the freedom and latitude to innovate in every action they perform for a reasonable period of time. This ability to improve the process dynamically has yielded fantastic results – yet, if you hit a roadblock, you now have the force multiplier of the team at your disposal.\r\n\r\nAfter 30 minutes, we fully support and request that anyone “stuck” utilize our extended team for assistance. This community of committed team members and expertise is a potent response to the trickiest of situations, since it allows any member of the team to seek wisdom from any other, and we actively promote the action of roping in expertise from any angle – team member, manufacturer, industry expert, etc.\r\n<h2><b>The “head fake”</b></h2>\r\nAt the end of the day, it’s about corporate purpose – and what we’re really after with our mindset is to find those people who fit with our belief in building a culture that is based less on <em>quantitative measurements</em> (how many people, how much revenue, blah, blah, blah) but based on <em>qualitative measurements</em> (what did our customer think of our last service engagement, did we sell them the “right” solution for their needs, how do I feel my career performance is to date, do I feel great about what I’m doing for them, am I making an impact for the positive?)\r\n\r\nThis aspect of eGroup has been with us our entire time – and it’s a key cultural differentiator for us.\r\n\r\nAre we debt free? Yes.\r\n\r\nDid we grow at a realistic and sustainable 30-40% YoY for the last 10 years? Yes.\r\n\r\nAre we accomplishing our objectives of brand establishment, staff development, and sales expansion? Yes.\r\n\r\nBut aside from all of that, what we <b>really</b> want to make better are the folks on our team.\r\n\r\nAside from delivering a <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/\" target=\"_blank\">valuable and innovative set of services</a>, eGroup builds technology services leaders out of our people – with a tendency to focus heavily on the leadership aspect.\r\n\r\nThese leaders – whether they’ve stayed or moved on – have accomplished great things. They embody confidence, competence, and deliver results in all walks of life.\r\n\r\nOur people are our greatest product – and we do everything we can to support them by empowering them to make themselves better. The result is nothing short of magical.\r\n\r\n<strong>That’s the head fake.</strong>\r\n\r\nIf you’re passionate about improvement – whether for yourself, for your career, for an aspect of the industry that you think needs attention, give us a shout – <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers/\" target=\"_blank\">we’re always looking for people who share our culture</a> and would be glad to have you on the journey.','We Like to Make Things Better. Do You?','','inherit','open','open','','8542-revision-v1','','','2013-08-19 15:40:27','2013-08-19 19:40:27','',8542,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8542-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8553,8,'2013-08-20 11:11:14','2013-08-20 15:11:14','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Server.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8559\" alt=\"Server\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Server-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>\r\n\r\nA few weeks ago, I posted about the importance of <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/managed-it-services-in-the-cloud-era/\">Managed Services in the Cloud Era</a>. I touched on how complexity introduced with <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/services/cloud-services/\" target=\"_blank\">virtualization and cloud</a> is causing IT groups to struggle given the varying skills required to deliver what the business requires.\r\n\r\nBy augmenting the internal teams in key areas, businesses can gain the expertise and service levels required with a very predictable cost.\r\n\r\nSmall and Medium Businesses (SMBs) face a different challenge, however.\r\n\r\nThe SMB status-quo over the years has been that once an organization grows to a point that user support and their investment in IT extends beyond a few PCs and servers, they hire a few IT resources to help them extend their reach. These individuals often wears many hats, which unfortunately results in an inefficient IT infrastructure that fails to meet the service levels of the business.\r\n\r\nThe IT environment struggles to scale and reactive services/costly downtime create additional unexpected costs that are unexpected. Couple that with \"rip and replace\" capital costs just to get the environment running again further add to the IT expense of a growing organization.\r\n\r\nThe fact of the matter is that IT solutions and expertise struggle to grow with the business - this can happen in organizations with 10 people or 10,000 people.\r\n\r\nThe silver lining is that SMBs have many more options today in how to consume IT solutions, services and drive business value than they have had in the past. Cloud solutions and Software as a Service (SaaS) allow these organizations to consume IT solutions on their terms. There are few Cloud solutions that offer a \"one-stop\" cloud. IT organizations still need the resources to support end users access, internal systems and their access to external solutions as well.\r\n\r\nThis is where Managed Services or the Managed Cloud comes in. Managed Services allows SMBs to realize the competitive benefits of large organizations in several ways, all at a fixed and predictable cost:\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Advisory Services</strong>: \"Virtual CIOs\" allow organizations access to senior level administrators to advise and design solutions specific to the needs of the business but also conforming to standards such as ITIL.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>End User Support</strong>: 24x7 End User support for the variety of devices and methods in which workers consume IT today.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Fixed Cost Incident Based Support</strong>: 24x7 SLA driven incident based support for failures or issues within environment.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Proactive Maintenance</strong>: Maintenance of On-Premise and Cloud Based IT assets strictly guided by change management and proven best practices.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Backup and Recovery Services</strong>: Secure, Safe, Off-Site backup and recovery services that protect your most valuable asset - your data.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Professional Services</strong>: Services conducted by solution specific trained and certified resources for IT projects and initiatives to ensure you roll out new or upgraded solutions successfully.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nOffloading the design and support of these vital business functions allows entrepreneurs, CIOs, and managers, the ability to focus on value generation for the business vs. value maintenance. With cost models that are reasonable and scale as your business grows, managed services for on-premise environments or in the cloud allow organizations to accelerate their business growth by focusing on the value of their business vs. the \"tools\" used to deliver that value.\r\n\r\nAs always, please let me know if you have any questions or would like to speak in more depth. Just drop a comment below.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Managed Services: What about the Small and Medium Business?','','publish','open','open','','managed-services-for-the-small-and-medium-business','','','2013-08-20 11:11:14','2013-08-20 15:11:14','',0,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/?p=8553',0,'post','',0),(8557,40,'2013-08-20 10:55:10','2013-08-20 14:55:10','A few weeks ago, I posted about the importance of <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/managed-it-services-in-the-cloud-era/\">Managed Services in the Cloud Era</a>. I touched on how complexity introduced with <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/services/cloud-services/\" target=\"_blank\">virtualization and cloud</a> is causing IT groups to struggle given the varying skills required to deliver what the business requires.\r\n\r\nBy augmenting the internal teams in key areas, businesses can gain the expertise and service levels required with a very predictable cost.\r\n\r\nSmall and Medium Businesses (SMBs) face a different challenge, however.\r\n\r\nThe SMB status-quo over the years has been that once an organization grows to a point that user support and their investment in IT extends beyond a few PCs and servers, they hire a few IT resources to help them extend their reach. These individuals often wears many hats, which unfortunately results in an inefficient IT infrastructure that fails to meet the service levels of the business.\r\n\r\nThe environment struggles to scale and reactive services/costly downtime create additional costs that are unexpected.  Capital costs to \"rip and replace\" solutions to get them back on track further add to the IT expense of a growing organization.\r\n\r\nIT solutions and expertise struggle to grow with the business.  This can happen in organizations with 10 people or 2000 people.\r\n\r\nOrganizations have many more options today in how to consume IT solutions, services and drive business value than they have had in the past.  Cloud solutions and Software as a Service allow organizations to consume IT solutions on their terms.  There are few Cloud solutions that offer a \"one-stop\" cloud.  IT organizations still need the resources to support end users access, internal systems and their access to external solutions as well.\r\n\r\nThis is where Managed Services or the Managed Cloud comes in.  Managed Services allows organizations to realize the competitive benefits of large organizations in several ways, all at a fixed and predictable cost:\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Advisory Services</strong>:  \"Virtual CIOs\" allow organizations access to senior level administrators to advise and design solutions specific to the needs of the business but also conforming to standards such as ITIL.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>End User Support</strong>:  24x7 End User support for the variety of devices and methods in which workers consume IT today.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Fixed Cost Incident Based Support</strong>:  24x7 SLA driven incident based support for failures or issues within environment.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Proactive Maintenance</strong>:  Maintenance of On-Premise and Cloud Based IT assets strictly guided by change management and proven best practices.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Backup and Recovery Services</strong>:  Secure, Safe, Off-Site backup and recovery services that protect your most valuable asset.  Your Data.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Professional Services</strong>:  Services conducted by solution specific trained and certified resources for IT projects and initiatives to ensure you roll out new or upgraded solutions successfully.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nOffloading the design and support of these vital business functions allows entrepreneurs, CIOs, Managers, etc... the ability to focus on value generation for the business vs. value maintenance.  With cost models that are reasonable and scale as your business grows, managed services for on-premise environments or in the cloud allow organizations to accelerate their business growth by focusing on the value of their business vs. the \"tools\" used to deliver that value.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Managed Services for the Small and Medium Business','','inherit','open','open','','8553-revision-v1','','','2013-08-20 10:55:10','2013-08-20 14:55:10','',8553,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8553-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8554,8,'2013-08-20 09:48:13','2013-08-20 13:48:13','A few weeks ago, I posted about the importance of <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/managed-it-services-in-the-cloud-era/\">Managed Services in the Cloud Era</a>.  I touched on how complexity introduced with virtualization and cloud is causing internal IT groups to struggle with the varying skills required to be proficient in delivering for at the level the business requires.  By augmenting the internal teams in key areas businesses can gain the expertise and service levels required with a very predictable cost.\r\n\r\nSmall, Medium and Growing businesses face a different challenge.  Small and Medium business owners and internal resources tend to wear many hats.  The status-quo over the years has been that once an organization grows to a point that user support and their investment in IT extends beyond a few PCs and Servers they hire a few IT resources to help them extend their reach.  These individuals often wears many hats as well.  The result leads to an IT infrastructure that isn\'t efficient and often doesn\'t meet the service levels required by the business.  The environment struggles to scale and reactive services/costly downtime create additional costs that are unexpected.  Capital costs to \"rip and replace\" solutions to get them back on track further add to the IT expense of a growing organization.\r\n\r\nIT solutions and expertise struggle to grow with the business.  This can happen in organizations with 10 people or 2000 people.\r\n\r\nOrganizations have many more options today in how to consume IT solutions, services and drive business value than they have had in the past.  Cloud solutions and Software as a Service allow organizations to consume IT solutions on their terms.  There are few Cloud solutions that offer a \"one-stop\" cloud.  IT organizations still need the resources to support end users access, internal systems and their access to external solutions as well.\r\n\r\nThis is where Managed Services or the Managed Cloud comes in.  Managed Services allows organizations to realize the competitive benefits of large organizations in several ways, all at a fixed and predictable cost:\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Advisory Services</strong>:  \"Virtual CIOs\" allow organizations access to senior level administrators to advise and design solutions specific to the needs of the business but also conforming to standards such as ITIL.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>End User Support</strong>:  24x7 End User support for the variety of devices and methods in which workers consume IT today.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Fixed Cost Incident Based Support</strong>:  24x7 SLA driven incident based support for failures or issues within environment.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Proactive Maintenance</strong>:  Maintenance of On-Premise and Cloud Based IT assets strictly guided by change management and proven best practices.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Backup and Recovery Services</strong>:  Secure, Safe, Off-Site backup and recovery services that protect your most valuable asset.  Your Data.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Professional Services</strong>:  Services conducted by solution specific trained and certified resources for IT projects and initiatives to ensure you roll out new or upgraded solutions successfully.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nOffloading the design and support of these vital business functions allows entrepreneurs, CIOs, Managers, etc... the ability to focus on value generation for the business vs. value maintenance.  With cost models that are reasonable and scale as your business grows, managed services for on-premise environments or in the cloud allow organizations to accelerate their business growth by focusing on the value of their business vs. the \"tools\" used to deliver that value.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Managed Services for the Small and Medium Business','','inherit','open','open','','8553-revision-v1','','','2013-08-20 09:48:13','2013-08-20 13:48:13','',8553,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8553-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8555,2,'2013-07-12 09:31:22','2013-07-12 13:31:22','eGroup hosts and sponsors dozens of events throughout the year, including User Groups, industry tradeshows, webinars, and an array of in-person events covering a wide range of product- and industry-related topics.\r\n\r\nCheck back often for the latest events calendar!\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Events','','inherit','open','open','','13-revision-v1','','','2013-07-12 09:31:22','2013-07-12 13:31:22','',13,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/07/13-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8556,40,'2013-08-20 11:10:38','2013-08-20 15:10:38','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Server.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8559\" alt=\"Server\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Server-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>\r\n\r\nA few weeks ago, I posted about the importance of <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/managed-it-services-in-the-cloud-era/\">Managed Services in the Cloud Era</a>. I touched on how complexity introduced with <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/services/cloud-services/\" target=\"_blank\">virtualization and cloud</a> is causing IT groups to struggle given the varying skills required to deliver what the business requires.\r\n\r\nBy augmenting the internal teams in key areas, businesses can gain the expertise and service levels required with a very predictable cost.\r\n\r\nSmall and Medium Businesses (SMBs) face a different challenge, however.\r\n\r\nThe SMB status-quo over the years has been that once an organization grows to a point that user support and their investment in IT extends beyond a few PCs and servers, they hire a few IT resources to help them extend their reach. These individuals often wears many hats, which unfortunately results in an inefficient IT infrastructure that fails to meet the service levels of the business.\r\n\r\nThe IT environment struggles to scale and reactive services/costly downtime create additional unexpected costs that are unexpected. Couple that with \"rip and replace\" capital costs just to get the environment running again further add to the IT expense of a growing organization.\r\n\r\nThe fact of the matter is that IT solutions and expertise struggle to grow with the business - this can happen in organizations with 10 people or 10,000 people.\r\n\r\nThe silver lining is that SMBs have many more options today in how to consume IT solutions, services and drive business value than they have had in the past. Cloud solutions and Software as a Service (SaaS) allow these organizations to consume IT solutions on their terms. There are few Cloud solutions that offer a \"one-stop\" cloud. IT organizations still need the resources to support end users access, internal systems and their access to external solutions as well.\r\n\r\nThis is where Managed Services or the Managed Cloud comes in. Managed Services allows SMBs to realize the competitive benefits of large organizations in several ways, all at a fixed and predictable cost:\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Advisory Services</strong>: \"Virtual CIOs\" allow organizations access to senior level administrators to advise and design solutions specific to the needs of the business but also conforming to standards such as ITIL.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>End User Support</strong>: 24x7 End User support for the variety of devices and methods in which workers consume IT today.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Fixed Cost Incident Based Support</strong>: 24x7 SLA driven incident based support for failures or issues within environment.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Proactive Maintenance</strong>: Maintenance of On-Premise and Cloud Based IT assets strictly guided by change management and proven best practices.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Backup and Recovery Services</strong>: Secure, Safe, Off-Site backup and recovery services that protect your most valuable asset - your data.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Professional Services</strong>: Services conducted by solution specific trained and certified resources for IT projects and initiatives to ensure you roll out new or upgraded solutions successfully.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nOffloading the design and support of these vital business functions allows entrepreneurs, CIOs, and managers, the ability to focus on value generation for the business vs. value maintenance. With cost models that are reasonable and scale as your business grows, managed services for on-premise environments or in the cloud allow organizations to accelerate their business growth by focusing on the value of their business vs. the \"tools\" used to deliver that value.\r\n\r\nAs always, please let me know if you have any questions or would like to speak in more depth. Just drop a comment below.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Managed Services: What about the Small and Medium Business?','','inherit','open','open','','8553-autosave-v1','','','2013-08-20 11:10:38','2013-08-20 15:10:38','',8553,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8553-autosave-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8558,40,'2013-08-20 11:03:20','2013-08-20 15:03:20','A few weeks ago, I posted about the importance of <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/managed-it-services-in-the-cloud-era/\">Managed Services in the Cloud Era</a>. I touched on how complexity introduced with <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/services/cloud-services/\" target=\"_blank\">virtualization and cloud</a> is causing IT groups to struggle given the varying skills required to deliver what the business requires.\r\n\r\nBy augmenting the internal teams in key areas, businesses can gain the expertise and service levels required with a very predictable cost.\r\n\r\nSmall and Medium Businesses (SMBs) face a different challenge, however.\r\n\r\nThe SMB status-quo over the years has been that once an organization grows to a point that user support and their investment in IT extends beyond a few PCs and servers, they hire a few IT resources to help them extend their reach. These individuals often wears many hats, which unfortunately results in an inefficient IT infrastructure that fails to meet the service levels of the business.\r\n\r\nThe IT environment struggles to scale and reactive services/costly downtime create additional unexpected costs that are unexpected. Couple that with \"rip and replace\" capital costs just to get the environment running again further add to the IT expense of a growing organization.\r\n\r\nThe fact of the matter is that IT solutions and expertise struggle to grow with the business - this can happen in organizations with 10 people or 10,000 people.\r\n\r\nThe silver lining is that SMBs have many more options today in how to consume IT solutions, services and drive business value than they have had in the past. Cloud solutions and Software as a Service (SaaS) allow these organizations to consume IT solutions on their terms. There are few Cloud solutions that offer a \"one-stop\" cloud. IT organizations still need the resources to support end users access, internal systems and their access to external solutions as well.\r\n\r\nThis is where Managed Services or the Managed Cloud comes in. Managed Services allows SMBs to realize the competitive benefits of large organizations in several ways, all at a fixed and predictable cost:\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Advisory Services</strong>:  \"Virtual CIOs\" allow organizations access to senior level administrators to advise and design solutions specific to the needs of the business but also conforming to standards such as ITIL.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>End User Support</strong>:  24x7 End User support for the variety of devices and methods in which workers consume IT today.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Fixed Cost Incident Based Support</strong>:  24x7 SLA driven incident based support for failures or issues within environment.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Proactive Maintenance</strong>:  Maintenance of On-Premise and Cloud Based IT assets strictly guided by change management and proven best practices.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Backup and Recovery Services</strong>:  Secure, Safe, Off-Site backup and recovery services that protect your most valuable asset.  Your Data.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Professional Services</strong>:  Services conducted by solution specific trained and certified resources for IT projects and initiatives to ensure you roll out new or upgraded solutions successfully.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nOffloading the design and support of these vital business functions allows entrepreneurs, CIOs, Managers, etc... the ability to focus on value generation for the business vs. value maintenance.  With cost models that are reasonable and scale as your business grows, managed services for on-premise environments or in the cloud allow organizations to accelerate their business growth by focusing on the value of their business vs. the \"tools\" used to deliver that value.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Managed Services: What about the Small and Medium Business?','','inherit','open','open','','8553-revision-v1','','','2013-08-20 11:03:20','2013-08-20 15:03:20','',8553,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8553-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8559,40,'2013-08-20 11:05:13','2013-08-20 15:05:13','','Server & Cables','','inherit','open','open','','server','','','2013-08-20 11:05:13','2013-08-20 15:05:13','',8553,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Server.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8560,40,'2013-08-20 11:06:04','2013-08-20 15:06:04','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Server.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8559\" alt=\"Server\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Server-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>\r\n\r\nA few weeks ago, I posted about the importance of <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/managed-it-services-in-the-cloud-era/\">Managed Services in the Cloud Era</a>. I touched on how complexity introduced with <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/services/cloud-services/\" target=\"_blank\">virtualization and cloud</a> is causing IT groups to struggle given the varying skills required to deliver what the business requires.\r\n\r\nBy augmenting the internal teams in key areas, businesses can gain the expertise and service levels required with a very predictable cost.\r\n\r\nSmall and Medium Businesses (SMBs) face a different challenge, however.\r\n\r\nThe SMB status-quo over the years has been that once an organization grows to a point that user support and their investment in IT extends beyond a few PCs and servers, they hire a few IT resources to help them extend their reach. These individuals often wears many hats, which unfortunately results in an inefficient IT infrastructure that fails to meet the service levels of the business.\r\n\r\nThe IT environment struggles to scale and reactive services/costly downtime create additional unexpected costs that are unexpected. Couple that with \"rip and replace\" capital costs just to get the environment running again further add to the IT expense of a growing organization.\r\n\r\nThe fact of the matter is that IT solutions and expertise struggle to grow with the business - this can happen in organizations with 10 people or 10,000 people.\r\n\r\nThe silver lining is that SMBs have many more options today in how to consume IT solutions, services and drive business value than they have had in the past. Cloud solutions and Software as a Service (SaaS) allow these organizations to consume IT solutions on their terms. There are few Cloud solutions that offer a \"one-stop\" cloud. IT organizations still need the resources to support end users access, internal systems and their access to external solutions as well.\r\n\r\nThis is where Managed Services or the Managed Cloud comes in. Managed Services allows SMBs to realize the competitive benefits of large organizations in several ways, all at a fixed and predictable cost:\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Advisory Services</strong>:  \"Virtual CIOs\" allow organizations access to senior level administrators to advise and design solutions specific to the needs of the business but also conforming to standards such as ITIL.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>End User Support</strong>:  24x7 End User support for the variety of devices and methods in which workers consume IT today.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Fixed Cost Incident Based Support</strong>:  24x7 SLA driven incident based support for failures or issues within environment.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Proactive Maintenance</strong>:  Maintenance of On-Premise and Cloud Based IT assets strictly guided by change management and proven best practices.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Backup and Recovery Services</strong>:  Secure, Safe, Off-Site backup and recovery services that protect your most valuable asset.  Your Data.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Professional Services</strong>:  Services conducted by solution specific trained and certified resources for IT projects and initiatives to ensure you roll out new or upgraded solutions successfully.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nOffloading the design and support of these vital business functions allows entrepreneurs, CIOs, Managers, etc... the ability to focus on value generation for the business vs. value maintenance.  With cost models that are reasonable and scale as your business grows, managed services for on-premise environments or in the cloud allow organizations to accelerate their business growth by focusing on the value of their business vs. the \"tools\" used to deliver that value.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Managed Services: What about the Small and Medium Business?','','inherit','open','open','','8553-revision-v1','','','2013-08-20 11:06:04','2013-08-20 15:06:04','',8553,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8553-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8561,40,'2013-08-20 11:10:20','2013-08-20 15:10:20','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Server.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8559\" alt=\"Server\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Server-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>\r\n\r\nA few weeks ago, I posted about the importance of <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/managed-it-services-in-the-cloud-era/\">Managed Services in the Cloud Era</a>. I touched on how complexity introduced with <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/services/cloud-services/\" target=\"_blank\">virtualization and cloud</a> is causing IT groups to struggle given the varying skills required to deliver what the business requires.\r\n\r\nBy augmenting the internal teams in key areas, businesses can gain the expertise and service levels required with a very predictable cost.\r\n\r\nSmall and Medium Businesses (SMBs) face a different challenge, however.\r\n\r\nThe SMB status-quo over the years has been that once an organization grows to a point that user support and their investment in IT extends beyond a few PCs and servers, they hire a few IT resources to help them extend their reach. These individuals often wears many hats, which unfortunately results in an inefficient IT infrastructure that fails to meet the service levels of the business.\r\n\r\nThe IT environment struggles to scale and reactive services/costly downtime create additional unexpected costs that are unexpected. Couple that with \"rip and replace\" capital costs just to get the environment running again further add to the IT expense of a growing organization.\r\n\r\nThe fact of the matter is that IT solutions and expertise struggle to grow with the business - this can happen in organizations with 10 people or 10,000 people.\r\n\r\nThe silver lining is that SMBs have many more options today in how to consume IT solutions, services and drive business value than they have had in the past. Cloud solutions and Software as a Service (SaaS) allow these organizations to consume IT solutions on their terms. There are few Cloud solutions that offer a \"one-stop\" cloud. IT organizations still need the resources to support end users access, internal systems and their access to external solutions as well.\r\n\r\nThis is where Managed Services or the Managed Cloud comes in. Managed Services allows SMBs to realize the competitive benefits of large organizations in several ways, all at a fixed and predictable cost:\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Advisory Services</strong>: \"Virtual CIOs\" allow organizations access to senior level administrators to advise and design solutions specific to the needs of the business but also conforming to standards such as ITIL.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>End User Support</strong>: 24x7 End User support for the variety of devices and methods in which workers consume IT today.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Fixed Cost Incident Based Support</strong>: 24x7 SLA driven incident based support for failures or issues within environment.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Proactive Maintenance</strong>: Maintenance of On-Premise and Cloud Based IT assets strictly guided by change management and proven best practices.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Backup and Recovery Services</strong>: Secure, Safe, Off-Site backup and recovery services that protect your most valuable asset - your data.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Professional Services</strong>: Services conducted by solution specific trained and certified resources for IT projects and initiatives to ensure you roll out new or upgraded solutions successfully.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nOffloading the design and support of these vital business functions allows entrepreneurs, CIOs, and managers, the ability to focus on value generation for the business vs. value maintenance. With cost models that are reasonable and scale as your business grows, managed services for on-premise environments or in the cloud allow organizations to accelerate their business growth by focusing on the value of their business vs. the \"tools\" used to deliver that value.\r\n\r\nAs always, please let me know if you have any questions or would like to speak in more depth. Just drop a comment below.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Managed Services: What about the Small and Medium Business?','','inherit','open','open','','8553-revision-v1','','','2013-08-20 11:10:20','2013-08-20 15:10:20','',8553,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8553-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8562,2,'2013-08-20 14:11:49','2013-08-20 18:11:49','<h3>2013</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2012</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC Velocity Services Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2011</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Only South Carolina-based company named to the <strong>CRN Fast Growth 100</strong> list</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the inaugural <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2010</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC ASN Network Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2009</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>','Recent Awards','','inherit','open','open','','4314-revision-v1','','','2013-08-20 14:11:49','2013-08-20 18:11:49','',4314,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/4314-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8563,2,'2013-08-20 14:12:58','2013-08-20 18:12:58','<h3>2013</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner, recognizing the fastest growing companies in America</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2012</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC Velocity Services Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner, recognizing the fastest growing companies in America</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2011</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Only South Carolina-based company named to the <strong>CRN Fast Growth 100</strong> list</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the inaugural <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2010</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC ASN Network Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2009</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>','Recent Awards','','inherit','open','open','','4314-revision-v1','','','2013-08-20 14:12:58','2013-08-20 18:12:58','',4314,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/4314-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8564,2,'2013-08-20 14:13:44','2013-08-20 18:13:44','<h3>2013</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner, recognizing America\'s fastest growing private companies</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2012</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC Velocity Services Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner, recognizing America\'s fastest growing private companies</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2011</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Only South Carolina-based company named to the <strong>CRN Fast Growth 100</strong> list</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the inaugural <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2010</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC ASN Network Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2009</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>','Recent Awards','','inherit','open','open','','4314-revision-v1','','','2013-08-20 14:13:44','2013-08-20 18:13:44','',4314,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/4314-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8565,2,'2013-08-20 14:14:04','2013-08-20 18:14:04','<h3>2013</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner, recognizing America\'s fastest-growing private companies</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2012</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC Velocity Services Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner, recognizing America\'s fastest-growing private companies</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2011</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Only South Carolina-based company named to the <strong>CRN Fast Growth 100</strong> list</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the inaugural <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2010</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC ASN Network Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2009</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>','Recent Awards','','inherit','open','open','','4314-revision-v1','','','2013-08-20 14:14:04','2013-08-20 18:14:04','',4314,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/4314-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8566,2,'2013-08-20 14:14:40','2013-08-20 18:14:40','<h3>2013</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner, recognizing America\'s fastest-growing private companies</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2012</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC Velocity Services Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner, recognizing America\'s fastest-growing private companies</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2011</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Only South Carolina-based company named to the <strong>CRN Fast Growth 100</strong> list</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the inaugural <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2010</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC ASN Network Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2009</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>','Recent Awards','','inherit','open','open','','4314-revision-v1','','','2013-08-20 14:14:40','2013-08-20 18:14:40','',4314,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/4314-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8567,2,'2013-08-20 14:16:40','2013-08-20 18:16:40','<h3>2013</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner, recognizing America\'s fastest-growing private companies</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Microsoft SMB Growth Partner of the Year</strong> Award</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2012</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC Velocity Services Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner, recognizing America\'s fastest-growing private companies</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2011</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Only South Carolina-based company named to the <strong>CRN Fast Growth 100</strong> list</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the inaugural <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2010</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC ASN Network Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2009</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>','Recent Awards','','inherit','open','open','','4314-revision-v1','','','2013-08-20 14:16:40','2013-08-20 18:16:40','',4314,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/4314-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8568,2,'2013-08-20 14:17:45','2013-08-20 18:17:45','<h3>2013</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner, recognizing America\'s fastest-growing private companies</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Microsoft Growth Partner of the Year</strong> (US SMB East Region)</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2012</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC Velocity Services Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li><strong>Inc. 500|5000</strong> Winner, recognizing America\'s fastest-growing private companies</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2011</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Only South Carolina-based company named to the <strong>CRN Fast Growth 100</strong> list</li>\r\n	<li>Named to the inaugural <strong>CRN Tech Elite 250</strong> list, recognizing the top solution providers who have boosted their partnerships by earning some of the most difficult certifications from some of the biggest names in IT</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2010</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>EMC ASN Network Quality Award</strong> for Service Excellence</li>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>2009</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Named one of <strong>SC’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies</strong> by the Capital Corporation</li>\r\n	<li>Honored by the Charleston Regional Business Journal as one of the area’s <strong>20 fastest growing companies</strong></li>\r\n</ul>','Recent Awards','','inherit','open','open','','4314-revision-v1','','','2013-08-20 14:17:45','2013-08-20 18:17:45','',4314,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/4314-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8571,40,'2013-08-21 13:51:17','2013-08-21 17:51:17','Though I\'ve only worked in the information technology (IT) space for four years, I\'ve witnessed some drastic changes in tech adoption and the way customers are talking about the latest trends.\r\n\r\nFor example, four years ago \"the cloud\" was an enigmatic phrase but now customers seem to be much more understanding of not only its benefits but the computing model in general. Most organizations I meet with have adopted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) within their environment in some shape or form - email, HR, CRM, or accounting programs, to name a few. And now, these same organizations are rapidly moving to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)!\r\n\r\nAs an Account Executive at eGroup, I meet with customers daily and am starting to see some consistent pain points and challenges they\'re all collectively facing. Three immediate examples come to mind:\r\n<h2>Managing Hardware</h2>\r\nOrganizations are getting tired of managing their hardware and software infrastructure. The monthly patches, updates, and troubleshooting can become tedious at best and costly at worst. I have noticed this specifically in the SMB arena, where they might not need and/or have the funds to bring a full time employee in house to handle these items on a regular basis. So they\'re choosing to offload their infrastructure to a Hosted Cloud Provider to free the organization up from worrying about keeping the IT lights on and re-direct the focus more on their business and strategic goals. What\'s interesting is seeing some of the newer, start-ups I work with that \"were born in the cloud\" and have offloaded their entire infrastructure from the get go!\r\n<h2>Deploying Applications</h2>\r\nAnother concern I always hear, is that clients are having difficulties with deploying new servers and applications in a timely fashion. More importantly, trying to keep up with the demand of the end users seems to be a never ending battle for my customers. The ability to respond to business users and developers who require system and application resources, without a whole lot of planning and capital expenditure, is critical for the success of the business.\r\n<h2>Business Continuity</h2>\r\nAlso top-of-mind with customers is the ability to quickly reboot and recover data quickly in the event of a disaster. Unfortunately, most organizations are ill-prepared. Why? Because paying for \"insurance\" is never easy. However, migrating infrastructures to the cloud can eliminate the concerns all together in a cost effective way. Customer experience many benefits by migrating IT infrastructures to a Hosted Cloud Provider, it just all depends on the specific use case and business goals they are hoping to accomplish.\r\n\r\nSo, these are three key pain points I\'m hearing from the frontlines - what about you?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','From the Customer Frontlines: Why they\'re Moving to the Cloud','','inherit','open','open','','8570-revision-v1','','','2013-08-21 13:51:17','2013-08-21 17:51:17','',8570,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8570-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8572,40,'2013-08-21 13:52:07','2013-08-21 17:52:07','','Cloud Services Sub Icon','','inherit','open','open','','cloud-services-sub-icon','','','2013-08-21 13:52:07','2013-08-21 17:52:07','',8570,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Cloud-Services-Sub-Icon.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8573,40,'2013-08-21 13:52:35','2013-08-21 17:52:35','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Cloud-Services-Sub-Icon.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8572\" alt=\"Cloud\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Cloud-Services-Sub-Icon-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\nThough I\'ve only worked in the information technology (IT) space for four years, I\'ve witnessed some drastic changes in tech adoption and the way customers are talking about the latest trends.\r\n\r\nFor example, four years ago \"the cloud\" was an enigmatic phrase but now customers seem to be much more understanding of not only its benefits but the computing model in general. Most organizations I meet with have adopted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) within their environment in some shape or form - email, HR, CRM, or accounting programs, to name a few. And now, these same organizations are rapidly moving to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)!\r\n\r\nAs an Account Executive at eGroup, I meet with customers daily and am starting to see some consistent pain points and challenges they\'re all collectively facing. Three immediate examples come to mind:\r\n<h2>Managing Hardware</h2>\r\nOrganizations are getting tired of managing their hardware and software infrastructure. The monthly patches, updates, and troubleshooting can become tedious at best and costly at worst. I have noticed this specifically in the SMB arena, where they might not need and/or have the funds to bring a full time employee in house to handle these items on a regular basis. So they\'re choosing to offload their infrastructure to a Hosted Cloud Provider to free the organization up from worrying about keeping the IT lights on and re-direct the focus more on their business and strategic goals. What\'s interesting is seeing some of the newer, start-ups I work with that \"were born in the cloud\" and have offloaded their entire infrastructure from the get go!\r\n<h2>Deploying Applications</h2>\r\nAnother concern I always hear, is that clients are having difficulties with deploying new servers and applications in a timely fashion. More importantly, trying to keep up with the demand of the end users seems to be a never ending battle for my customers. The ability to respond to business users and developers who require system and application resources, without a whole lot of planning and capital expenditure, is critical for the success of the business.\r\n<h2>Business Continuity</h2>\r\nAlso top-of-mind with customers is the ability to quickly reboot and recover data quickly in the event of a disaster. Unfortunately, most organizations are ill-prepared. Why? Because paying for \"insurance\" is never easy. However, migrating infrastructures to the cloud can eliminate the concerns all together in a cost effective way. Customer experience many benefits by migrating IT infrastructures to a Hosted Cloud Provider, it just all depends on the specific use case and business goals they are hoping to accomplish.\r\n\r\nSo, these are three key pain points I\'m hearing from the frontlines - what about you?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','From the Customer Frontlines: Why they\'re Moving to the Cloud','','inherit','open','open','','8570-revision-v1','','','2013-08-21 13:52:35','2013-08-21 17:52:35','',8570,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8570-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8574,40,'2013-08-21 13:54:49','2013-08-21 17:54:49','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Cloud-Services-Sub-Icon.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8572\" alt=\"Cloud\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Cloud-Services-Sub-Icon-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\nThough I\'ve only worked in the information technology (IT) space for four years, I\'ve witnessed some drastic changes in tech adoption and the way customers are talking about the latest trends.\r\n\r\nFor example, four years ago \"the cloud\" was an enigmatic phrase but now customers seem to be much more understanding of not only its benefits but the computing model in general. Most organizations I meet with have adopted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) within their environment in some shape or form - email, HR, CRM, or accounting programs, to name a few. And now, these same organizations are rapidly moving to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)!\r\n\r\nAs an Account Executive at eGroup, I meet with customers daily and am starting to see some consistent pain points and challenges they\'re all collectively facing. Three immediate examples come to mind:\r\n<h2>Managing Hardware</h2>\r\nOrganizations are getting tired of managing their hardware and software infrastructure. The monthly patches, updates, and troubleshooting can become tedious at best and costly at worst. I have noticed this specifically in the SMB arena, where they might not need and/or have the funds to bring a full time employee in house to handle these items on a regular basis. So they\'re choosing to offload their infrastructure to a Hosted Cloud Provider to free the organization up from worrying about keeping the IT lights on and re-direct the focus more on their business and strategic goals. What\'s interesting is seeing some of the newer, start-ups I work with that \"were born in the cloud\" and have offloaded their entire infrastructure from the get go!\r\n<h2>Deploying Applications</h2>\r\nAnother concern I always hear, is that clients are having difficulties with deploying new servers and applications in a timely fashion. More importantly, trying to keep up with the demand of the end users seems to be a never ending battle for my customers. The ability to respond to business users and developers who require system and application resources, without a whole lot of planning and capital expenditure, is critical for the success of the business.\r\n<h2>Business Continuity</h2>\r\nAlso top-of-mind with customers is the ability to quickly reboot and recover data quickly in the event of a disaster. Unfortunately, most organizations are ill-prepared. Why? Because paying for \"insurance\" is never easy. However, migrating infrastructures to the cloud can eliminate the concerns all together in a cost effective way. Customer experience many benefits by migrating IT infrastructures to a Hosted Cloud Provider, it just all depends on the specific use case and business goals they are hoping to accomplish.\r\n\r\nSo, these are just three key pain points I\'m hearing from the front lines and how the cloud is helping - what are you hearing?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','From the Customer Frontlines: Why they\'re Moving to the Cloud','','inherit','open','open','','8570-revision-v1','','','2013-08-21 13:54:49','2013-08-21 17:54:49','',8570,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8570-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8575,40,'2013-08-21 13:55:36','2013-08-21 17:55:36','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Cloud-Services-Sub-Icon.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8572\" alt=\"Cloud\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Cloud-Services-Sub-Icon-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\nThough I\'ve only worked in the information technology (IT) space for four years, I\'ve witnessed some drastic changes in tech adoption and the way customers are talking about the latest trends.\r\n\r\nFor example, four years ago \"the cloud\" was an enigmatic phrase but now customers seem to be much more understanding of not only its benefits but the computing model in general. Most organizations I meet with have adopted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) within their environment in some shape or form - email, HR, CRM, or accounting programs, to name a few. And now, these same organizations are rapidly moving to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)!\r\n\r\nAs an Account Executive at eGroup, I meet with customers daily and am starting to see some consistent pain points and challenges they\'re all collectively facing. Three immediate examples come to mind:\r\n<h2>Managing Hardware</h2>\r\nOrganizations are getting tired of managing their hardware and software infrastructure. The monthly patches, updates, and troubleshooting can become tedious at best and costly at worst. I have noticed this specifically in the SMB arena, where they might not need and/or have the funds to bring a full time employee in house to handle these items on a regular basis. So they\'re choosing to offload their infrastructure to a Hosted Cloud Provider to free the organization up from worrying about keeping the IT lights on and re-direct the focus more on their business and strategic goals. What\'s interesting is seeing some of the newer, start-ups I work with that \"were born in the cloud\" and have offloaded their entire infrastructure from the get go!\r\n<h2>Deploying Applications</h2>\r\nAnother concern I always hear, is that clients are having difficulties with deploying new servers and applications in a timely fashion. More importantly, trying to keep up with the demand of the end users seems to be a never ending battle for my customers. The ability to respond to business users and developers who require system and application resources, without a whole lot of planning and capital expenditure, is critical for the success of the business.\r\n<h2>Business Continuity</h2>\r\nAlso top-of-mind with customers is the ability to quickly reboot and recover data quickly in the event of a disaster. Unfortunately, most organizations are ill-prepared. Why? Because paying for \"insurance\" is never easy. However, migrating infrastructures to the cloud can eliminate the concerns all together in a cost effective way. Customer experience many benefits by migrating IT infrastructures to a Hosted Cloud Provider, it just all depends on the specific use case and business goals they are hoping to accomplish.\r\n\r\nSo, these are just three key pain points I\'m hearing from the front lines and how the cloud is helping - what are you hearing?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','From the Field: Why Customers are Moving to the Cloud','','inherit','open','open','','8570-revision-v1','','','2013-08-21 13:55:36','2013-08-21 17:55:36','',8570,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8570-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8576,9,'2013-08-22 08:42:42','2013-08-22 12:42:42','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/angry.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8577\" alt=\"business lessons\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/angry.jpg\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" /></a>\r\n\r\nWhile attempting to score three stars on each and every level of Angry Birds, I had a light bulb moment which has caused me to reflect over the past couple of days: <strong>what can eliminating pigs and destroying their buildings teach us about business?</strong>\r\n\r\nLaugh, you may, but if you want to be enlightened, read on about the five key lessons learned:\r\n<h2><b>Strategy</b></h2>\r\nEvery level in Angry Birds requires a unique and different strategy. In my role with eGroup, I am responsible for our Sales and Marketing Strategy and clearly see how this applies to our approach to growing eGroup’s business. Each Bird has a different utility – much like each of our tools (email, phone, people, social media, etc.). The key is to understand that each of these tools can be utilized in different ways. Each level can be compared to a prospective customer – or a goal. What works with one prospective customer or goal may not work with the next. You have to evaluate the goal, understand the tools/resources available, determine a plan of attack, and then be nimble so you can adjust on the fly based upon lessons learned.\r\n<h2><b>Tactics</b></h2>\r\nHow do I then take my overall strategy and employ tactics to accomplish the goal? In Angry Birds – you have to look for the initial point of attack to inflect the most damage. You also score extra points for birds not utilized. However, on some levels, you score more points for using all birds and creating the most damage possible. In business, you need to determine the tactics that will enable the successful attainment of your goals based on the strategy you have decided to employ.\r\n<h2><b>Creativity</b></h2>\r\nIn Angry Birds you have to be creative. Just because Hal the Boomerang Bird has the ability to boomerang does not mean that you need to use this ability every time. You could simply have him make a head on attack. In business, always look for creative ways to utilize your tools. Break out of your typical paradigm and be creative. At eGroup we have a saying – “What got us here will not get us where we are going.” This concept can be applied to the tools at our disposal. An email campaign format that worked with one customer may not work with another prospect. Be creative and continue to evolve your approach.\r\n<h2><b>Persistence</b></h2>\r\nNever give up. Even when you have attacked a level multiple times and have determined you are not likely to score more than one star, if you keep after it and apply the lessons learned above, you are very likely to find that one weak spot that will change the entire dynamics of the approach. Much like in sales, a level of Angry Birds can frustrate you to no end. But if you keep trying and utilize different strategies, tactics, and creativity you will have that moment of clarity when you say – “Wow – this is doable.” If what you are trying is not working, then try something different.\r\n<h2><b>Resource Management</b></h2>\r\nAt eGroup, an important element of our success and that of our customers is the ability of our team to manage our resources. We have many resources available and each and every team member has a different skill set or value that they deliver. Understanding what birds you have at your disposal, what skills they posses, and how to best utilize them increases your likelihood of success. In business, this is a vital skill set that is needed to enable individual and organizational success.\r\n\r\nFeel free to share your thoughts and observations below. Or, perhaps you’ve learned some life and business lessons from Cut the Rope? If so, let us know!','5 Business Lessons Learned from Angry Birds','','publish','open','open','','5-business-lessons-that-can-be-learned-from-angry-birds','','','2013-08-22 17:17:11','2013-08-22 21:17:11','',0,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/?p=8576',0,'post','',0),(8577,40,'2013-08-22 08:31:54','2013-08-22 12:31:54','','Angry Birds','','inherit','open','open','','angry','','','2013-08-22 08:31:54','2013-08-22 12:31:54','',8576,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/angry.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8580,40,'2013-08-22 08:40:55','2013-08-22 12:40:55','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/angry.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8577\" alt=\"business lessons\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/angry.jpg\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" /></a>\r\n\r\nWhile attempting to score three stars on each and every level of Angry Birds, I had a light bulb moment which has caused me to reflect over the past couple of days: <strong>what can eliminating pigs and destroying their buildings teach us about business?</strong>\r\n\r\nLaugh, you may, but if you want to be enlightened, read on about the five key lessons learned:\r\n\r\n<b>Strategy</b>\r\n\r\nEvery level in Angry Birds requires a unique and different strategy. In my role with eGroup, I am responsible for our Sales and Marketing Strategy and clearly see how this applies to our approach to growing eGroup’s business. Each Bird has a different utility – much like each of our tools (email, phone, people, social media, etc.). The key is to understand that each of these tools can be utilized in different ways. Each level can be compared to a prospective customer – or a goal. What works with one prospective customer or goal may not work with the next. You have to evaluate the goal, understand the tools/resources available, determine a plan of attack, and then be nimble so you can adjust on the fly based upon lessons learned.\r\n\r\n<b>Tactics</b>\r\n\r\nHow do I then take my overall strategy and employ tactics to accomplish the goal? In Angry Birds – you have to look for the initial point of attack to inflect the most damage. You also score extra points for birds not utilized. However, on some levels, you score more points for using all birds and creating the most damage possible. In business, you need to determine the tactics that will enable the successful attainment of your goals based on the strategy you have decided to employ.\r\n\r\n<b>Creativity</b>\r\n\r\nIn Angry Birds you have to be creative. Just because Hal the Boomerang Bird has the ability to boomerang does not mean that you need to use this ability every time. You could simply have him make a head on attack. In business, always look for creative ways to utilize your tools. Break out of your typical paradigm and be creative. At eGroup we have a saying – “What got us here will not get us where we are going.” This concept can be applied to the tools at our disposal. An email campaign format that worked with one customer may not work with another prospect. Be creative and continue to evolve your approach.\r\n\r\n<b>Persistence</b>\r\n\r\nNever give up. Even when you have attacked a level multiple times and have determined you are not likely to score more than one star, if you keep after it and apply the lessons learned above, you are very likely to find that one weak spot that will change the entire dynamics of the approach. Much like in sales, a level of Angry Birds can frustrate you to no end. But if you keep trying and utilize different strategies, tactics, and creativity you will have that moment of clarity when you say – “Wow – this is doable.” If what you are trying is not working, then try something different.\r\n\r\n<b>Resource Management</b>\r\n\r\nAt eGroup, an important element of our success and that of our customers is the ability of our team to manage our resources. We have many resources available and each and every team member has a different skill set or value that they deliver. Understanding what birds you have at your disposal, what skills they posses, and how to best utilize them increases your likelihood of success. In business, this is a vital skill set that is needed to enable individual and organizational success.\r\n\r\nFeel free to share your thoughts and observations below. Or, perhaps you’ve learned some life and business lessons from Cut the Rope? If so, let us know!','5 Business Lessons Learned from Angry Birds','','inherit','open','open','','8576-revision-v1','','','2013-08-22 08:40:55','2013-08-22 12:40:55','',8576,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8576-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8578,40,'2013-08-22 08:32:19','2013-08-22 12:32:19','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/angry.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8577\" alt=\"business lessons\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/angry.jpg\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" /></a>\r\n\r\nWhile attempting to score three stars on each and every level of Angry Birds, I had a light bulb moment which has caused me to reflect the past couple of days: what can eliminating pigs and destroying their buildings teach us about business?\r\n\r\nLaugh, you may, but if you want to be enlightened, read on about the five key lessons learned:\r\n\r\n<b>Strategy</b>\r\n\r\nEvery level in Angry Birds requires a unique and different strategy.  In my role with eGroup, I am responsible for our Sales and Marketing Strategy and clearly see how this applies to our approach to growing eGroup’s business.  Each Bird has a different utility – much like each of our tools (email, phone, people, social media, etc.).  The key is to understand that each of these tools can be utilized in different ways.  Each level can be compared to a prospective customer – or a goal.  What works with one prospective customer or goal may not work with the next.  You have to evaluate the goal, understand the tools/resources available, determine a plan of attack, and then be nimble so you can adjust on the fly based upon lessons learned.\r\n\r\n<b>Tactics</b>\r\n\r\nHow do I then take my overall strategy and employ tactics to accomplish the goal?  In Angry Birds – you have to look for the initial point of attack to inflect the most damage.  You also score extra points for birds not utilized.  However, on some levels, you score more points for using all birds and creating the most damage possible.  In business, you need to determine the tactics that will enable the successful attainment of your goals based on the strategy you have decided to employ.\r\n\r\n<b>Creativity</b>\r\n\r\nIn Angry Birds you have to be creative.  Just because Hal the Boomerang Bird has the ability to Boomerang does not mean that you need to use this ability every time.  You could simply have him make a head on attack.  In business, always look for creative ways to utilize your tools.  Break out of your typical paradigm and be creative.  At eGroup we have a saying – “What got us here will not get us where we are going.”  This concept can be applied to the tools at our disposal.  An email campaign format that worked with one customer may not work with another prospect.  Be creative and continue to evolve your approach.\r\n\r\n<b>Persistence</b>\r\n\r\nNever give up.  Even when you have attacked a level multiple times and have determined you are not likely to score more than one star, if you keep after it and apply the lessons learned above, you are very likely to find that one weak spot that will change the entire dynamics of the approach.  Much like in sales, a level of Angry Birds can frustrate you to no end.  But if you keep trying and utilize different strategies, tactics, and creativity you will have that moment of clarity when you say – “Wow – this is doable.”  If what you are trying is not working, then try something different.\r\n\r\n<b>Resource Management</b>\r\n\r\nAt eGroup, an important element of our success and that of our customers is the ability of our team to manage our resources.  We have many resources available and each and every team member has a different skill set or value that they deliver.  Understanding what birds you have at your disposal, what their skills are, and how to best utilize them increases your likelihood of success.  In business, this is a vital skill set that is needed to enable individual and organizational success.\r\n\r\nFeel free to share your thoughts and observations below. Or, perhaps you’ve learned some life and business lessons from Cut the Rope? If so, let us know!','5 Business Lessons that can be learned from Angry Birds','','inherit','open','open','','8576-revision-v1','','','2013-08-22 08:32:19','2013-08-22 12:32:19','',8576,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8576-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8579,40,'2013-08-22 08:35:22','2013-08-22 12:35:22','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/angry.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8577\" alt=\"business lessons\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/angry.jpg\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" /></a>\r\n\r\nWhile attempting to score three stars on each and every level of Angry Birds, I had a light bulb moment which has caused me to reflect over the past couple of days: <strong>what can eliminating pigs and destroying their buildings teach us about business?</strong>\r\n\r\nLaugh, you may, but if you want to be enlightened, read on about the five key lessons learned:\r\n\r\n<b>Strategy</b>\r\n\r\nEvery level in Angry Birds requires a unique and different strategy. In my role with eGroup, I am responsible for our Sales and Marketing Strategy and clearly see how this applies to our approach to growing eGroup’s business. Each Bird has a different utility – much like each of our tools (email, phone, people, social media, etc.). The key is to understand that each of these tools can be utilized in different ways. Each level can be compared to a prospective customer – or a goal. What works with one prospective customer or goal may not work with the next. You have to evaluate the goal, understand the tools/resources available, determine a plan of attack, and then be nimble so you can adjust on the fly based upon lessons learned.\r\n\r\n<b>Tactics</b>\r\n\r\nHow do I then take my overall strategy and employ tactics to accomplish the goal? In Angry Birds – you have to look for the initial point of attack to inflect the most damage.  You also score extra points for birds not utilized.  However, on some levels, you score more points for using all birds and creating the most damage possible.  In business, you need to determine the tactics that will enable the successful attainment of your goals based on the strategy you have decided to employ.\r\n\r\n<b>Creativity</b>\r\n\r\nIn Angry Birds you have to be creative.  Just because Hal the Boomerang Bird has the ability to Boomerang does not mean that you need to use this ability every time.  You could simply have him make a head on attack.  In business, always look for creative ways to utilize your tools.  Break out of your typical paradigm and be creative.  At eGroup we have a saying – “What got us here will not get us where we are going.”  This concept can be applied to the tools at our disposal.  An email campaign format that worked with one customer may not work with another prospect.  Be creative and continue to evolve your approach.\r\n\r\n<b>Persistence</b>\r\n\r\nNever give up.  Even when you have attacked a level multiple times and have determined you are not likely to score more than one star, if you keep after it and apply the lessons learned above, you are very likely to find that one weak spot that will change the entire dynamics of the approach.  Much like in sales, a level of Angry Birds can frustrate you to no end.  But if you keep trying and utilize different strategies, tactics, and creativity you will have that moment of clarity when you say – “Wow – this is doable.”  If what you are trying is not working, then try something different.\r\n\r\n<b>Resource Management</b>\r\n\r\nAt eGroup, an important element of our success and that of our customers is the ability of our team to manage our resources.  We have many resources available and each and every team member has a different skill set or value that they deliver.  Understanding what birds you have at your disposal, what their skills are, and how to best utilize them increases your likelihood of success.  In business, this is a vital skill set that is needed to enable individual and organizational success.\r\n\r\nFeel free to share your thoughts and observations below. Or, perhaps you’ve learned some life and business lessons from Cut the Rope? If so, let us know!','5 Business Lessons that can be learned from Angry Birds','','inherit','open','open','','8576-revision-v1','','','2013-08-22 08:35:22','2013-08-22 12:35:22','',8576,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8576-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8581,40,'2013-08-22 08:42:01','2013-08-22 12:42:01','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/angry.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8577\" alt=\"business lessons\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/angry.jpg\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" /></a>\r\n\r\nWhile attempting to score three stars on each and every level of Angry Birds, I had a light bulb moment which has caused me to reflect over the past couple of days: <strong>what can eliminating pigs and destroying their buildings teach us about business?</strong>\r\n\r\nLaugh, you may, but if you want to be enlightened, read on about the five key lessons learned:\r\n<h2><b>Strategy</b></h2>\r\nEvery level in Angry Birds requires a unique and different strategy. In my role with eGroup, I am responsible for our Sales and Marketing Strategy and clearly see how this applies to our approach to growing eGroup’s business. Each Bird has a different utility – much like each of our tools (email, phone, people, social media, etc.). The key is to understand that each of these tools can be utilized in different ways. Each level can be compared to a prospective customer – or a goal. What works with one prospective customer or goal may not work with the next. You have to evaluate the goal, understand the tools/resources available, determine a plan of attack, and then be nimble so you can adjust on the fly based upon lessons learned.\r\n<h2><b>Tactics</b></h2>\r\nHow do I then take my overall strategy and employ tactics to accomplish the goal? In Angry Birds – you have to look for the initial point of attack to inflect the most damage. You also score extra points for birds not utilized. However, on some levels, you score more points for using all birds and creating the most damage possible. In business, you need to determine the tactics that will enable the successful attainment of your goals based on the strategy you have decided to employ.\r\n<h2><b>Creativity</b></h2>\r\nIn Angry Birds you have to be creative. Just because Hal the Boomerang Bird has the ability to boomerang does not mean that you need to use this ability every time. You could simply have him make a head on attack. In business, always look for creative ways to utilize your tools. Break out of your typical paradigm and be creative. At eGroup we have a saying – “What got us here will not get us where we are going.” This concept can be applied to the tools at our disposal. An email campaign format that worked with one customer may not work with another prospect. Be creative and continue to evolve your approach.\r\n<h2><b>Persistence</b></h2>\r\nNever give up. Even when you have attacked a level multiple times and have determined you are not likely to score more than one star, if you keep after it and apply the lessons learned above, you are very likely to find that one weak spot that will change the entire dynamics of the approach. Much like in sales, a level of Angry Birds can frustrate you to no end. But if you keep trying and utilize different strategies, tactics, and creativity you will have that moment of clarity when you say – “Wow – this is doable.” If what you are trying is not working, then try something different.\r\n<h2><b>Resource Management</b></h2>\r\nAt eGroup, an important element of our success and that of our customers is the ability of our team to manage our resources. We have many resources available and each and every team member has a different skill set or value that they deliver. Understanding what birds you have at your disposal, what skills they posses, and how to best utilize them increases your likelihood of success. In business, this is a vital skill set that is needed to enable individual and organizational success.\r\n\r\nFeel free to share your thoughts and observations below. Or, perhaps you’ve learned some life and business lessons from Cut the Rope? If so, let us know!','5 Business Lessons Learned from Angry Birds','','inherit','open','open','','8576-revision-v1','','','2013-08-22 08:42:01','2013-08-22 12:42:01','',8576,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8576-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8582,40,'2013-08-23 10:31:24','2013-08-23 14:31:24','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8588\" alt=\"business growth\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth-300x255.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"255\" /></a>\r\n(photo courtesy of The App Home)\r\n\r\nWe\'re growing.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10946079.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft </a>sees it. <a href=\"http://www.inc.com/profile/egroup\" target=\"_blank\">Inc. Magazine</a> profiles it. <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers\" target=\"_blank\">Job seekers</a> notice it. <a href=\"http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130218/PC05/130219249/egroup-expanding-another-month-another-tech-firm-grows-into-new-officehttp:/\" target=\"_blank\">The Post &amp; Courier</a> publishes it.\r\n\r\nOn behalf of the entire team I can say each one of us is ecstatic, and wants more. It\'s a better position to be in than the alternative, right?\r\n\r\nThat said, accelerated growth naturally creates \"growing pains\" to which no business is immune—including eGroup. As a senior member of the US-based team in my previous job, where the company found itself on a high growth trajectory in the mid 2000’s, I experienced many of the same challenges then that we do now. A few observations:\r\n<h2><b>Growth equals change.</b></h2>\r\nAccept it. Adapt. And continue winning. I say that somewhat in jest, but it\'s mostly true. Leaders must realize that the new distractions and outside forces that manifest themselves as you quickly grow are not necessarily controlled. Success is based on how you respond to these new forces and build them into your quarterly and yearly plans.\r\n<h2><b>Growth requires new internal processes.</b></h2>\r\nIt\'s no longer sufficient to run your financials in an Excel spreadsheet saved to the finance director\'s desktop, or to schedule your support team meetings through Outlook invites. You\'re a \"big boy\" now, which requires new systems and processes—especially for managing cash flow, which is sometimes neglected during accelerated growth phases. Make sure you have named leaders to ensure that these new ways of doing business are communicated and socialized effectively, adopted, adhered to, and continually relayed to new team members as they join.\r\n<h2><b>Growth needs imagination.</b></h2>\r\nWe often say, \"What got us here will not get us there.\" So, be open to learning new ways to service customers or to communicate with employees, for example. The old school approaches may not be sufficient for the new markets you\'re serving, and the speed at which the business is moving. Be imaginative and creative.\r\n<h2><b>Growth is evolutionary.</b></h2>\r\nAs a result of hyper growth, the business model will undoubtedly evolve—new offerings, strategies, infrastructure, and operational processes. In the same vain as new core systems, the successful businesses will have specific leaders own these changing aspects to ensure they\'re implemented (smoothly) and with little disruption to the customer.\r\n<h2><b>Growth is a time suck.</b></h2>\r\nOften times, you\'ll find that your daily calendar is filled with meetings addressing the day\'s priorities—err, fires. This is part of corporate life, but ensure you free up enough time on a weekly basis to \"think\" and not just simply \"work.\" What I mean by this is the leaders must think about what\'s next, and brainstorm to prepare for the next phase of growth—whether it\'s next quarter, or next year.\r\n\r\nI know there are PLENTY more challenges and outcomes of accelerated business growth, but these are just the ones that immediately come to mind. What have been your experiences? How did you continue to address your growth challenges and win?','Yes, We\'re Growing. Now the Hard (But Fun) Part.','','publish','open','open','','yes-were-growing-now-the-hard-but-fun-part','','','2013-08-23 10:31:24','2013-08-23 14:31:24','',0,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/?p=8582',0,'post','',0),(8583,40,'2013-08-22 16:40:15','2013-08-22 20:40:15','During the past week, I\'ve had the opportunity to think about eGroup\'s\r\n\r\nSC 25 Fastest Growing Companies\r\n\r\nhttp://www.scfastestgrowingcompanies.com/\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nRoaring 20s\r\n\r\nhttps://www.charlestonbusiness.com/events/Roaring20\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','8582-revision-v1','','','2013-08-22 16:40:15','2013-08-22 20:40:15','',8582,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8582-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8584,40,'2013-08-22 16:41:18','2013-08-22 20:41:18','During the past week, I\'ve had the opportunity to think about eGroup\'s\r\n\r\nSC 25 Fastest Growing Companies\r\n\r\nhttp://www.scfastestgrowingcompanies.com/\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nRoaring 20s\r\n\r\nhttps://www.charlestonbusiness.com/events/Roaring20\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nOh, and by the way, we just announced our placement in the Inc. 500 | 5000 list. See below:\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','8582-revision-v1','','','2013-08-22 16:41:18','2013-08-22 20:41:18','',8582,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8582-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8588,40,'2013-08-23 09:07:32','2013-08-23 13:07:32','','Growth','','inherit','open','open','','growth','','','2013-08-23 09:07:32','2013-08-23 13:07:32','',8582,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8587,40,'2013-08-23 09:03:29','2013-08-23 13:03:29','We\'re growing.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10946079.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft </a>sees it. <a href=\"http://www.inc.com/profile/egroup\" target=\"_blank\">Inc. Magazine</a> profiles it. <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers\" target=\"_blank\">Job seekers</a> notice it. <a href=\"http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130218/PC05/130219249/egroup-expanding-another-month-another-tech-firm-grows-into-new-officehttp://\" target=\"_blank\">The Post &amp; Courier</a> publishes it.\r\n\r\nOn behalf of the team, I can say each one of us is ecstatic and wanting more. It\'s a better position to be in than the alternative, right?\r\n\r\nThat said, accelerated growth naturally creates \"growing pains\" of which no business is immune, including eGroup. As a senior member of the team in my previous job, where the company found itself on a high growth trajectory in the mid 2000s, I experienced many similar and consistent challenges then as we do now. A few observations:\r\n\r\nGrowth equals change\r\n\r\nAccept it. Adapt. And continue winning. I say that somewhat in jest but it\'s mostly true. Leaders must realize that the new distractions and outside forces that manifest themselves as you quickly grow are not necessarily controlled. The solution to success is how to respond to these new forces and build them into your quarterly and yearly plans.\r\n\r\nGrowth requires new internal processes\r\n\r\nIt\'s no longer sufficient to run your financials in Excel saved to the finance director\'s desktop or scheduling your support team through Outlook invites. You\'re a \"big boy\" now which require news systems and processes - especially in managing cash flow, sometimes neglected during accelerated growth phases. Make sure you have named leaders to ensure these new ways of doing business are communicated and socialized effectively, adopted, adhered to and continually updated to new team members as they join.\r\n\r\nGrowth needs imagination\r\n\r\nWe often say, \"What got us here will not get us where we are going.\" So, be open to learning new ways to service customers or communicate with employees, for example. The old school approaches may not be sufficient for the new markets you\'re serving and the speed at which the business is moving. Be imaginative and creative.\r\n\r\nGrowth is evolutionary\r\n\r\nAs a result of hyper growth, the business model will undoubtedly evolve - new offerings, strategies, infrastructure, and operational processes. In the same vain as new core systems, the successful businesses will have specific leaders own these changing aspects who ensure they\'re implemented (smoothly) with little disruption to the customer.\r\n\r\nGrowth is a time suck\r\n\r\nOften times, you\'ll find that your daily calendar is filled with meetings addressing the day\'s priorities - err, fires. This is part of corporate life, but ensure you free up enough time on a weekly basis to \"think\" and not simply \"work.\" What I mean by this is, the leaders must think about what\'s next and brainstorm to prepare for the next phase of growth whether it\'s next quarter or in 36 months.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div id=\"stcpDiv\">\r\nIn spite of all of the above factors, growth is a good thing, a great thing for businesses. By simply thinking about what might go wrong, you’ll be ahead of the growth game!\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nDuring the past week, I\'ve had the opportunity to think about eGroup\'s\r\n\r\nSC 25 Fastest Growing Companies\r\n\r\nhttp://www.scfastestgrowingcompanies.com/\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nRoaring 20s\r\n\r\nhttps://www.charlestonbusiness.com/events/Roaring20\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nOh, and by the way, we just announced our placement in the Inc. 500 | 5000 list. See below:\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','8582-revision-v1','','','2013-08-23 09:03:29','2013-08-23 13:03:29','',8582,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8582-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8589,40,'2013-08-23 09:07:57','2013-08-23 13:07:57','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8588\" alt=\"business growth\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth-300x255.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"255\" /></a>\r\n\r\nWe\'re growing.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10946079.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft </a>sees it. <a href=\"http://www.inc.com/profile/egroup\" target=\"_blank\">Inc. Magazine</a> profiles it. <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers\" target=\"_blank\">Job seekers</a> notice it. <a href=\"http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130218/PC05/130219249/egroup-expanding-another-month-another-tech-firm-grows-into-new-officehttp://\" target=\"_blank\">The Post &amp; Courier</a> publishes it.\r\n\r\nOn behalf of the team, I can say each one of us is ecstatic and wanting more. It\'s a better position to be in than the alternative, right?\r\n\r\nThat said, accelerated growth naturally creates \"growing pains\" of which no business is immune, including eGroup. As a senior member of the team in my previous job, where the company found itself on a high growth trajectory in the mid 2000s, I experienced many similar and consistent challenges then as we do now. A few observations:\r\n\r\nGrowth equals change\r\n\r\nAccept it. Adapt. And continue winning. I say that somewhat in jest but it\'s mostly true. Leaders must realize that the new distractions and outside forces that manifest themselves as you quickly grow are not necessarily controlled. The solution to success is how to respond to these new forces and build them into your quarterly and yearly plans.\r\n\r\nGrowth requires new internal processes\r\n\r\nIt\'s no longer sufficient to run your financials in Excel saved to the finance director\'s desktop or scheduling your support team through Outlook invites. You\'re a \"big boy\" now which require news systems and processes - especially in managing cash flow, sometimes neglected during accelerated growth phases. Make sure you have named leaders to ensure these new ways of doing business are communicated and socialized effectively, adopted, adhered to and continually updated to new team members as they join.\r\n\r\nGrowth needs imagination\r\n\r\nWe often say, \"What got us here will not get us where we are going.\" So, be open to learning new ways to service customers or communicate with employees, for example. The old school approaches may not be sufficient for the new markets you\'re serving and the speed at which the business is moving. Be imaginative and creative.\r\n\r\nGrowth is evolutionary\r\n\r\nAs a result of hyper growth, the business model will undoubtedly evolve - new offerings, strategies, infrastructure, and operational processes. In the same vain as new core systems, the successful businesses will have specific leaders own these changing aspects who ensure they\'re implemented (smoothly) with little disruption to the customer.\r\n\r\nGrowth is a time suck\r\n\r\nOften times, you\'ll find that your daily calendar is filled with meetings addressing the day\'s priorities - err, fires. This is part of corporate life, but ensure you free up enough time on a weekly basis to \"think\" and not simply \"work.\" What I mean by this is, the leaders must think about what\'s next and brainstorm to prepare for the next phase of growth whether it\'s next quarter or in 36 months.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div id=\"stcpDiv\">In spite of all of the above factors, growth is a good thing, a great thing for businesses. By simply thinking about what might go wrong, you’ll be ahead of the growth game!&nbsp;\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nDuring the past week, I\'ve had the opportunity to think about eGroup\'s\r\n\r\nSC 25 Fastest Growing Companies\r\n\r\nhttp://www.scfastestgrowingcompanies.com/\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nRoaring 20s\r\n\r\nhttps://www.charlestonbusiness.com/events/Roaring20\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nOh, and by the way, we just announced our placement in the Inc. 500 | 5000 list. See below:\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','8582-revision-v1','','','2013-08-23 09:07:57','2013-08-23 13:07:57','',8582,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8582-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8585,40,'2013-08-22 17:02:37','2013-08-22 21:02:37','We\'re growing.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10946079.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft </a>sees it. Inc. covers it. <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers\" target=\"_blank\">Job seekers</a> notice it. The Post &amp; Courier publishes it.\r\n\r\nOn behalf of the team, I can say each one of us is ecstatic and wanting more. It\'s a better position to be in than the alternative, right?\r\n\r\nThat said, accelerated growth naturally creates tension and pain of which no business is immune, including eGroup. As a senior member of the team in my previous job where the company found itself on a high growth trajectory in the mid 2000s, I experienced many similar and consistent challenges then as we do now.\r\n<div id=\"stcpDiv\">\r\n\r\nAlthough there are many types of businesses, the challenges that growth can bring to each of them is surprisingly consistent. Knowing what these risks are, and facing them head on, can help to ensure ongoing success. Here are some of the core areas that should be addressed and monitored in order to ensure the health and productivity of your growing business:\r\n<div id=\"stcpDiv\">\r\n<h2><strong>Time management</strong></h2>\r\nWhether your business is a startup, a relatively new enterprise, or a veteran company, it is important that you clear your daily calendar—and that of your management team—of time-consuming administrative clutter that, although important, can be easily outsourced or digitized. In doing so, you will free up your time to concentrate on finding scalable solutions to address your current business growth. You will also gain quality time to brainstorm creative, new ideas that can ignite even greater business expansion in the future.\r\n<h2><strong>Review your business’ processes</strong></h2>\r\nThe processes your business uses to facilitate mandatory functions—payroll, tax administration, employee benefits—and to manage growth—inventory, fulfillment, customer relationship management—obviously become more important as your business moves into expansion mode. By conducting regularly scheduled process audits you can identify and document new procedural requirements and new technological enhancements that will help ensure that your business is positioned to meet future growth projections on an ongoing basis.\r\n<h2><strong>Give up control</strong></h2>\r\nThe desire to control things is embedded in the genes of most entrepreneurs. And yet, as a business starts to expand, the entrepreneur must evolve from a multitasking jack-of-all-trades mindset into a big-picture leader who inspires his or her managers and employees to meet and even exceed the organization’s mission.\r\n<blockquote><em>\"I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.\"</em>\r\nLee Iacocca<a href=\"http://www.trinet.com/hub/industry_articles/meetingchallengeofgrowingbusiness.htm#book\">*</a></blockquote>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>The bottom line is that no one can do everything once a business starts to blossom. You will be able to play a much more valuable role in your company’s future if you leave transactional activities such as payroll, benefits and tax administration to specialists. Instead, recognize that when your startup enterprise transitioned into successful growth mode, it became the “team’s” company, not just “your” company. Let your team do what they were hired to do and inspire them to ascend to even greater heights.</blockquote>\r\n<h2><strong>Hire smart talent</strong></h2>\r\nMost entrepreneurs recognize the crucial role that talent plays in the success of their enterprise. But once a business encounters accelerated growth, entrepreneurs and managers often panic and go on ill-advised speed-hiring binges. Of course, the down side becomes evident when they quickly realize that they hired the wrong person for the job and the old adage—should have hired more slowly and fired more quickly—springs to mind. Hiring the best talent requires a skilled acquisition professional who will identify the skills your ideal candidate must have, use best-in-class tools to launch a targeted search, qualify applicants through pre-screening interviews, schedule management interviews with finalists, and conduct background and reference checks once a job offer is made. Unless such a professional is a part of your business’ team, it is often a good idea to outsource the process to a firm that can fulfill your recruitment requirements.\r\n<h2><strong>Keep an eye on cash flow</strong></h2>\r\nThe foundation of your business’ immediate and future growth is investment—investment in your business, that is. Entrepreneurs often are so energized by the sheer excitement that occurs once a business goes into growth mode, that they neglect to manage their cash flow on a daily basis, assuming that everything will take care of itself. But growth means expenditures for additional staff, technologies, office space, supplies and much more. A few tips that can improve your cash flow include:\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Projecting what your monthly sales and expenses will be</li>\r\n	<li>Collecting client payments as soon as possible</li>\r\n	<li>Paying invoices on the last day they are due</li>\r\n	<li>Setting up a cash reserve account in case of a shortfall</li>\r\n	<li>Learning how to decipher financial statements</li>\r\n	<li>Reconciling your monthly bank statements—yes, banks can make mistakes</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h2>Build in contingencies to meet the demands of change successfully</h2>\r\nAs your business develops over time, there is one constant challenge that you and your team will need to confront: the element of change itself. It’s a given that even the healthiest of businesses will transition through periods of growth, contraction, and renewal. The important thing is to recognize that you cannot control the external forces that impact your business. What you and your team can control, however, is the way in which your company responds to the changes these forces cause. The best way to ensure the continued growth of your business is to approach the demands that change brings from a strategic perspective. Build structural and procedural contingencies into your business model that will allow your products and/or services—and the managers and employees that keep things moving—to adapt to impending changes as quickly and seamlessly as possible.\r\n\r\nBusiness growing pains and challenges are notably consistent amongst all types of business categories. Addressing and monitoring these challenges head on will ensure the health and productivity of your growing business for years to come.\r\n\r\n- See more at: http://www.trinet.com/hub/industry_articles/meetingchallengeofgrowingbusiness.htm#sthash.bU18mvz1.dpuf</div>\r\n</div>\r\nDo you want to grow your business because the cash is flowing in, profits are increasing and all your hard work is paying off? Your business may become a market leader if you take advantage of strong opportunities. You can capitalise on your success, expand into other locations, and employ more staff to cater for increased demand.\r\n\r\nBut if you expand too quickly you risk your business becoming unsustainable. Growth can put pressure on staff and resources, as well as financial and management structures.\r\n\r\nGrowth does mean change\r\n<div id=\"stcpDiv\">\r\n\r\nWith growth comes change and with change comes complications. Nobody likes change. It needs careful planning, monitoring and the right type of leadership and staff. None of these are easy and none can happen overnight. Companies must be prepared for when growth does happen.\r\n\r\n2. Growth is evolutionary\r\n\r\nGrowth causes evolution. Business models must be able to adapt to the changes within the business. Managers and employees who are following these plans must also evolve to ensure business growth remains a positive thing.\r\n\r\n3. Growth requires continuous learning and improvement\r\n\r\nAll employees within the business must be open to ongoing learning, adapting, experimenting and improvement. Combining all of these with the increased workloads that growth brings can be difficult.\r\n\r\n4. Growth requires focus and setting priorities\r\n\r\nWhen a company achieves growth it is important that the cause of the growth is recognised and that this selling point takes the main stage and focus of a business’s selling points.\r\n\r\n5. Growth may need new processes\r\n\r\nUsually with growth, companies need to expand. To ensure the company maintains the right standards, step by step instructions on how to do things are important. This will help to minimise mistakes being made while keeping customers happy by providing a consistent service.\r\n\r\n6. Growth creates risks\r\n\r\nLike everything in business, there are risks. All businesses are faced with risk, whether they are experiencing growth or not. However, with growth come stressed and often overworked employees, strained processes and finances and undervalued clients. Identifying and understanding these clicks is critical to ensure growth success.\r\n\r\nIn spite of all of the above factors, growth is a good thing, a great thing for businesses. By simply thinking about what might go wrong, you’ll be ahead of the growth game!\r\n\r\n- See more at: http://internationalbusinessblog.conversisglobal.com/2012/06/20/business-growth-is-a-positive-but-are-you-aware-of-the-negatives/#sthash.0VWZBy9D.dpuf\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nDuring the past week, I\'ve had the opportunity to think about eGroup\'s\r\n\r\nSC 25 Fastest Growing Companies\r\n\r\nhttp://www.scfastestgrowingcompanies.com/\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nRoaring 20s\r\n\r\nhttps://www.charlestonbusiness.com/events/Roaring20\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nOh, and by the way, we just announced our placement in the Inc. 500 | 5000 list. See below:\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','8582-revision-v1','','','2013-08-22 17:02:37','2013-08-22 21:02:37','',8582,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8582-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8586,40,'2013-08-22 17:15:08','2013-08-22 21:15:08','We\'re growing.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10946079.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft </a>sees it. Inc. covers it. <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers\" target=\"_blank\">Job seekers</a> notice it. The Post &amp; Courier publishes it.\r\n\r\nOn behalf of the team, I can say each one of us is ecstatic and wanting more. It\'s a better position to be in than the alternative, right?\r\n\r\nThat said, accelerated growth naturally creates tension and pain of which no business is immune, including eGroup. As a senior member of the team in my previous job where the company found itself on a high growth trajectory in the mid 2000s, I experienced many similar and consistent challenges then as we do now.\r\n\r\nGrowth = change\r\n\r\nAccept it. Adapt. And continue winning. I say that somewhat in jest but it\'s mostly true. Leaders must realize that the new distractions and outside forces that manifest themselves as you quickly grow can not necessarily be controlled. The solution to success is how to respond to these new forces and build them into your quarterly and yearly plans.\r\n\r\nGrowth requires new internal processes\r\n\r\nIt\'s no longer sufficient to run your financials in Excel saved to the finance director\'s desktop or scehduling your support team through Outlook invites. Your a big boy now which require news systems and processes. Make sure you have named leaders to ensure these new ways of doing business are adopted, adhered to and continually updated and communicated to the team.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nUsually with growth, companies need to expand. To ensure the company maintains the right standards, step by step instructions on how to do things are important. This will help to minimise mistakes being made while keeping customers happy by providing a consistent service.\r\n<div id=\"stcpDiv\">\r\n\r\nAlthough there are many types of businesses, the challenges that growth can bring to each of them is surprisingly consistent. Knowing what these risks are, and facing them head on, can help to ensure ongoing success. Here are some of the core areas that should be addressed and monitored in order to ensure the health and productivity of your growing business:\r\n<div id=\"stcpDiv\">\r\n<h2><strong>Time management</strong></h2>\r\nWhether your business is a startup, a relatively new enterprise, or a veteran company, it is important that you clear your daily calendar—and that of your management team—of time-consuming administrative clutter that, although important, can be easily outsourced or digitized. In doing so, you will free up your time to concentrate on finding scalable solutions to address your current business growth. You will also gain quality time to brainstorm creative, new ideas that can ignite even greater business expansion in the future.\r\n<h2><strong>Review your business’ processes</strong></h2>\r\nThe processes your business uses to facilitate mandatory functions—payroll, tax administration, employee benefits—and to manage growth—inventory, fulfillment, customer relationship management—obviously become more important as your business moves into expansion mode. By conducting regularly scheduled process audits you can identify and document new procedural requirements and new technological enhancements that will help ensure that your business is positioned to meet future growth projections on an ongoing basis.\r\n<h2><strong>Give up control</strong></h2>\r\nThe desire to control things is embedded in the genes of most entrepreneurs. And yet, as a business starts to expand, the entrepreneur must evolve from a multitasking jack-of-all-trades mindset into a big-picture leader who inspires his or her managers and employees to meet and even exceed the organization’s mission.\r\n<blockquote><em>\"I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.\"</em>\r\nLee Iacocca<a href=\"http://www.trinet.com/hub/industry_articles/meetingchallengeofgrowingbusiness.htm#book\">*</a></blockquote>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>The bottom line is that no one can do everything once a business starts to blossom. You will be able to play a much more valuable role in your company’s future if you leave transactional activities such as payroll, benefits and tax administration to specialists. Instead, recognize that when your startup enterprise transitioned into successful growth mode, it became the “team’s” company, not just “your” company. Let your team do what they were hired to do and inspire them to ascend to even greater heights.</blockquote>\r\n<h2><strong>Hire smart talent</strong></h2>\r\nMost entrepreneurs recognize the crucial role that talent plays in the success of their enterprise. But once a business encounters accelerated growth, entrepreneurs and managers often panic and go on ill-advised speed-hiring binges. Of course, the down side becomes evident when they quickly realize that they hired the wrong person for the job and the old adage—should have hired more slowly and fired more quickly—springs to mind. Hiring the best talent requires a skilled acquisition professional who will identify the skills your ideal candidate must have, use best-in-class tools to launch a targeted search, qualify applicants through pre-screening interviews, schedule management interviews with finalists, and conduct background and reference checks once a job offer is made. Unless such a professional is a part of your business’ team, it is often a good idea to outsource the process to a firm that can fulfill your recruitment requirements.\r\n<h2><strong>Keep an eye on cash flow</strong></h2>\r\nThe foundation of your business’ immediate and future growth is investment—investment in your business, that is. Entrepreneurs often are so energized by the sheer excitement that occurs once a business goes into growth mode, that they neglect to manage their cash flow on a daily basis, assuming that everything will take care of itself. But growth means expenditures for additional staff, technologies, office space, supplies and much more. A few tips that can improve your cash flow include:\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Projecting what your monthly sales and expenses will be</li>\r\n	<li>Collecting client payments as soon as possible</li>\r\n	<li>Paying invoices on the last day they are due</li>\r\n	<li>Setting up a cash reserve account in case of a shortfall</li>\r\n	<li>Learning how to decipher financial statements</li>\r\n	<li>Reconciling your monthly bank statements—yes, banks can make mistakes</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h2>Build in contingencies to meet the demands of change successfully</h2>\r\nAs your business develops over time, there is one constant challenge that you and your team will need to confront: the element of change itself. It’s a given that even the healthiest of businesses will transition through periods of growth, contraction, and renewal. The important thing is to recognize that you cannot control the external forces that impact your business. What you and your team can control, however, is the way in which your company responds to the changes these forces cause. The best way to ensure the continued growth of your business is to approach the demands that change brings from a strategic perspective. Build structural and procedural contingencies into your business model that will allow your products and/or services—and the managers and employees that keep things moving—to adapt to impending changes as quickly and seamlessly as possible.\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>\r\nDo you want to grow your business because the cash is flowing in, profits are increasing and all your hard work is paying off? Your business may become a market leader if you take advantage of strong opportunities. You can capitalise on your success, expand into other locations, and employ more staff to cater for increased demand.\r\n\r\nBut if you expand too quickly you risk your business becoming unsustainable. Growth can put pressure on staff and resources, as well as financial and management structures.\r\n\r\nGrowth does mean change\r\n<div id=\"stcpDiv\">\r\n\r\nWith growth comes change and with change comes complications. Nobody likes change. It needs careful planning, monitoring and the right type of leadership and staff. None of these are easy and none can happen overnight. Companies must be prepared for when growth does happen.\r\n\r\n2. Growth is evolutionary\r\n\r\nGrowth causes evolution. Business models must be able to adapt to the changes within the business. Managers and employees who are following these plans must also evolve to ensure business growth remains a positive thing.\r\n\r\n3. Growth requires continuous learning and improvement\r\n\r\nAll employees within the business must be open to ongoing learning, adapting, experimenting and improvement. Combining all of these with the increased workloads that growth brings can be difficult.\r\n\r\n4. Growth requires focus and setting priorities\r\n\r\nWhen a company achieves growth it is important that the cause of the growth is recognised and that this selling point takes the main stage and focus of a business’s selling points.\r\n6. Growth creates risks\r\n\r\nLike everything in business, there are risks. All businesses are faced with risk, whether they are experiencing growth or not. However, with growth come stressed and often overworked employees, strained processes and finances and undervalued clients. Identifying and understanding these clicks is critical to ensure growth success.\r\n\r\nIn spite of all of the above factors, growth is a good thing, a great thing for businesses. By simply thinking about what might go wrong, you’ll be ahead of the growth game!\r\n\r\n- See more at: http://internationalbusinessblog.conversisglobal.com/2012/06/20/business-growth-is-a-positive-but-are-you-aware-of-the-negatives/#sthash.0VWZBy9D.dpuf\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nDuring the past week, I\'ve had the opportunity to think about eGroup\'s\r\n\r\nSC 25 Fastest Growing Companies\r\n\r\nhttp://www.scfastestgrowingcompanies.com/\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nRoaring 20s\r\n\r\nhttps://www.charlestonbusiness.com/events/Roaring20\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nOh, and by the way, we just announced our placement in the Inc. 500 | 5000 list. See below:\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','8582-revision-v1','','','2013-08-22 17:15:08','2013-08-22 21:15:08','',8582,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8582-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8590,40,'2013-08-23 09:08:22','2013-08-23 13:08:22','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8588\" alt=\"business growth\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth-300x255.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"255\" /></a>\r\n(photo courtesy of The App Home)\r\n\r\nWe\'re growing.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10946079.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft </a>sees it. <a href=\"http://www.inc.com/profile/egroup\" target=\"_blank\">Inc. Magazine</a> profiles it. <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers\" target=\"_blank\">Job seekers</a> notice it. <a href=\"http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130218/PC05/130219249/egroup-expanding-another-month-another-tech-firm-grows-into-new-officehttp://\" target=\"_blank\">The Post &amp; Courier</a> publishes it.\r\n\r\nOn behalf of the team, I can say each one of us is ecstatic and wanting more. It\'s a better position to be in than the alternative, right?\r\n\r\nThat said, accelerated growth naturally creates \"growing pains\" of which no business is immune, including eGroup. As a senior member of the team in my previous job, where the company found itself on a high growth trajectory in the mid 2000s, I experienced many similar and consistent challenges then as we do now. A few observations:\r\n\r\nGrowth equals change\r\n\r\nAccept it. Adapt. And continue winning. I say that somewhat in jest but it\'s mostly true. Leaders must realize that the new distractions and outside forces that manifest themselves as you quickly grow are not necessarily controlled. The solution to success is how to respond to these new forces and build them into your quarterly and yearly plans.\r\n\r\nGrowth requires new internal processes\r\n\r\nIt\'s no longer sufficient to run your financials in Excel saved to the finance director\'s desktop or scheduling your support team through Outlook invites. You\'re a \"big boy\" now which require news systems and processes - especially in managing cash flow, sometimes neglected during accelerated growth phases. Make sure you have named leaders to ensure these new ways of doing business are communicated and socialized effectively, adopted, adhered to and continually updated to new team members as they join.\r\n\r\nGrowth needs imagination\r\n\r\nWe often say, \"What got us here will not get us where we are going.\" So, be open to learning new ways to service customers or communicate with employees, for example. The old school approaches may not be sufficient for the new markets you\'re serving and the speed at which the business is moving. Be imaginative and creative.\r\n\r\nGrowth is evolutionary\r\n\r\nAs a result of hyper growth, the business model will undoubtedly evolve - new offerings, strategies, infrastructure, and operational processes. In the same vain as new core systems, the successful businesses will have specific leaders own these changing aspects who ensure they\'re implemented (smoothly) with little disruption to the customer.\r\n\r\nGrowth is a time suck\r\n\r\nOften times, you\'ll find that your daily calendar is filled with meetings addressing the day\'s priorities - err, fires. This is part of corporate life, but ensure you free up enough time on a weekly basis to \"think\" and not simply \"work.\" What I mean by this is, the leaders must think about what\'s next and brainstorm to prepare for the next phase of growth whether it\'s next quarter or in 36 months.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div id=\"stcpDiv\">In spite of all of the above factors, growth is a good thing, a great thing for businesses. By simply thinking about what might go wrong, you’ll be ahead of the growth game!</div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nDuring the past week, I\'ve had the opportunity to think about eGroup\'s\r\n\r\nSC 25 Fastest Growing Companies\r\n\r\nhttp://www.scfastestgrowingcompanies.com/\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nRoaring 20s\r\n\r\nhttps://www.charlestonbusiness.com/events/Roaring20\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nOh, and by the way, we just announced our placement in the Inc. 500 | 5000 list. See below:\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','8582-revision-v1','','','2013-08-23 09:08:22','2013-08-23 13:08:22','',8582,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8582-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8592,40,'2013-08-23 09:12:07','2013-08-23 13:12:07','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8588\" alt=\"business growth\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth-300x255.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"255\" /></a>\r\n(photo courtesy of The App Home)\r\n\r\nWe\'re growing.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10946079.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft </a>sees it. <a href=\"http://www.inc.com/profile/egroup\" target=\"_blank\">Inc. Magazine</a> profiles it. <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers\" target=\"_blank\">Job seekers</a> notice it. <a href=\"http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130218/PC05/130219249/egroup-expanding-another-month-another-tech-firm-grows-into-new-officehttp://\" target=\"_blank\">The Post &amp; Courier</a> publishes it.\r\n\r\nOn behalf of the team, I can say each one of us is ecstatic and wanting more. It\'s a better position to be in than the alternative, right?\r\n\r\nThat said, accelerated growth naturally creates \"growing pains\" of which no business is immune, including eGroup. As a senior member of the team in my previous job, where the company found itself on a high growth trajectory in the mid 2000s, I experienced many similar and consistent challenges then as we do now. A few observations:\r\n\r\nGrowth equals change\r\n\r\nAccept it. Adapt. And continue winning. I say that somewhat in jest but it\'s mostly true. Leaders must realize that the new distractions and outside forces that manifest themselves as you quickly grow are not necessarily controlled. The solution to success is how to respond to these new forces and build them into your quarterly and yearly plans.\r\n\r\nGrowth requires new internal processes\r\n\r\nIt\'s no longer sufficient to run your financials in Excel saved to the finance director\'s desktop or scheduling your support team through Outlook invites. You\'re a \"big boy\" now which require news systems and processes - especially in managing cash flow, sometimes neglected during accelerated growth phases. Make sure you have named leaders to ensure these new ways of doing business are communicated and socialized effectively, adopted, adhered to and continually updated to new team members as they join.\r\n\r\nGrowth needs imagination\r\n\r\nWe often say, \"What got us here will not get us where we are going.\" So, be open to learning new ways to service customers or communicate with employees, for example. The old school approaches may not be sufficient for the new markets you\'re serving and the speed at which the business is moving. Be imaginative and creative.\r\n\r\nGrowth is evolutionary\r\n\r\nAs a result of hyper growth, the business model will undoubtedly evolve - new offerings, strategies, infrastructure, and operational processes. In the same vain as new core systems, the successful businesses will have specific leaders own these changing aspects who ensure they\'re implemented (smoothly) with little disruption to the customer.\r\n\r\nGrowth is a time suck\r\n\r\nOften times, you\'ll find that your daily calendar is filled with meetings addressing the day\'s priorities - err, fires. This is part of corporate life, but ensure you free up enough time on a weekly basis to \"think\" and not simply \"work.\" What I mean by this is, the leaders must think about what\'s next and brainstorm to prepare for the next phase of growth whether it\'s next quarter or in 36 months.\r\n\r\nI know there are PLENTY more outcomes of growth but these are just the ones that immediately come to mind. What have been your experiences? And how did you continue to address the growth challenges and win?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Yes, We\'re Growing. Now the Hard (But Fun) Part.','','inherit','open','open','','8582-revision-v1','','','2013-08-23 09:12:07','2013-08-23 13:12:07','',8582,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8582-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8591,40,'2013-08-23 09:09:41','2013-08-23 13:09:41','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8588\" alt=\"business growth\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth-300x255.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"255\" /></a>\r\n(photo courtesy of The App Home)\r\n\r\nWe\'re growing.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10946079.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft </a>sees it. <a href=\"http://www.inc.com/profile/egroup\" target=\"_blank\">Inc. Magazine</a> profiles it. <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers\" target=\"_blank\">Job seekers</a> notice it. <a href=\"http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130218/PC05/130219249/egroup-expanding-another-month-another-tech-firm-grows-into-new-officehttp://\" target=\"_blank\">The Post &amp; Courier</a> publishes it.\r\n\r\nOn behalf of the team, I can say each one of us is ecstatic and wanting more. It\'s a better position to be in than the alternative, right?\r\n\r\nThat said, accelerated growth naturally creates \"growing pains\" of which no business is immune, including eGroup. As a senior member of the team in my previous job, where the company found itself on a high growth trajectory in the mid 2000s, I experienced many similar and consistent challenges then as we do now. A few observations:\r\n\r\nGrowth equals change\r\n\r\nAccept it. Adapt. And continue winning. I say that somewhat in jest but it\'s mostly true. Leaders must realize that the new distractions and outside forces that manifest themselves as you quickly grow are not necessarily controlled. The solution to success is how to respond to these new forces and build them into your quarterly and yearly plans.\r\n\r\nGrowth requires new internal processes\r\n\r\nIt\'s no longer sufficient to run your financials in Excel saved to the finance director\'s desktop or scheduling your support team through Outlook invites. You\'re a \"big boy\" now which require news systems and processes - especially in managing cash flow, sometimes neglected during accelerated growth phases. Make sure you have named leaders to ensure these new ways of doing business are communicated and socialized effectively, adopted, adhered to and continually updated to new team members as they join.\r\n\r\nGrowth needs imagination\r\n\r\nWe often say, \"What got us here will not get us where we are going.\" So, be open to learning new ways to service customers or communicate with employees, for example. The old school approaches may not be sufficient for the new markets you\'re serving and the speed at which the business is moving. Be imaginative and creative.\r\n\r\nGrowth is evolutionary\r\n\r\nAs a result of hyper growth, the business model will undoubtedly evolve - new offerings, strategies, infrastructure, and operational processes. In the same vain as new core systems, the successful businesses will have specific leaders own these changing aspects who ensure they\'re implemented (smoothly) with little disruption to the customer.\r\n\r\nGrowth is a time suck\r\n\r\nOften times, you\'ll find that your daily calendar is filled with meetings addressing the day\'s priorities - err, fires. This is part of corporate life, but ensure you free up enough time on a weekly basis to \"think\" and not simply \"work.\" What I mean by this is, the leaders must think about what\'s next and brainstorm to prepare for the next phase of growth whether it\'s next quarter or in 36 months.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div id=\"stcpDiv\">In spite of all of the above factors, growth is a good thing, a great thing for businesses. By simply thinking about what might go wrong, you’ll be ahead of the growth game!</div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nDuring the past week, I\'ve had the opportunity to think about eGroup\'s\r\n\r\nSC 25 Fastest Growing Companies\r\n\r\nhttp://www.scfastestgrowingcompanies.com/\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nRoaring 20s\r\n\r\nhttps://www.charlestonbusiness.com/events/Roaring20\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nOh, and by the way, we just announced our placement in the Inc. 500 | 5000 list. See below:\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Yes, We\'re Growing. Now the Hard (But Fun) Part.','','inherit','open','open','','8582-revision-v1','','','2013-08-23 09:09:41','2013-08-23 13:09:41','',8582,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8582-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8593,40,'2013-08-23 10:28:57','2013-08-23 14:28:57','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8588\" alt=\"business growth\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth-300x255.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"255\" /></a>\r\n(photo courtesy of The App Home)\r\n\r\nWe\'re growing.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10946079.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft </a>sees it. <a href=\"http://www.inc.com/profile/egroup\" target=\"_blank\">Inc. Magazine</a> profiles it. <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers\" target=\"_blank\">Job seekers</a> notice it. <a href=\"http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130218/PC05/130219249/egroup-expanding-another-month-another-tech-firm-grows-into-new-officehttp:/\" target=\"_blank\">The Post &amp; Courier</a> publishes it.\r\n\r\nOn behalf of the entire team I can say each one of us is ecstatic, and wants more. It\'s a better position to be in than the alternative, right?\r\n\r\nThat said, accelerated growth naturally creates \"growing pains\" to which no business is immune—including eGroup. As a senior member of the US-based team in my previous job, where the company found itself on a high growth trajectory in the mid 2000’s, I experienced many of the same challenges then that we do now. A few observations:\r\n\r\n<b>Growth equals change.</b>\r\n\r\nAccept it. Adapt. And continue winning. I say that somewhat in jest, but it\'s mostly true. Leaders must realize that the new distractions and outside forces that manifest themselves as you quickly grow are not necessarily controlled. Success is based on how you respond to these new forces and build them into your quarterly and yearly plans.\r\n\r\n<b>Growth requires new internal processes.</b>\r\n\r\nIt\'s no longer sufficient to run your financials in an Excel spreadsheet saved to the finance director\'s desktop, or to schedule your support team meetings through Outlook invites. You\'re a \"big boy\" now, which requires new systems and processes—especially for managing cash flow, which is sometimes neglected during accelerated growth phases. Make sure you have named leaders to ensure that these new ways of doing business are communicated and socialized effectively, adopted, adhered to, and continually relayed to new team members as they join.\r\n\r\n<b>Growth needs imagination.</b>\r\n\r\nWe often say, \"What got us here will not get us there.\" So, be open to learning new ways to service customers or to communicate with employees, for example. The old school approaches may not be sufficient for the new markets you\'re serving, and the speed at which the business is moving. Be imaginative and creative.\r\n\r\n<b>Growth is evolutionary.</b>\r\n\r\nAs a result of hyper growth, the business model will undoubtedly evolve—new offerings, strategies, infrastructure, and operational processes. In the same vain as new core systems, the successful businesses will have specific leaders own these changing aspects to ensure they\'re implemented (smoothly) and with little disruption to the customer.\r\n\r\n<b>Growth is a time suck.</b>\r\n\r\nOften times, you\'ll find that your daily calendar is filled with meetings addressing the day\'s priorities—err, fires. This is part of corporate life, but ensure you free up enough time on a weekly basis to \"think\" and not just simply \"work.\" What I mean by this is the leaders must think about what\'s next, and brainstorm to prepare for the next phase of growth—whether it\'s next quarter, or next year.\r\n\r\nI know there are PLENTY more challenges and outcomes of accelerated business growth, but these are just the ones that immediately come to mind. What have been your experiences? How did you continue to address your growth challenges and win?','Yes, We\'re Growing. Now the Hard (But Fun) Part.','','inherit','open','open','','8582-revision-v1','','','2013-08-23 10:28:57','2013-08-23 14:28:57','',8582,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8582-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8594,40,'2013-08-23 10:30:27','2013-08-23 14:30:27','<a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8588\" alt=\"business growth\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Growth-300x255.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"255\" /></a>\r\n(photo courtesy of The App Home)\r\n\r\nWe\'re growing.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10946079.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft </a>sees it. <a href=\"http://www.inc.com/profile/egroup\" target=\"_blank\">Inc. Magazine</a> profiles it. <a href=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/about/careers\" target=\"_blank\">Job seekers</a> notice it. <a href=\"http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130218/PC05/130219249/egroup-expanding-another-month-another-tech-firm-grows-into-new-officehttp:/\" target=\"_blank\">The Post &amp; Courier</a> publishes it.\r\n\r\nOn behalf of the entire team I can say each one of us is ecstatic, and wants more. It\'s a better position to be in than the alternative, right?\r\n\r\nThat said, accelerated growth naturally creates \"growing pains\" to which no business is immune—including eGroup. As a senior member of the US-based team in my previous job, where the company found itself on a high growth trajectory in the mid 2000’s, I experienced many of the same challenges then that we do now. A few observations:\r\n<h2><b>Growth equals change.</b></h2>\r\nAccept it. Adapt. And continue winning. I say that somewhat in jest, but it\'s mostly true. Leaders must realize that the new distractions and outside forces that manifest themselves as you quickly grow are not necessarily controlled. Success is based on how you respond to these new forces and build them into your quarterly and yearly plans.\r\n<h2><b>Growth requires new internal processes.</b></h2>\r\nIt\'s no longer sufficient to run your financials in an Excel spreadsheet saved to the finance director\'s desktop, or to schedule your support team meetings through Outlook invites. You\'re a \"big boy\" now, which requires new systems and processes—especially for managing cash flow, which is sometimes neglected during accelerated growth phases. Make sure you have named leaders to ensure that these new ways of doing business are communicated and socialized effectively, adopted, adhered to, and continually relayed to new team members as they join.\r\n<h2><b>Growth needs imagination.</b></h2>\r\nWe often say, \"What got us here will not get us there.\" So, be open to learning new ways to service customers or to communicate with employees, for example. The old school approaches may not be sufficient for the new markets you\'re serving, and the speed at which the business is moving. Be imaginative and creative.\r\n<h2><b>Growth is evolutionary.</b></h2>\r\nAs a result of hyper growth, the business model will undoubtedly evolve—new offerings, strategies, infrastructure, and operational processes. In the same vain as new core systems, the successful businesses will have specific leaders own these changing aspects to ensure they\'re implemented (smoothly) and with little disruption to the customer.\r\n<h2><b>Growth is a time suck.</b></h2>\r\nOften times, you\'ll find that your daily calendar is filled with meetings addressing the day\'s priorities—err, fires. This is part of corporate life, but ensure you free up enough time on a weekly basis to \"think\" and not just simply \"work.\" What I mean by this is the leaders must think about what\'s next, and brainstorm to prepare for the next phase of growth—whether it\'s next quarter, or next year.\r\n\r\nI know there are PLENTY more challenges and outcomes of accelerated business growth, but these are just the ones that immediately come to mind. What have been your experiences? How did you continue to address your growth challenges and win?','Yes, We\'re Growing. Now the Hard (But Fun) Part.','','inherit','open','open','','8582-revision-v1','','','2013-08-23 10:30:27','2013-08-23 14:30:27','',8582,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8582-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8599,49,'2013-08-26 09:27:23','2013-08-26 13:27:23','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer,\' I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction. But the beauty with PowerShell is that even \'weekend warriors of development\' like myself can quickly get up to speed and actually become useful with SDK\'s.\r\n\r\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop. Personally, I have always loved the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment. To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired. Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure. Let\'s take, for example, a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, and consider the following scenarios.\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over two new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?</li>\r\n	<li>You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?</li>\r\n	<li>You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK. The XenApp <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK\">SDK</a> allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm. This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the three scenarios from above, essentially managing policies with the SDK.\r\n<h2>Brief Overview of XenApp SDK</h2>\r\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp. To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing. So how do we use it? Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install). There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices (Google is your friend!).\r\n\r\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got available:\r\n\r\n<img title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" border=\"0\" />\r\n\r\nCitrix provides a good amount of cmdlets with the SDK, and includes the Citrix.Common.GroupPolicy snap in. However, that doesn\'t give us the full spectrum of possibilities with the SDK. There\'s an extra file needed to manage anything Policy related, whether it\'s IMA or GPO policies. That can be found <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/download/attachments/162955822/Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1?version=1\">here.</a>\r\n<h2>Policy Management</h2>\r\nSome people might say, \"So what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center. Not a big deal to recreate a policy. But why recreate manually when you can automate something?\" With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in two lines of code - <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> and <strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>. The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies. Let\'s take a look at exporting a XenApp policy.\r\n\r\n<em>If you\'re new to PowerShell, or just dabble in it, remember the command <strong>get-help</strong>. Excellent details per cmdlet. </em>\r\n\r\n<img title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.30 AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 30 AM\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.30-AM.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"225\" border=\"0\" />\r\n\r\nExporting a XenApp policy is as simple as issuing the command <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>. Notice from the above image on the <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlet, there are a number of additional parameters that we can expose. If you want to export a single policy (Scenario 2 from above), you can use the <em><strong>-PolicyName</strong></em> parameter. If you want to export either the Computer or User policies, use the <em><strong>-Type</strong></em> parameter. Very simple, but very powerful.\r\n\r\n<img title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.50 AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 50 AM\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.50-AM.png\" width=\"486\" height=\"61\" border=\"0\" />\r\n\r\nThe results of running the export command are 3 editable .XML files, one with the policy names, one with configuration, and one with the filters.\r\n\r\n<img title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.51 AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 51 AM\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.51-AM.png\" width=\"597\" height=\"72\" border=\"0\" />\r\n\r\nThe resulting .xml files could be taken to another XenApp farm, and the <strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlet could be run, pointed to the directory of the files, and the new policies would be available in the new farm. Simple yet powerful in my opinion.\r\n\r\nEver needed to move a policy in the App Center from #12 to #3? That takes clicking the Higher button in App Center 9 times. Ever needed to disable all of the user policies for troubleshooting? The XenApp SDK can handle it. The cmdlet <strong>Set-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> takes 2 parameters that allow us to change the priority of the policy, or enable/disable the policy.\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong><em>-Priority: </em></strong>Enter a number to change the priority</li>\r\n	<li><strong><em>-Enabled: </em></strong>Boolean value for Enabled/Disabled. Can use $True or $False here, or 0/1</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nWhy not just run the command <strong>Set-CtxGroupPolicy -Type User -Name \"PolicyName\" -Priority 3 -Type User</strong> for the above example to move from Priority of 12 to 3. Very simple, and very efficient. And not to be left out, you can create new policies - but no edits (<strong>New-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>) and remove policies (<strong>Remove-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>) thru the SDK.\r\n<h2>Migrating IMA policies to AD Group Policies</h2>\r\nAt a customer site a few years back, I ran into an issue where the customer was pushing upwards of 100 policies in the IMA database, and anytime they would need to add/modify/remove a policy, either the IMA database would become corrupted, or it would be incredibly slow - even to just change the priority of a policy. Long story short, we found that moving the policy items into Group Policies did not exhibit the same issues when the large number of policies was in place. Great news, but how can we get all 100 policies migrated from the IMA database into Group Policies? Sure, there is the XenApp Migration Tool, but that won\'t work here since we aren\'t migrating to a new farm. Well, we\'ve already touched on the <strong>Export</strong> and <strong>Import CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlets and how easy it was. Well, with a few additional commands and an additional parameter to the Export and Import commands, we can migrate policies between IMA and AD seamlessly.\r\n\r\nCitrix provides an excellent CTX article on the exporting and importing of policies <a href=\"http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX128625\">here,</a> and it\'s piece #1 of moving to the export/importing of policies.\r\n\r\nTo go from IMA to AD (Or Local Server to AD/IMA), or AD to IMA policies we need to add one line to our plan, and that\'s using a PSDrive (PowerShell Drive) to allow us to navigate into the AD world. Whether we are exporting from AD, or importing to AD, we need to use the PSDrive command to establish a \'mapped drive\' connection to an existing GPO.\r\n\r\nRunning the following command: <strong>New-PSDrive -Name -PSProvider CitrixGroupPolicy -Root \\ -DomainGpo </strong>\r\n\r\nWe need to know:\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>DomainGPODrive</strong> - what drive we want to use.</li>\r\n	<li><strong>DomainGPO</strong> - what GPO we are wanting to work against.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nTo me, one of the really nice features of merging the XenApp policies into a Group Policy is a single point of management. You can create a GPO with all of your Server specific settings for an OU (timeouts, start menu redirections, profile specific items, etc.), and tie specific XenApp items to that GPO as well. One item to note though with the import of Policies from IMA to GPO. With IMA, we have a filter option based on OU. In some cases, an IMA Computer policy might be filtered based on OU of the server, especially if it is within a multi-site/customer AD structure. Well, if your policies are set to filter on the OU, guess what? The import of the policy will fail when coming into an AD GPO. Why you ask? That filter does not exist for a XenApp Policy derived from an AD GPO, well, because the GPO is already applied to an OU. So for computer filter options, the only option remaining is a Worker Group. That requirement/limitation might require some Farm modifications. You can still filter your Worker Groups based on an OU though, so this is the easiest way to still use the OU as a baseline for filtering.\r\n\r\n<img title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 12.57 PM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 12 57 PM\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-12.57-PM.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"151\" border=\"0\" />\r\n\r\nSo to close out this post, let\'s setup an example of migrating policies from IMA into a Group Policy. In my domain, I have my XenApp servers in a dedicated OU as per best practice, and currently I don\'t have any server specific GPO\'s applied. In my XenApp farm, I have three computer and two user policies, and I have disabled the Unfiltered policy, as I tend not to use that. For this example, we are going to pull over all of the Computer and User settings.\r\n\r\nTo export the IMA policies, we of course use our <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> command that we ran before. We can use those same files to import the Policies into a GPO. To import the files to a GPO, as we already covered, a new PSDrive needs to be created. The following statement is what we need to get our first step of integration complete:\r\n\r\n<strong>New-PSDrive -Name X -PSProvider CitrixGroupPolicy -Root \\ -DomainGPO XenAppSpecific</strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong><em>-Name: </em></strong>We will use X for the drive</li>\r\n	<li><strong><em>-PSProvider: </em></strong>PSProvider tells what kind of drive to make. In this case, it\'s always CitrixGroupPolicy. You can use the Get-PSDrive command to get a list of drive providers.</li>\r\n	<li><strong><em>-Root: </em></strong>Tells what folder serves as the drive root, in our case it\'s always \\.</li>\r\n	<li><strong><em>-DomainGPO: </em></strong> Tells the command which GPO to use.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<img title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 11.41 AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 11 41 AM\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-11.41-AM.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"80\" border=\"0\" />\r\n\r\nNotice the issue when running our command. If the GPO does not exist, the New-PSDrive command will fail. Yes, it would be nice if this would have a <strong><em>-force</em></strong> or <strong><em>-create</em></strong> parameter to go along with it, but really, the assumption is that you already have a GPO that you want to add these XenApp items to. Once the new PSDrive is established, you can navigate to it within the PowerShell session just like a standard drive, <strong>cd X:</strong> will allow you to navigate the folder structure just like DOS commands. Although in this case, the folder structure returns either <em>Computer</em> or <em>User</em>. Look familiar?\r\n\r\n<img title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 11.48 AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 11 48 AM\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-11.48-AM.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"84\" border=\"0\" />\r\n\r\nNow that our connection to the GPO has been established, all that is left is to import the .xml files we exported earlier. The command to import is very similar, but we need to add the PSDrive parameter for the DomainGPODrive we used in our PSDrive command. Let\'s breakdown the command for the import - <strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy -FolderPath FarmPolicies -DriveName X</strong>.\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li><strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy: </strong>We\'ve already touched on this cmdlet. This is what drives the import of the .xml files to the desired location.</li>\r\n	<li><strong><em>-Folder Path: </em></strong>This tells the <strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> command where to get the .xml files.</li>\r\n	<li><strong><em>-Drive Name: </em></strong>This tells the <strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> command the location of where to put the imported files. Remember here, we used there X drive as the PSDrive which maps to the desired GPO.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nAny errors with the import will be indicated in red text in the PowerShell screen. If all is successful, you will see the results similar to the below screenshot. The associated XenApp policies will be associated to the GPO we specified earlier, and the filter values will also be brought over.\r\n\r\n<img title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 2.09 PM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 2 09 PM\" src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-2.09-PM.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"379\" border=\"0\" />\r\n\r\nThe XenApp SDK includes some pretty powerful cmdlets, that really can help eliminate a lot of the repetitive steps with managing not just policies, but the overall XenApp farm. This article was just a quick glimpse at some of the features provided by the SDK, and the below I\'ve included resources which can help extend that knowledge.\r\n<h3>Additional Resources</h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Microsoft PSDrive Details - <a href=\"http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee176915.aspx\">http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee176915.aspx</a></li>\r\n	<li>Citrix Export/Import Policies - <a href=\"http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX128625\">http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX128625</a></li>\r\n	<li>Citrix Additional Export/Import - <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/Exporting+and+Importing+XenApp+Group+Policies\">http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/Exporting+and+Importing+XenApp+Group+Policies</a></li>\r\n</ul>','Managing XenApp Policies with XenApp SDK','','publish','open','closed','','managing-xenapp-policies-xenapp-sdk','','','2013-08-26 16:00:36','2013-08-26 20:00:36','',0,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/?p=8599',0,'post','',0),(8601,49,'2013-08-26 09:41:54','2013-08-26 13:41:54','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\nA) You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?\nB) You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?\nC) You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp SDK (http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK) allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 09:41:54','2013-08-26 13:41:54','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8600,49,'2013-08-26 09:27:23','2013-08-26 13:27:23','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  I\'ve run across many environments where there was no policies in place, not even a simple baseline policy.  When asked why, the most common response was <em>\"We are doing all of our policies in Active Directory, and didn\'t want to manage them again\"</em>.  Initially I was perplexed as to that reasoning, but after a while I got the idea.  But Citrix must have heard that grumbling, and with XenApp 6 releases the ability to really administer policies in 3 locations - IMA Database, AD GPO, and Local Server Policy. \n\nSo, what\'s the point to that background?  Well, we started with shops that didn\'t want to administer policies in multiple places, and now what we\'re seeing is an uptick in policy usage, but those policies remain in IMA form.  First thought, why?  Simple answer, it\'s easy, and doesn\'t require potentially multiple teams involvement.  Second thought, so?  Citrix provides a great policy engine with very complete features, and sure doing it in the IMA database is super easy and what most are comfortable with.  But at some point, the usage of the IMA database for storing policies becomes unruly.  The administrator needs to break out which policies should apply to servers a,b,c, users a,b,c, and what if those conflict with something in a GPO.  What if you want to duplicate policies between a test/dev/prod farm, and you have 10, 20 or even 50 policies?  Back to the original point of this article, use the XenApp SDK provided by Citrix.','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 09:27:23','2013-08-26 13:27:23','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8602,49,'2013-08-26 09:44:19','2013-08-26 13:44:19','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\nA) You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?\nB) You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?\nC) You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp SDK (http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK) allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h1>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h1>\nThe XenApp SDK','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 09:44:19','2013-08-26 13:44:19','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8603,49,'2013-08-26 09:54:49','2013-08-26 13:54:49','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\nA) You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?\nB) You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?\nC) You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp SDK (http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK) allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with XenApp 5 and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 09:54:49','2013-08-26 13:54:49','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8604,49,'2013-08-26 10:14:38','2013-08-26 14:14:38','','Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png','','inherit','open','open','','image-8-26-13-at-10-13-am-png','','','2013-08-26 10:14:38','2013-08-26 14:14:38','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8605,49,'2013-08-26 10:14:41','2013-08-26 14:14:41','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\nA) You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?\nB) You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?\nC) You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp SDK (http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK) allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…\n\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got:\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" />\n\n<h2>\nPolicy Management\n</h2>\nPolicy Management. Some people might say so what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center.  Not a big deal to recreate a policy.  But why recreate manually when you can automate something?  With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in 2 lines of code - Export-CtxGroupPolicy  and Import-CtxGroupPolicy .   The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies.','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 10:14:41','2013-08-26 14:14:41','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8606,49,'2013-08-26 10:21:20','2013-08-26 14:21:20','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\nA) You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?\nB) You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?\nC) You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp SDK (http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK) allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…\n\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got:\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" />\n\nCitrix provides a good amount of cmdlets with the SDK, and includes the Citrix.Common.GroupPolicy snap in.  However, that doesn\'t give us the full spectrum of possibilities with the SDK.  There\'s an extra file needed to manage anything Policy related, whether it\'s IMA or GPO policies.  That can be found <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/download/attachments/162955822/Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1?version=1\">here.</a>\n<h2>\nPolicy Management\n</h2>\nPolicy Management. Some people might say so what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center.  Not a big deal to recreate a policy.  But why recreate manually when you can automate something?  With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in 2 lines of code - Export-CtxGroupPolicy  and Import-CtxGroupPolicy .   The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies.','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 10:21:20','2013-08-26 14:21:20','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8607,49,'2013-08-26 10:22:41','2013-08-26 14:22:41','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\nA) You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?\nB) You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?\nC) You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK\">SDK</a> allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…\n\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got:\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" />\n\nCitrix provides a good amount of cmdlets with the SDK, and includes the Citrix.Common.GroupPolicy snap in.  However, that doesn\'t give us the full spectrum of possibilities with the SDK.  There\'s an extra file needed to manage anything Policy related, whether it\'s IMA or GPO policies.  That can be found <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/download/attachments/162955822/Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1?version=1\">here.</a>\n<h2>\nPolicy Management\n</h2>\nPolicy Management. Some people might say so what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center.  Not a big deal to recreate a policy.  But why recreate manually when you can automate something?  With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in 2 lines of code - Export-CtxGroupPolicy  and Import-CtxGroupPolicy .   The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies.','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 10:22:41','2013-08-26 14:22:41','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8608,49,'2013-08-26 10:29:18','2013-08-26 14:29:18','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\nA) You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?\nB) You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?\nC) You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK\">SDK</a> allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…\n\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got available:\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" />\n\nCitrix provides a good amount of cmdlets with the SDK, and includes the Citrix.Common.GroupPolicy snap in.  However, that doesn\'t give us the full spectrum of possibilities with the SDK.  There\'s an extra file needed to manage anything Policy related, whether it\'s IMA or GPO policies.  That can be found <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/download/attachments/162955822/Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1?version=1\">here.</a>\n\n<h2>\nPolicy Management\n</h2>\nPolicy Management. Some people might say so what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center.  Not a big deal to recreate a policy.  But why recreate manually when you can automate something?  With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in 2 lines of code - Export-CtxGroupPolicy  and Import-CtxGroupPolicy.  The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies.  Let\'s take a look at exporting a XenApp policy.','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 10:29:18','2013-08-26 14:29:18','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8609,49,'2013-08-26 10:33:51','2013-08-26 14:33:51','','Image-8-26-13-at-10.30-AM.png','','inherit','open','open','','image-8-26-13-at-10-30-am-png','','','2013-08-26 10:33:51','2013-08-26 14:33:51','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.30-AM.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8610,49,'2013-08-26 10:33:54','2013-08-26 14:33:54','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\nA) You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?\nB) You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?\nC) You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK\">SDK</a> allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…\n\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got available:\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" />\n\nCitrix provides a good amount of cmdlets with the SDK, and includes the Citrix.Common.GroupPolicy snap in.  However, that doesn\'t give us the full spectrum of possibilities with the SDK.  There\'s an extra file needed to manage anything Policy related, whether it\'s IMA or GPO policies.  That can be found <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/download/attachments/162955822/Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1?version=1\">here.</a>\n\n<h2>\nPolicy Management\n</h2>\nPolicy Management. Some people might say so what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center.  Not a big deal to recreate a policy.  But why recreate manually when you can automate something?  With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in 2 lines of code - Export-CtxGroupPolicy  and Import-CtxGroupPolicy.  The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies.  Let\'s take a look at exporting a XenApp policy.\n\n<em>If you\'re new to PowerShell, or just dabble in it, remember the command get-help.  Excellent details per cmdlet.  </em> \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.30-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 30 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.30 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"225\" />','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 10:33:54','2013-08-26 14:33:54','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8611,49,'2013-08-26 10:52:37','2013-08-26 14:52:37','','Image-8-26-13-at-10.51-AM.png','','inherit','open','open','','image-8-26-13-at-10-51-am-png','','','2013-08-26 10:52:37','2013-08-26 14:52:37','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.51-AM.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8612,49,'2013-08-26 10:52:42','2013-08-26 14:52:42','','Image-8-26-13-at-10.50-AM.png','','inherit','open','open','','image-8-26-13-at-10-50-am-png','','','2013-08-26 10:52:42','2013-08-26 14:52:42','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.50-AM.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8613,49,'2013-08-26 10:52:46','2013-08-26 14:52:46','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\nA) You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?\nB) You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?\nC) You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK\">SDK</a> allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…\n\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got available:\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" />\n\nCitrix provides a good amount of cmdlets with the SDK, and includes the Citrix.Common.GroupPolicy snap in.  However, that doesn\'t give us the full spectrum of possibilities with the SDK.  There\'s an extra file needed to manage anything Policy related, whether it\'s IMA or GPO policies.  That can be found <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/download/attachments/162955822/Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1?version=1\">here.</a>\n\n<h2>\nPolicy Management\n</h2>\nPolicy Management. Some people might say so what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center.  Not a big deal to recreate a policy.  But why recreate manually when you can automate something?  With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in 2 lines of code - Export-CtxGroupPolicy  and Import-CtxGroupPolicy.  The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies.  Let\'s take a look at exporting a XenApp policy.\n\n<em>If you\'re new to PowerShell, or just dabble in it, remember the command get-help.  Excellent details per cmdlet.  </em> \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.30-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 30 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.30 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"225\" />\n\nExporting a XenApp policy is as simple as issuing the command Export-CtxGroupPolicy.  Notice from the above image on the Export-CtxGroupPolicy cmdlet, there are a number of additional parameters that we can expose.  If you want to export a single policy (Scenario 2 from above), you can use the -PolicyName parameter.  If you want to export either the Computer or User policies, use the -Type parameter.  Very simple, but very powerful.  \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.50-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 50 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.50 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"486\" height=\"61\" />\n\nThe results of running the export command are 3 editable .XML files, one with the policy names, one with configuration, and one with the filters.\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.51-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 51 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.51 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"597\" height=\"72\" />','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 10:52:46','2013-08-26 14:52:46','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8614,49,'2013-08-26 10:56:04','2013-08-26 14:56:04','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\nA) You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?\nB) You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?\nC) You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK\">SDK</a> allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…\n\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got available:\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" />\n\nCitrix provides a good amount of cmdlets with the SDK, and includes the Citrix.Common.GroupPolicy snap in.  However, that doesn\'t give us the full spectrum of possibilities with the SDK.  There\'s an extra file needed to manage anything Policy related, whether it\'s IMA or GPO policies.  That can be found <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/download/attachments/162955822/Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1?version=1\">here.</a>\n\n<h2>\nPolicy Management\n</h2>\nPolicy Management. Some people might say so what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center.  Not a big deal to recreate a policy.  But why recreate manually when you can automate something?  With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in 2 lines of code - Export-CtxGroupPolicy  and Import-CtxGroupPolicy.  The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies.  Let\'s take a look at exporting a XenApp policy.\n\n<em>If you\'re new to PowerShell, or just dabble in it, remember the command get-help.  Excellent details per cmdlet.  </em> \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.30-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 30 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.30 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"225\" />\n\nExporting a XenApp policy is as simple as issuing the command Export-CtxGroupPolicy.  Notice from the above image on the Export-CtxGroupPolicy cmdlet, there are a number of additional parameters that we can expose.  If you want to export a single policy (Scenario 2 from above), you can use the -PolicyName parameter.  If you want to export either the Computer or User policies, use the -Type parameter.  Very simple, but very powerful.  \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.50-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 50 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.50 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"486\" height=\"61\" />\n\nThe results of running the export command are 3 editable .XML files, one with the policy names, one with configuration, and one with the filters.\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.51-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 51 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.51 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"597\" height=\"72\" />\n\nThe resulting .xml files could be taken to another XenApp farm, and the Import-CtxGroupPolicy cmdlet could be run, pointed to the directory of the files, and the new policies would be available in the new farm.','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 10:56:04','2013-08-26 14:56:04','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8615,49,'2013-08-26 11:01:40','2013-08-26 15:01:40','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\nA) You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?\nB) You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?\nC) You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK\">SDK</a> allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…\n\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got available:\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" />\n\nCitrix provides a good amount of cmdlets with the SDK, and includes the Citrix.Common.GroupPolicy snap in.  However, that doesn\'t give us the full spectrum of possibilities with the SDK.  There\'s an extra file needed to manage anything Policy related, whether it\'s IMA or GPO policies.  That can be found <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/download/attachments/162955822/Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1?version=1\">here.</a>\n\n<h2>\nPolicy Management\n</h2>\nPolicy Management. Some people might say so what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center.  Not a big deal to recreate a policy.  But why recreate manually when you can automate something?  With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in 2 lines of code - Export-CtxGroupPolicy  and Import-CtxGroupPolicy.  The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies.  Let\'s take a look at exporting a XenApp policy.\n\n<em>If you\'re new to PowerShell, or just dabble in it, remember the command get-help.  Excellent details per cmdlet.  </em> \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.30-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 30 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.30 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"225\" />\n\nExporting a XenApp policy is as simple as issuing the command Export-CtxGroupPolicy.  Notice from the above image on the Export-CtxGroupPolicy cmdlet, there are a number of additional parameters that we can expose.  If you want to export a single policy (Scenario 2 from above), you can use the -PolicyName parameter.  If you want to export either the Computer or User policies, use the -Type parameter.  Very simple, but very powerful.  \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.50-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 50 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.50 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"486\" height=\"61\" />\n\nThe results of running the export command are 3 editable .XML files, one with the policy names, one with configuration, and one with the filters.\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.51-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 51 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.51 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"597\" height=\"72\" />\n\nThe resulting .xml files could be taken to another XenApp farm, and the Import-CtxGroupPolicy cmdlet could be run, pointed to the directory of the files, and the new policies would be available in the new farm.  Simple yet powerful in my opinion.  \n\n<h2>\nMigrating IMA policies to AD Group Policies\n</h2>\nAt a customer site a few years back, I ran into an issue where the customer was pushing upwards of 100 policies in the IMA database, and anytime they would need to add/modify/remove a policy, either the IMA database would become corrupted, or it would be incredibly slow - even to just change the priority of a policy.  Long story short, we found that moving the policy items into Group Policies did not exhibit the same issues when the large number of policies was in place.  Great news, but how can we get all 100 policies migrated from the IMA database into Group Policies.  Sure, there is the XenApp Migration Tool, but that won\'t work here since we aren\'t migrating to a new farm.  Well, we\'ve already touched on the Export and Import CtxGroupPolicy cmdlets and how easy it was.  Well, with a few additional commands and an additional parameter to the Export and Import commands, we can migrate policies between IMA and AD seamlessly.','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 11:01:40','2013-08-26 15:01:40','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8616,49,'2013-08-26 11:09:23','2013-08-26 15:09:23','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\nA) You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?\nB) You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?\nC) You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK\">SDK</a> allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…\n\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got available:\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" />\n\nCitrix provides a good amount of cmdlets with the SDK, and includes the Citrix.Common.GroupPolicy snap in.  However, that doesn\'t give us the full spectrum of possibilities with the SDK.  There\'s an extra file needed to manage anything Policy related, whether it\'s IMA or GPO policies.  That can be found <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/download/attachments/162955822/Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1?version=1\">here.</a>\n\n<h2>\nPolicy Management\n</h2>\nPolicy Management. Some people might say so what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center.  Not a big deal to recreate a policy.  But why recreate manually when you can automate something?  With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in 2 lines of code - Export-CtxGroupPolicy  and Import-CtxGroupPolicy.  The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies.  Let\'s take a look at exporting a XenApp policy.\n\n<em>If you\'re new to PowerShell, or just dabble in it, remember the command get-help.  Excellent details per cmdlet.  </em> \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.30-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 30 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.30 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"225\" />\n\nExporting a XenApp policy is as simple as issuing the command Export-CtxGroupPolicy.  Notice from the above image on the Export-CtxGroupPolicy cmdlet, there are a number of additional parameters that we can expose.  If you want to export a single policy (Scenario 2 from above), you can use the -PolicyName parameter.  If you want to export either the Computer or User policies, use the -Type parameter.  Very simple, but very powerful.  \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.50-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 50 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.50 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"486\" height=\"61\" />\n\nThe results of running the export command are 3 editable .XML files, one with the policy names, one with configuration, and one with the filters.\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.51-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 51 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.51 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"597\" height=\"72\" />\n\nThe resulting .xml files could be taken to another XenApp farm, and the Import-CtxGroupPolicy cmdlet could be run, pointed to the directory of the files, and the new policies would be available in the new farm.  Simple yet powerful in my opinion.  \n\n<h2>\nMigrating IMA policies to AD Group Policies\n</h2>\nAt a customer site a few years back, I ran into an issue where the customer was pushing upwards of 100 policies in the IMA database, and anytime they would need to add/modify/remove a policy, either the IMA database would become corrupted, or it would be incredibly slow - even to just change the priority of a policy.  Long story short, we found that moving the policy items into Group Policies did not exhibit the same issues when the large number of policies was in place.  Great news, but how can we get all 100 policies migrated from the IMA database into Group Policies.  Sure, there is the XenApp Migration Tool, but that won\'t work here since we aren\'t migrating to a new farm.  Well, we\'ve already touched on the Export and Import CtxGroupPolicy cmdlets and how easy it was.  Well, with a few additional commands and an additional parameter to the Export and Import commands, we can migrate policies between IMA and AD seamlessly.\n\nCitrix provides an excellent CTX article on the exporting and importing of policies <a href=\"http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX128625\">here,</a> and it\'s piece #1 of moving to the export/importing of policies.  \n\nTo go from IMA to AD (Or Local Server to AD/IMA), or AD to IMA policies we need to add one line to our plan, and that\'s using a PSDrive to allow us to navigate into the AD world.  Whether we are exporting from AD, or importing to AD, we need to use the PSDrive command to establish a \'mapped drive\' connection to an existing GPO.  \n\nRunning the command, we need to know a) <strong>DomainGPODrive</strong> - what drive we want to use and b) <strong>DomainGPO</strong> - what GPO we are wanting to work against','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 11:09:23','2013-08-26 15:09:23','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8617,49,'2013-08-26 11:48:56','2013-08-26 15:48:56','','Image-8-26-13-at-10.50-AM.png','','inherit','open','open','','image-8-26-13-at-10-50-am-png-2','','','2013-08-26 11:48:56','2013-08-26 15:48:56','',0,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.50-AM1.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8618,49,'2013-08-26 11:48:58','2013-08-26 15:48:58','','Image-8-26-13-at-11.41-AM.png','','inherit','open','open','','image-8-26-13-at-11-41-am-png','','','2013-08-26 11:48:58','2013-08-26 15:48:58','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-11.41-AM.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8619,49,'2013-08-26 11:49:03','2013-08-26 15:49:03','','Image-8-26-13-at-11.48-AM.png','','inherit','open','open','','image-8-26-13-at-11-48-am-png','','','2013-08-26 11:49:03','2013-08-26 15:49:03','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-11.48-AM.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8620,49,'2013-08-26 11:49:07','2013-08-26 15:49:07','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\n<ul>\n	<li>You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?</li>\n	<li>You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?</li>\n	<li>You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?</li>\n</ul>\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK\">SDK</a> allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…\n\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got available:\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" />\n\nCitrix provides a good amount of cmdlets with the SDK, and includes the Citrix.Common.GroupPolicy snap in.  However, that doesn\'t give us the full spectrum of possibilities with the SDK.  There\'s an extra file needed to manage anything Policy related, whether it\'s IMA or GPO policies.  That can be found <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/download/attachments/162955822/Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1?version=1\">here.</a>\n\n<h2>\nPolicy Management\n</h2>\nPolicy Management. Some people might say so what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center.  Not a big deal to recreate a policy.  But why recreate manually when you can automate something?  With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in 2 lines of code - <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>  and <strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>.  The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies.  Let\'s take a look at exporting a XenApp policy.\n\n<em>If you\'re new to PowerShell, or just dabble in it, remember the command <strong>get-help</strong>.  Excellent details per cmdlet.  </em> \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.30-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 30 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.30 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"225\" />\n\nExporting a XenApp policy is as simple as issuing the command <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>.  Notice from the above image on the <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlet, there are a number of additional parameters that we can expose.  If you want to export a single policy (Scenario 2 from above), you can use the <em><strong>-PolicyName</strong></em> parameter.  If you want to export either the Computer or User policies, use the <em><strong>-Type</strong></em> parameter.  Very simple, but very powerful.  \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.50-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 50 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.50 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"486\" height=\"61\" />\n\nThe results of running the export command are 3 editable .XML files, one with the policy names, one with configuration, and one with the filters.\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.51-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 51 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.51 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"597\" height=\"72\" />\n\nThe resulting .xml files could be taken to another XenApp farm, and the <strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlet could be run, pointed to the directory of the files, and the new policies would be available in the new farm.  Simple yet powerful in my opinion.  \n\n<h2>\nMigrating IMA policies to AD Group Policies\n</h2>\nAt a customer site a few years back, I ran into an issue where the customer was pushing upwards of 100 policies in the IMA database, and anytime they would need to add/modify/remove a policy, either the IMA database would become corrupted, or it would be incredibly slow - even to just change the priority of a policy.  Long story short, we found that moving the policy items into Group Policies did not exhibit the same issues when the large number of policies was in place.  Great news, but how can we get all 100 policies migrated from the IMA database into Group Policies.  Sure, there is the XenApp Migration Tool, but that won\'t work here since we aren\'t migrating to a new farm.  Well, we\'ve already touched on the <strong>Export</strong> and <strong>Import CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlets and how easy it was.  Well, with a few additional commands and an additional parameter to the Export and Import commands, we can migrate policies between IMA and AD seamlessly.\n\nCitrix provides an excellent CTX article on the exporting and importing of policies <a href=\"http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX128625\">here,</a> and it\'s piece #1 of moving to the export/importing of policies.  \n\nTo go from IMA to AD (Or Local Server to AD/IMA), or AD to IMA policies we need to add one line to our plan, and that\'s using a PSDrive (PowerShell Drive) to allow us to navigate into the AD world.  Whether we are exporting from AD, or importing to AD, we need to use the PSDrive command to establish a \'mapped drive\' connection to an existing GPO.  \n\nRunning the following command:  <strong>New-PSDrive -Name  -PSProvider CitrixGroupPolicy -Root \\ -DomainGpo </strong>\n\nWe need to know:\n<ul>\n	<li><strong>DomainGPODrive</strong> - what drive we want to use.</li>\n	<li><strong>DomainGPO</strong> - what GPO we are wanting to work against.</li>\n</ul>\n\n \nTo me, one of the really nice features of merging the XenApp policies into a Group Policy is a single point of management.  You can create a GPO with all of your Server specific settings for an OU (timeouts, start menu redirections, profile specific items, etc.), and tie specific XenApp items to that GPO as well.  \n\nSo to close out this post, let\'s setup an example of migrating policies from IMA into a Group Policy.  In my domain, I have my XenApp servers in a dedicated OU as per best practice, and currently I don\'t have any server specific GPO\'s applied.  In my XenApp farm, I have 3 computer and 2 user policies, and I have disabled the Unfiltered policy, as I tend not to use that.  For this example, we are going to pull over all of the Computer and User settings.\n\nTo export the IMA policies, we of course use our <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> command that we ran before.  We can use those same files to import the Policies into a GPO.  To import the files to a GPO, as we already covered, a new PSDrive needs to be created.  The following statement is what we need to get our first step of integration complete:\n\n<strong>New-PSDrive -Name X -PSProvider CitrixGroupPolicy -Root \\ -DomainGPO XenAppSpecific</strong>\n\n<ul>\n	<li><strong><em>-Name: </em></strong>We will use X for the drive</li>\n	<li><strong><em>-PSProvider: </em></strong>PSProvider tells what kind of drive to make.  In this case, it\'s always CitrixGroupPolicy.  You can use the Get-PSDrive command to get a list of drive providers.</li>\n	<li><strong><em>-Root: </em></strong>Tells what folder serves as the drive root, in our case it\'s always \\.</li> \n	<li><strong><em>-DomainGPO: </em></strong> Tells the command which GPO to use.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-11.41-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 11 41 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 11.41 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"80\" />\n\nNotice the issue when running our command.  If the GPO does not exist, the New-PSDrive command will fail.  Yes, it would be nice if this would have a <strong><em>-force</em></strong> or <strong><em>-create</em></strong> parameter to go along with it, but really, the assumption is that you already have a GPO that you want to add these XenApp items to.  Once the new PSDrive is established, you can navigate to it within the PowerShell session just like a standard drive, <strong>cd X:</strong> will allow you to navigate the folder structure just like DOS commands.  Although in this case, the folder structure returns either <em>Computer</em> or <em>User</em>.  Look familiar?\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-11.48-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 11 48 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 11.48 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"84\" />','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 11:49:07','2013-08-26 15:49:07','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8621,49,'2013-08-26 12:07:28','2013-08-26 16:07:28','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\n<ul>\n	<li>You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?</li>\n	<li>You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?</li>\n	<li>You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?</li>\n</ul>\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK\">SDK</a> allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…\n\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got available:\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" />\n\nCitrix provides a good amount of cmdlets with the SDK, and includes the Citrix.Common.GroupPolicy snap in.  However, that doesn\'t give us the full spectrum of possibilities with the SDK.  There\'s an extra file needed to manage anything Policy related, whether it\'s IMA or GPO policies.  That can be found <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/download/attachments/162955822/Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1?version=1\">here.</a>\n\n<h2>\nPolicy Management\n</h2>\nPolicy Management. Some people might say so what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center.  Not a big deal to recreate a policy.  But why recreate manually when you can automate something?  With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in 2 lines of code - <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>  and <strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>.  The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies.  Let\'s take a look at exporting a XenApp policy.\n\n<em>If you\'re new to PowerShell, or just dabble in it, remember the command <strong>get-help</strong>.  Excellent details per cmdlet.  </em> \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.30-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 30 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.30 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"225\" />\n\nExporting a XenApp policy is as simple as issuing the command <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>.  Notice from the above image on the <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlet, there are a number of additional parameters that we can expose.  If you want to export a single policy (Scenario 2 from above), you can use the <em><strong>-PolicyName</strong></em> parameter.  If you want to export either the Computer or User policies, use the <em><strong>-Type</strong></em> parameter.  Very simple, but very powerful.  \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.50-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 50 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.50 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"486\" height=\"61\" />\n\nThe results of running the export command are 3 editable .XML files, one with the policy names, one with configuration, and one with the filters.\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.51-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 51 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.51 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"597\" height=\"72\" />\n\nThe resulting .xml files could be taken to another XenApp farm, and the <strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlet could be run, pointed to the directory of the files, and the new policies would be available in the new farm.  Simple yet powerful in my opinion. \n\nEver needed to move a policy in the App Center from #12 to #3?  That takes clicking the Higher button in App Center 9 times.  Ever needed to disable all of the user policies for troubleshooting?  The XenApp SDK can handle it.  The cmdlet <strong>Set-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> takes 2 parameters that allow us to change the priority of the policy, or enable/disable the policy.    \n\n<ul>\n	<li><strong><em>-Priority: </em></strong>Enter a number to change the priority</li>\n	<li><strong><em>-Enabled: </em></strong>Boolean value for Enabled/Disabled.  Can use $True or $False here, or 0/1</li>\n</ul>\nWhy not just run the command <strong>Set-CtxGroupPolicy -Type User -Name \"PolicyName\" -Priority 3 -Type User</strong> for the above example to move from Priority of 12 to 3.  Very simple, and very efficient.  \n\n<h2>\nMigrating IMA policies to AD Group Policies\n</h2>\nAt a customer site a few years back, I ran into an issue where the customer was pushing upwards of 100 policies in the IMA database, and anytime they would need to add/modify/remove a policy, either the IMA database would become corrupted, or it would be incredibly slow - even to just change the priority of a policy.  Long story short, we found that moving the policy items into Group Policies did not exhibit the same issues when the large number of policies was in place.  Great news, but how can we get all 100 policies migrated from the IMA database into Group Policies.  Sure, there is the XenApp Migration Tool, but that won\'t work here since we aren\'t migrating to a new farm.  Well, we\'ve already touched on the <strong>Export</strong> and <strong>Import CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlets and how easy it was.  Well, with a few additional commands and an additional parameter to the Export and Import commands, we can migrate policies between IMA and AD seamlessly.\n\nCitrix provides an excellent CTX article on the exporting and importing of policies <a href=\"http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX128625\">here,</a> and it\'s piece #1 of moving to the export/importing of policies.  \n\nTo go from IMA to AD (Or Local Server to AD/IMA), or AD to IMA policies we need to add one line to our plan, and that\'s using a PSDrive (PowerShell Drive) to allow us to navigate into the AD world.  Whether we are exporting from AD, or importing to AD, we need to use the PSDrive command to establish a \'mapped drive\' connection to an existing GPO.  \n\nRunning the following command:  <strong>New-PSDrive -Name  -PSProvider CitrixGroupPolicy -Root \\ -DomainGpo </strong>\n\nWe need to know:\n<ul>\n	<li><strong>DomainGPODrive</strong> - what drive we want to use.</li>\n	<li><strong>DomainGPO</strong> - what GPO we are wanting to work against.</li>\n</ul>\n \nTo me, one of the really nice features of merging the XenApp policies into a Group Policy is a single point of management.  You can create a GPO with all of your Server specific settings for an OU (timeouts, start menu redirections, profile specific items, etc.), and tie specific XenApp items to that GPO as well.  \n\nSo to close out this post, let\'s setup an example of migrating policies from IMA into a Group Policy.  In my domain, I have my XenApp servers in a dedicated OU as per best practice, and currently I don\'t have any server specific GPO\'s applied.  In my XenApp farm, I have 3 computer and 2 user policies, and I have disabled the Unfiltered policy, as I tend not to use that.  For this example, we are going to pull over all of the Computer and User settings.\n\nTo export the IMA policies, we of course use our <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> command that we ran before.  We can use those same files to import the Policies into a GPO.  To import the files to a GPO, as we already covered, a new PSDrive needs to be created.  The following statement is what we need to get our first step of integration complete:\n\n<strong>New-PSDrive -Name X -PSProvider CitrixGroupPolicy -Root \\ -DomainGPO XenAppSpecific</strong>\n\n<ul>\n	<li><strong><em>-Name: </em></strong>We will use X for the drive</li>\n	<li><strong><em>-PSProvider: </em></strong>PSProvider tells what kind of drive to make.  In this case, it\'s always CitrixGroupPolicy.  You can use the Get-PSDrive command to get a list of drive providers.</li>\n	<li><strong><em>-Root: </em></strong>Tells what folder serves as the drive root, in our case it\'s always \\.</li> \n	<li><strong><em>-DomainGPO: </em></strong> Tells the command which GPO to use.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-11.41-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 11 41 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 11.41 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"80\" />\n\nNotice the issue when running our command.  If the GPO does not exist, the New-PSDrive command will fail.  Yes, it would be nice if this would have a <strong><em>-force</em></strong> or <strong><em>-create</em></strong> parameter to go along with it, but really, the assumption is that you already have a GPO that you want to add these XenApp items to.  Once the new PSDrive is established, you can navigate to it within the PowerShell session just like a standard drive, <strong>cd X:</strong> will allow you to navigate the folder structure just like DOS commands.  Although in this case, the folder structure returns either <em>Computer</em> or <em>User</em>.  Look familiar?\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-11.48-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 11 48 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 11.48 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"84\" />\n\nNow that our connection to the GPO has been established, all that is left is to import the .xml files we exported earlier.','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 12:07:28','2013-08-26 16:07:28','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8622,49,'2013-08-26 13:07:59','2013-08-26 17:07:59','','Image-8-26-13-at-12.57-PM.png','','inherit','open','open','','image-8-26-13-at-12-57-pm-png','','','2013-08-26 13:07:59','2013-08-26 17:07:59','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-12.57-PM.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8623,49,'2013-08-26 13:08:02','2013-08-26 17:08:02','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\n<ul>\n	<li>You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?</li>\n	<li>You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?</li>\n	<li>You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?</li>\n</ul>\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK\">SDK</a> allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…\n\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got available:\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" />\n\nCitrix provides a good amount of cmdlets with the SDK, and includes the Citrix.Common.GroupPolicy snap in.  However, that doesn\'t give us the full spectrum of possibilities with the SDK.  There\'s an extra file needed to manage anything Policy related, whether it\'s IMA or GPO policies.  That can be found <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/download/attachments/162955822/Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1?version=1\">here.</a>\n\n<h2>\nPolicy Management\n</h2>\nPolicy Management. Some people might say so what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center.  Not a big deal to recreate a policy.  But why recreate manually when you can automate something?  With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in 2 lines of code - <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>  and <strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>.  The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies.  Let\'s take a look at exporting a XenApp policy.\n\n<em>If you\'re new to PowerShell, or just dabble in it, remember the command <strong>get-help</strong>.  Excellent details per cmdlet.  </em> \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.30-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 30 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.30 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"225\" />\n\nExporting a XenApp policy is as simple as issuing the command <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>.  Notice from the above image on the <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlet, there are a number of additional parameters that we can expose.  If you want to export a single policy (Scenario 2 from above), you can use the <em><strong>-PolicyName</strong></em> parameter.  If you want to export either the Computer or User policies, use the <em><strong>-Type</strong></em> parameter.  Very simple, but very powerful.  \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.50-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 50 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.50 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"486\" height=\"61\" />\n\nThe results of running the export command are 3 editable .XML files, one with the policy names, one with configuration, and one with the filters.\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.51-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 51 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.51 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"597\" height=\"72\" />\n\nThe resulting .xml files could be taken to another XenApp farm, and the <strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlet could be run, pointed to the directory of the files, and the new policies would be available in the new farm.  Simple yet powerful in my opinion. \n\nEver needed to move a policy in the App Center from #12 to #3?  That takes clicking the Higher button in App Center 9 times.  Ever needed to disable all of the user policies for troubleshooting?  The XenApp SDK can handle it.  The cmdlet <strong>Set-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> takes 2 parameters that allow us to change the priority of the policy, or enable/disable the policy.    \n\n<ul>\n	<li><strong><em>-Priority: </em></strong>Enter a number to change the priority</li>\n	<li><strong><em>-Enabled: </em></strong>Boolean value for Enabled/Disabled.  Can use $True or $False here, or 0/1</li>\n</ul>\nWhy not just run the command <strong>Set-CtxGroupPolicy -Type User -Name \"PolicyName\" -Priority 3 -Type User</strong> for the above example to move from Priority of 12 to 3.  Very simple, and very efficient.  \n\n<h2>\nMigrating IMA policies to AD Group Policies\n</h2>\nAt a customer site a few years back, I ran into an issue where the customer was pushing upwards of 100 policies in the IMA database, and anytime they would need to add/modify/remove a policy, either the IMA database would become corrupted, or it would be incredibly slow - even to just change the priority of a policy.  Long story short, we found that moving the policy items into Group Policies did not exhibit the same issues when the large number of policies was in place.  Great news, but how can we get all 100 policies migrated from the IMA database into Group Policies.  Sure, there is the XenApp Migration Tool, but that won\'t work here since we aren\'t migrating to a new farm.  Well, we\'ve already touched on the <strong>Export</strong> and <strong>Import CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlets and how easy it was.  Well, with a few additional commands and an additional parameter to the Export and Import commands, we can migrate policies between IMA and AD seamlessly.\n\nCitrix provides an excellent CTX article on the exporting and importing of policies <a href=\"http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX128625\">here,</a> and it\'s piece #1 of moving to the export/importing of policies.  \n\nTo go from IMA to AD (Or Local Server to AD/IMA), or AD to IMA policies we need to add one line to our plan, and that\'s using a PSDrive (PowerShell Drive) to allow us to navigate into the AD world.  Whether we are exporting from AD, or importing to AD, we need to use the PSDrive command to establish a \'mapped drive\' connection to an existing GPO.  \n\nRunning the following command:  <strong>New-PSDrive -Name  -PSProvider CitrixGroupPolicy -Root \\ -DomainGpo </strong>\n\nWe need to know:\n<ul>\n	<li><strong>DomainGPODrive</strong> - what drive we want to use.</li>\n	<li><strong>DomainGPO</strong> - what GPO we are wanting to work against.</li>\n</ul>\n \nTo me, one of the really nice features of merging the XenApp policies into a Group Policy is a single point of management.  You can create a GPO with all of your Server specific settings for an OU (timeouts, start menu redirections, profile specific items, etc.), and tie specific XenApp items to that GPO as well.  One item to note though with the import of Policies from IMA to GPO.  With IMA, we have a filter option based on OU.  In some cases, an IMA Computer policy might be filtered based on OU of the server, especially if it is within a multi-site/customer AD structure.  Well, if your policies are set to filter on the OU, guess what?  The import of the policy will fail when coming into an AD GPO.  Why you ask?  That filter does not exist for a XenApp Policy derived from an AD GPO, well, because the GPO is already applied to an OU.  So for computer filter options, the only option remaining is a Worker Group.  That requirement/limitation might require some Farm modifications.  You can still filter your Worker Groups based on an OU though, so this is the easiest way to still use the OU as a baseline for filtering.\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-12.57-PM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 12 57 PM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 12.57 PM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"151\" />\n\nSo to close out this post, let\'s setup an example of migrating policies from IMA into a Group Policy.  In my domain, I have my XenApp servers in a dedicated OU as per best practice, and currently I don\'t have any server specific GPO\'s applied.  In my XenApp farm, I have 3 computer and 2 user policies, and I have disabled the Unfiltered policy, as I tend not to use that.  For this example, we are going to pull over all of the Computer and User settings.\n\nTo export the IMA policies, we of course use our <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> command that we ran before.  We can use those same files to import the Policies into a GPO.  To import the files to a GPO, as we already covered, a new PSDrive needs to be created.  The following statement is what we need to get our first step of integration complete:\n\n<strong>New-PSDrive -Name X -PSProvider CitrixGroupPolicy -Root \\ -DomainGPO XenAppSpecific</strong>\n\n<ul>\n	<li><strong><em>-Name: </em></strong>We will use X for the drive</li>\n	<li><strong><em>-PSProvider: </em></strong>PSProvider tells what kind of drive to make.  In this case, it\'s always CitrixGroupPolicy.  You can use the Get-PSDrive command to get a list of drive providers.</li>\n	<li><strong><em>-Root: </em></strong>Tells what folder serves as the drive root, in our case it\'s always \\.</li> \n	<li><strong><em>-DomainGPO: </em></strong> Tells the command which GPO to use.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-11.41-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 11 41 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 11.41 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"80\" />\n\nNotice the issue when running our command.  If the GPO does not exist, the New-PSDrive command will fail.  Yes, it would be nice if this would have a <strong><em>-force</em></strong> or <strong><em>-create</em></strong> parameter to go along with it, but really, the assumption is that you already have a GPO that you want to add these XenApp items to.  Once the new PSDrive is established, you can navigate to it within the PowerShell session just like a standard drive, <strong>cd X:</strong> will allow you to navigate the folder structure just like DOS commands.  Although in this case, the folder structure returns either <em>Computer</em> or <em>User</em>.  Look familiar?\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-11.48-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 11 48 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 11.48 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"84\" />\n\nNow that our connection to the GPO has been established, all that is left is to import the .xml files we exported earlier.  The command to import is very similar, but we need to add the PSDrive  parameter for the DomainGPODrive we used in our PSDrive command.  Let\'s breakdown the command for the import - Import-CtxGroupPolicy \n<ul>\n	<li></li>\n</ul>','Managing XenApp Policies with SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 13:08:02','2013-08-26 17:08:02','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8624,49,'2013-08-26 13:08:27','2013-08-26 17:08:27','Let me start off this blog post by saying that as much as I want to be a \'developer\', I just can\'t get my mind moving in that direction.  But the beauty with PowerShell is that it can take not even a weekend warrior of development like myself, and actually become useful with SDK\'s.  \n\nCitrix has done an excellent job in the past few years really developing and providing a very useful policy engine and structure for not only XenApp, but also XenDesktop.  Personally, I have always love the Citrix policy engine, making it very easy to get to the end results I wanted - the look, feel and usefulness of a XenApp environment.  To me, storing the policies within the IMA database always left something to be desired.  Sure, it\'s always been there, and is a core component of the XenApp infrastructure.  Let\'s take for example a farm that consists of 20 various policies - printing, Flash management, TimeZone, etc, and consider the following scenarios.\n\n<ul>\n	<li>You have a separate test farm, and you need to bring over 2 new policies to the production farm - how do you do it?</li>\n	<li>You have purchased a new company who currently runs a XenApp farm, and need to merge their policies into the main farm - how do you do it?</li>\n	<li>You want to migrate all of the XenApp IMA polices into Active Directory, for a single point of policy management - how do you do it?</li>\n</ul>\n\nThe simple answer is the XenApp SDK.  The XenApp <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/XenApp+6.5+Powershell+SDK\">SDK</a> allows for complete PowerShell management of a XenApp farm.  This blog post isn\'t intended as an overview of the full XA SDK, but will focus on the 3 scenarios from above, managing policies with the SDK.  \n\n<h2>\nBrief Overview of XenApp SDK\n</h2>\nThe XenApp SDK was released initially with XenApp 5.0, as a replacement for the MFCOM commands that were included with earlier editions of XenApp.  To be honest, MFCOM never seemed super useful with XenApp management, but with SDK and the usage of PowerShell, I started to see where the SDK was proving to give that little extra bit we were missing.  So how do we use it?  Well, every XenApp server v6.x and above includes PowerShell, so all that needs to be installed is the SDK itself (I wish Citrix would just install this as part of the XenApp install).  There are a ton of resources on the web that provide a greater background on the SDK usage, including some very excellent Farm Reports that will print out the entire farm configuration with best practices - Google is your friend…\n\nLet\'s start the SDK to see what we\'ve got available:\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.13-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 13 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.13 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" />\n\nCitrix provides a good amount of cmdlets with the SDK, and includes the Citrix.Common.GroupPolicy snap in.  However, that doesn\'t give us the full spectrum of possibilities with the SDK.  There\'s an extra file needed to manage anything Policy related, whether it\'s IMA or GPO policies.  That can be found <a href=\"http://community.citrix.com/download/attachments/162955822/Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1?version=1\">here.</a>\n\n<h2>\nPolicy Management\n</h2>\nPolicy Management. Some people might say so what, we can do it from within the Citrix App Center.  Not a big deal to recreate a policy.  But why recreate manually when you can automate something?  With the SDK, the first scenario listed above can be done in 2 lines of code - <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>  and <strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>.  The SDK provides a very flexible and easy method to not only export all of your policies (Think Backup here), but to also import the policies.  Let\'s take a look at exporting a XenApp policy.\n\n<em>If you\'re new to PowerShell, or just dabble in it, remember the command <strong>get-help</strong>.  Excellent details per cmdlet.  </em> \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.30-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 30 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.30 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"225\" />\n\nExporting a XenApp policy is as simple as issuing the command <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong>.  Notice from the above image on the <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlet, there are a number of additional parameters that we can expose.  If you want to export a single policy (Scenario 2 from above), you can use the <em><strong>-PolicyName</strong></em> parameter.  If you want to export either the Computer or User policies, use the <em><strong>-Type</strong></em> parameter.  Very simple, but very powerful.  \n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.50-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 50 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.50 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"486\" height=\"61\" />\n\nThe results of running the export command are 3 editable .XML files, one with the policy names, one with configuration, and one with the filters.\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-10.51-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 10 51 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 10.51 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"597\" height=\"72\" />\n\nThe resulting .xml files could be taken to another XenApp farm, and the <strong>Import-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlet could be run, pointed to the directory of the files, and the new policies would be available in the new farm.  Simple yet powerful in my opinion. \n\nEver needed to move a policy in the App Center from #12 to #3?  That takes clicking the Higher button in App Center 9 times.  Ever needed to disable all of the user policies for troubleshooting?  The XenApp SDK can handle it.  The cmdlet <strong>Set-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> takes 2 parameters that allow us to change the priority of the policy, or enable/disable the policy.    \n\n<ul>\n	<li><strong><em>-Priority: </em></strong>Enter a number to change the priority</li>\n	<li><strong><em>-Enabled: </em></strong>Boolean value for Enabled/Disabled.  Can use $True or $False here, or 0/1</li>\n</ul>\nWhy not just run the command <strong>Set-CtxGroupPolicy -Type User -Name \"PolicyName\" -Priority 3 -Type User</strong> for the above example to move from Priority of 12 to 3.  Very simple, and very efficient.  \n\n<h2>\nMigrating IMA policies to AD Group Policies\n</h2>\nAt a customer site a few years back, I ran into an issue where the customer was pushing upwards of 100 policies in the IMA database, and anytime they would need to add/modify/remove a policy, either the IMA database would become corrupted, or it would be incredibly slow - even to just change the priority of a policy.  Long story short, we found that moving the policy items into Group Policies did not exhibit the same issues when the large number of policies was in place.  Great news, but how can we get all 100 policies migrated from the IMA database into Group Policies.  Sure, there is the XenApp Migration Tool, but that won\'t work here since we aren\'t migrating to a new farm.  Well, we\'ve already touched on the <strong>Export</strong> and <strong>Import CtxGroupPolicy</strong> cmdlets and how easy it was.  Well, with a few additional commands and an additional parameter to the Export and Import commands, we can migrate policies between IMA and AD seamlessly.\n\nCitrix provides an excellent CTX article on the exporting and importing of policies <a href=\"http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX128625\">here,</a> and it\'s piece #1 of moving to the export/importing of policies.  \n\nTo go from IMA to AD (Or Local Server to AD/IMA), or AD to IMA policies we need to add one line to our plan, and that\'s using a PSDrive (PowerShell Drive) to allow us to navigate into the AD world.  Whether we are exporting from AD, or importing to AD, we need to use the PSDrive command to establish a \'mapped drive\' connection to an existing GPO.  \n\nRunning the following command:  <strong>New-PSDrive -Name  -PSProvider CitrixGroupPolicy -Root \\ -DomainGpo </strong>\n\nWe need to know:\n<ul>\n	<li><strong>DomainGPODrive</strong> - what drive we want to use.</li>\n	<li><strong>DomainGPO</strong> - what GPO we are wanting to work against.</li>\n</ul>\n \nTo me, one of the really nice features of merging the XenApp policies into a Group Policy is a single point of management.  You can create a GPO with all of your Server specific settings for an OU (timeouts, start menu redirections, profile specific items, etc.), and tie specific XenApp items to that GPO as well.  One item to note though with the import of Policies from IMA to GPO.  With IMA, we have a filter option based on OU.  In some cases, an IMA Computer policy might be filtered based on OU of the server, especially if it is within a multi-site/customer AD structure.  Well, if your policies are set to filter on the OU, guess what?  The import of the policy will fail when coming into an AD GPO.  Why you ask?  That filter does not exist for a XenApp Policy derived from an AD GPO, well, because the GPO is already applied to an OU.  So for computer filter options, the only option remaining is a Worker Group.  That requirement/limitation might require some Farm modifications.  You can still filter your Worker Groups based on an OU though, so this is the easiest way to still use the OU as a baseline for filtering.\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-12.57-PM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 12 57 PM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 12.57 PM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"151\" />\n\nSo to close out this post, let\'s setup an example of migrating policies from IMA into a Group Policy.  In my domain, I have my XenApp servers in a dedicated OU as per best practice, and currently I don\'t have any server specific GPO\'s applied.  In my XenApp farm, I have 3 computer and 2 user policies, and I have disabled the Unfiltered policy, as I tend not to use that.  For this example, we are going to pull over all of the Computer and User settings.\n\nTo export the IMA policies, we of course use our <strong>Export-CtxGroupPolicy</strong> command that we ran before.  We can use those same files to import the Policies into a GPO.  To import the files to a GPO, as we already covered, a new PSDrive needs to be created.  The following statement is what we need to get our first step of integration complete:\n\n<strong>New-PSDrive -Name X -PSProvider CitrixGroupPolicy -Root \\ -DomainGPO XenAppSpecific</strong>\n\n<ul>\n	<li><strong><em>-Name: </em></strong>We will use X for the drive</li>\n	<li><strong><em>-PSProvider: </em></strong>PSProvider tells what kind of drive to make.  In this case, it\'s always CitrixGroupPolicy.  You can use the Get-PSDrive command to get a list of drive providers.</li>\n	<li><strong><em>-Root: </em></strong>Tells what folder serves as the drive root, in our case it\'s always \\.</li> \n	<li><strong><em>-DomainGPO: </em></strong> Tells the command which GPO to use.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-11.41-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 11 41 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 11.41 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"80\" />\n\nNotice the issue when running our command.  If the GPO does not exist, the New-PSDrive command will fail.  Yes, it would be nice if this would have a <strong><em>-force</em></strong> or <strong><em>-create</em></strong> parameter to go along with it, but really, the assumption is that you already have a GPO that you want to add these XenApp items to.  Once the new PSDrive is established, you can navigate to it within the PowerShell session just like a standard drive, <strong>cd X:</strong> will allow you to navigate the folder structure just like DOS commands.  Although in this case, the folder structure returns either <em>Computer</em> or <em>User</em>.  Look familiar?\n\n<img src=\"http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Image-8-26-13-at-11.48-AM.png\" alt=\"Image 8 26 13 at 11 48 AM\" title=\"Image 8-26-13 at 11.48 AM.png\" border=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"84\" />\n\nNow that our connection to the GPO has been established, all that is left is to import the .xml files we exported earlier.  The command to import is very similar, but we need to add the PSDrive  parameter for the DomainGPODrive we used in our PSDrive command.  Let\'s breakdown the command for the import - Import-CtxGroupPolicy \n<ul>\n	<li></li>\n</ul>','Managing XenApp Policies with XenApp SDK','','inherit','open','open','','8599-revision-v1','','','2013-08-26 13:08:27','2013-08-26 17:08:27','',8599,'http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/2013/08/8599-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),