Do you have experience in customer support for IT or Website services?
Solid understanding of email client setup, DNS and basic web servers?
Immediate start - Part time, Flexible hours. Potential for full time.
North Sydney Location.
Salary; Negotiable
This is a fantastic opportunity to learn about SEO fundamentals and online marketing.
THE COMPANY
Small online marketing team, working with small and medium businesses around Australia.
THE POSITION
Responsible for the technical support in setup and deployment of new and existing website and email services.
Consult with clients and other team members to understand the nature of key technical issues to identify, analyze, document and implement solutions to improve efficiency, effectiveness and service quality for clients.
Managing SEO projects, and direct other staff on the implementation of SEO tasks.
SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES
Deliver Project tasks of SEO and Site launch for internal and external clients to ensure courteous, timely, and effective completion of work, meeting or exceeding current service levels agreements to users, including timeframes.
Provide technical support to clients on email, newsletters, CMS and domain name management.
Document and deliver basic training for clients on daily use of email, newsletters, CMS.
Be proactive in recommending changes to Service Delivery policies, procedures, technology, and training to improve effectiveness, efficiency and service quality.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES
Good working technical knowledge of Networks, MS Office suite, smartphones, DNS and domain registration process.
Experience in using a CMS for web content changes.
Intermediate knowledge of DNS/MX records, email Client setup.
Good written and oral communication skills.
Strong personal skills, with a focus on listening and questioning skills.
Strong documentation skills and attention to detail.
Ability to conduct research into a wide range of computing issues.
Proven analytical and problem-solving abilities.
Ability to present ideas in user-friendly language to non-technical staff and end users.
Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks.
Customer service orientation.
Understanding of Blackberry or Iphone setup of email/contacts/calendar sync with Google Apps or MS Exchange desirable.
Graphic design or html/css skills are an advantage.
1-2 years experience in PC or Website support or development environment desirable.
IT qualifications desirable.
Have the above skills and abilities?
Apply online now - we are looking for someone to start ASAP!
Email your resume as a PDF, attention to Brendan Byrne. Include your cover letter in the email message to; jobs@receptive.com.au
ABOUT THE COMPANY
Receptive Technologies was formed in 2002. We are a small team of staff, each responsible for a variety of business processes. We pride ourselves on providing great service, and measurable results to our clients, using current technology.
Adobe recently announced on their blog an update that will affect virtually all the websites hosted by Business Catalyst in Australia, and a large majority of sites they host out side of Australia. We wanted to simplify the announcement here, and summarise what you need to do if you have a website with Business Catalyst.
Firstly there is no emergency action you must take during the migration period.
However, there ARE actions that EVERY customer must take within the following 60 days.
1. The migration with occur at 1am, Sunday 20 February 2011 Sydney time. It is expected that there will be up to 6 hours where Australian based sites will be down, with a message "Site currently unavailable due to maintenance".
2. After this time, every domain name that you use to direct visitors to your website will need to have one of two changes made. These changes are well documented here: http://www.bcstatus.com/instructions
If you are uncertain of who your Registrar is, visit this page and enter your domain name:
http://whois.domaintools.com/ Once you do a look up for your domain name, you will find your DNS registrar in the 'Registrar Name' section.
Do you Need Help with the Business Catalyst DNS changes?
If you don’t want to do this work yourself, we have set up a special deal, saving you over 80% where we can do this work for you. This will save you time and hassles. This is available to anyone who is hosted with Business Catalyst via any partner or reseller.
First in, first served:
http://www.receptive.com.au/dns-help
Why are these changes happening?
The new datacentre is built using high-end industry standard hardware and server technologies. The main business benefits include:
Improved Reliability: with built-in hardware and software redundancy for all critical systems, the new datacenter prevents downtime caused by single system failures and enables customers to continue running their online business without disruption
Increased performance: built using latest, state of the art hardware and server technologies, this new datacenter delivers higher performance and enables websites to load faster for a better customer experience
Higher capacity: three times more capacity than currently available and built-in expansion capabilities will cover growing customer demand for traffic and space
Am I being compensated?
Adobe have credited each site with 1 month free licence.
This is a notification that Business Catalyst will be making a major system upgrade that will require you to reset or change your password to continue using the system. If you are using hosted email i.e you can access your email account by going to mail.yourdomain.com; this migration may affect your ability to view existing emails in your inbox for up to 72 hours.
What is happening: Business Catalyst is releasing a system-wide security and email infrastructure upgrade. Business Catalyst is migrating mail accounts from existing infrastructure to new mail infrastructure
Migration Start Time: 8:00PM Friday 28 January 2011 (EDT) Check local times
Migration End Time: 8:00PM Monday 31 January 2011 (EDT) Check local times
Duration: 72 hours for full mail migration- although most accounts will be migrated in less time
Customer Impact: All users are required to reset/update passwords after the migration begins. Users with hosted email will not have access to existing mail in their mailboxes until it is migrated to their new mailboxes.
Steps you need to take
During the next few days, upon attempting to login either through your current desktop e-mail client (using POP3 or IMAP) or through the webmail interface, your login credentials will stop working and you'll receive an "Invalid username or password" error.
Upon receiving this error, the steps you'll need to take are:
If you have access to the site's Admin Console (ie. you're an Admin user with email enabled):
Login in site Admin with the user account for which you wish to perform a password change
Go Home -> My Details -> Change Password form
Enter old password and new password twice, and save the changes
This will result in the password being changed for both Admin and email access.
Changing your password via the Webmail login interface (ie.you're an "email only" user)
Go to Webmail as per usual (eg: mail.mydomain.com)
At the login screen you'll see a message that requests you perform a password update: "For security reasons, you will need to reset your password. Please go here to change your password."
Clicking on Change password link will load a form where you can update your password.
Enter your e-mail address, old password and new password twice, then save the changes
Once you have updated your password, you'll be able to login to the webmail interface, or through your desktop email client using the new password.
Please Note: Upon logging in with your new password, you will not see your old e-mail in the web interface or via IMAP, as we will be migrating e-mail to the new service following password upgrade. This means that your e-mail inbox and folders will look empty. Please wait a few days until the migration is complete for the older emails to appear.
Business Catalyst (BC) are completing some upgrades to their system at the end of January 2011. This will provide clients who host email with BC with a larger inbox and better system integrity. As part of this upgrade, you will be asked to update your password. This is expected to begin from the January 28th.
This will be required even if you do not use Business Catalyst for your email.
If you encounter any issues in the days surrounding this move, when trying to access email from your mail client (Outlook, Entourage, Mac Mail etc) please visit the admin area of your website and follow the instructions to update your password.
You may access this admin area in a few different ways;
(replace “Yourdomain” with your website address) http://www.YourDomain.com/admin http://mail.YourDomain.com/
or you may be accessing your site from our login page: http://www.receptive.com.au/admin
The advantages to the new email system:
Increased Mailbox size (from 100Mb to 2Gb)
Improved webmail interface.
Better control from your webmail account.
A more stable service for email.
QUESTIONS?
What action will I need to take?
You email client (Outlook, Entorage or Mac Mail) may ask you for a password, after not needing it for a long time, then visit one of the links above, and follow the instructions to change your password. Once this is done, enter the new password to your email client. That's all.
I have not been able read my email. Why not?
If you have been noticing some issues over the last week with your email, this is the type of problems that are expected to be fixed by this update.
How much will this cost?
This upgrade to your service is being provided as part of your licence fee. There are no added charges for this upgrade.
Where did all my Email go?
During the change over process, some mail may seem to 'disappear' from your inbox. This is because you will be accessing the new inbox before the contents of your old inbox is copied to the new server. Be patient, all your email will appear in your new inbox over the weekend and we expect that by Monday all your email will be back in your account. We will notify you when the process is completed, and then you can contact us if you think there may still be email's missing.
If you have any further concerns, please email us or complete the contact us form on our website. If you are telephoning, please be patient, if it goes to messagebank, we will call you back as soon as possible, so leave a detailed message.
Receptive Technologies recently became a member of Publishers Australia. We are excited to be part of an association just for publishers and we’re sure that our services will be a great fit for companies who are focused on publishing great online content to match their magazines. Find out more about Publishers Australia: http://publishersaustralia.com.au/
It drives me crazy reading adverts for ‘$1000- websites’ that you can do easily your self. They fail to mention that it is only easy if you know what you are doing, and they fail to mention the time it takes to learn the systems, not to mention all the jargon and different things you need to learn!
It is like saying ‘it’s easy to be a successful business owner’ it is not. It takes time, dedication and experience to be successful, and websites are just the same.
Recognising the reality that getting great results online requires experience, we take time to explain what you need to know and teach you the tools so that you can run your online business. We offer on-going services to support you in learning to run your online business and can take the stress out of starting out online.
Receptive Technologies service delivery process;
It is not really a trade secret to share with you the process we use to help our clients actually enjoy working with us. (enjoyment is up to the client, we just provide the framework ;-)
Step 1, Understanding your Business.
While many websites look the same, it is in the detail that we find that no two businesses are identical. We start by ensuring that we know enough about your business to be able to present you to the world with the right blend of familiarity and stand out.
Step 2, Complete your Plan
Treating your website like a bricks-and-mortar shop is a great way to check that you have taken all the right steps. You wouldn’t open a store without a plan on how to sell, how to display your stock, as well as understanding your local area. We understand the online area, and can create a plan for your online business.
Step 3, Design your site
Presentation is very important. Online, you don’t have window cleaners, vacuuming, dusting or window displays, but the efforts required are the same, images, design, layout and up-selling are vital to a successful online business.
Step 4, Building and Testing
Based on your plan and design, we use the latest tools from Adobe to create the system to manage your online business. We then test each aspect of your site to check it works as planned.
Step 5, Training and Support
First we teach you how to use your site to process the orders, make changes and send newsletters. Then we can help you to implement the plan for creating new customers, marketing and evolving your site.
Scope > functional spec > concept design > user testing > design > build > technical testing > soft launch > user testing > public launch > promote > user survey > New scope; start again.*
Stop wasting time and money!
I know there is a lot of conventional wisdom is the normal flow of projects, but I am beginning to doubt convention. I think the heart of the issue for me is the very beginning. What does conventional wisdom provide us with? A Scope. A Scope usually lists all the things that the project owner wants. Then we get a functional spec, which attempts to make sense of the Scope, and tells us how we are going to fulfil the scope, and so on down the line.
Don’t get me wrong, this type of flow has its place. Where the final product is set in time or stone and can’t be changed again without huge amounts of effort, then this is a great method that has ‘conventional wisdom’. My question is with web based projects where there need not be a final product that is set in stone. I think it requires the process to be turned on its head and perhaps, thrown out all together.
Well built websites are easy to change, add to and build on. They are not static buildings of bricks and mortar. Just like the content of a shop, we can bring in new advertising, new staff, and new products on a daily basis if we have the right plan. What worked and what didn’t work can be removed or changed easily when you have the right tools, right people and the right plan.
So how do you plan for change? Make ‘Change’ your best friend. Be prepared to work in collaboration with your designers, marketing people, technical people, project manager and decision makers with only clear results as the part of the puzzle that is set in stone. Don’t lock down a scope, instead, be open to new ideas that could reach the results you want sooner or better than you have now.
Most importantly, don’t stop. Keep going. When you realise one goal, set new ones. The evolution of a website is more like the building of a business, or the development of staff. It is a continuing, fluid growth process, that should be guided with care and a focus on the goal, not limited to one path that was decided months (or years) ago.
*Not all of these steps are taken by everyone as the convention, it is only an illustration.
If you want to find out more about evolving your website, contact Receptive Technologies on 1300 794 770.
There are plenty of services popping up now where you can synchronise your files with a server on line, so that you can access the files from anywhere. It usually creates two advantages. If you have your files online, you can effectively consider this to be a backup. Secondly, you can access the files from anywhere there is internet access, which can be very handy for some people.
Until recently, I was using SugarSync (http://www.sugarsync.com), which is a great service for Small Business, or where there is no need to have different access rules from each computer that has access to your account. They even offer the first 2GB of data for Free!
Personally, I want to share some of my files with staff, and other files with the home PC. I don't want all the people in the office to have access to all the folders, particularly for confidential staff information. So with a little digging, I have found and signed up for a service from Rackspace. (http://www.rackspace.com)
The service is Jungle Disk (http://www.jungledisk.com). A deceptively simple little program that can even be installed on a USB drive, that will give you access to all your files, synchronise them with any other computer you want, and manage your online backups.
It does this at the same time as providing folder level permission management. What that means in English, is that I can choose to share my personal photos with only wife, Client files with only my sales and project staff, and my accounting files only with the accountant (and probably my wife too).
These files are magically stored on either Amazons "S3 online Disks" or a similar service called Rackspace Cloud Files. So at just US$4 per user per month, I get access to 10GB of disk space!
First impressions for me were that I thought it was more complicated that it actually ended up being. The sign up process could probably explain your setup choices much better than it does, but once I was up and running, I found it to be very simple. Luckily all the settings are easily changed after installation. The help video's and help system also seem to be designed for people who are already familiar with their system, leaving the outsider wondering which setting to choose next, and saying "could it really be that simple?"
My Suggestions
The services can be split out into a couple of different parts:
Files Sync/Sharing
Legacy Backup
Vault Backup
File Sync and Sharing is great. The files are easily accessible from multiple methods. You can view the files by installing the little bit of software and creating a 'network drive' just like you would in a normal office/server situation. This is ideal for any desktop that is permanently connected to the internet, but if the specific PC you're installing on will be doing lots of work, it will probably be faster, and save file transfers in the long run if you set these PC's to "sync" the data. This also allows for file searching from your favourite desktop search.
Using either a USB Device, or installing the software on a home PC lets you map the network drive, but you may choose to avoid the synchronisation for these computers as it may not been needed to have a copy of all your files on these computers. The USB option is especially useful if you jump from PC to PC regularly.
There is also a Web based interface, which is nice to use, but it is lacking a file search feature, which I think should be essential, but I have not seen this option in any of the other services either...
You can even set the system to keep old versions of files each time you make changes - offering some level of backup.
Legacy backup was probably the only backup that was once offered by jungle disk, (guessing from the name). The problem with it is that it is not an efficient user of disk space, so I have switched this one off to rely on Vault Backup.
Vault Backup is a true, online backup service. You select the folders you want to backup, and (after the first backup) the system takes care of the monitoring of changes so that only changed data is uploaded. It can even handle open files (if you are using a newer computer that has something called 'NTFS' - ask your nearest geek to explain that one) and is scheduled to run at intervals defined by you.
I am still un-decided whether I need file sync AND Vault Backup, but there are certainly files that I don't need synced but would like to know they are backed up... so I will run both for the time being.
One more suggestion; choosing Rackspace for data storage means you won't have to pay for data transfer.
By Brendan Byrne
Adendum, I just found out that SugarSync do now offer business services with similar functionality, although marginally higher costs to Jungle Disk, just a fraction too late for me thought...
*Suggestions and recommendations made on this website are just that, you should investigate and consult your own IT person before implementing any of our suggestions.
Well, another week floats by. It's Friday, two weeks before Christmas and it seems like only a few weeks ago I was celebrating last Christmas. We've had a wild ride this year. Turnover is up but activity seems to have increased disproportionally, although that could have been the result of life changes too.
I am looking forward to another addition to our team coming soon. I'm interviewing at the moment and the quality of candidates is fantastic. The plan being that they will help to ensure our clients get faster response times to emails and phone calls, and also means that I can spend more time with you, our clients.
Being the end of year, have you booked time out with yourself to review what you have achieved, what worked well this year and what you want to do differently next year? Maybe it is time to review what is possible online, what is possible for an online business and think about how could that work for you. If your website was a 'bricks and mortar' shop front of your business, what does it say to the world as the walk by? Do you have a brochure that has incorrect or out of date information? Or is it an 'all singing, all dancing' 24 hour sales representative for you and your business?
Does your site:
Grab the visitors attention quickly
Say how you care for your client
Provide an action for them to take NOW
Give the visitor options - are there too many options?
Can they find the information they want quickly
Is it time to consider Social networking? Do you need some education about where to take your online Business?
Of course, any of these things we can help you with, you only need to ask
Adobe recently 
Receptive Technologies recently became a member of Publishers Australia. We are excited to be part of an association just for publishers and we’re sure that our services will be a great fit for companies who are focused on publishing great online content to match their magazines. Find out more about Publishers Australia: 
