Exploring unique topics from business to the latest technology - tune in as the entire Point Alliance team takes turns getting To The Point about (nearly) everything that impacts you and your business!
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, or AODA, aims to identify, remove, and prevent barriers for people with disabilities.
read moreAt Point Alliance, we have a very highly skilled and experienced development team. Well-versed in .Net and Java our team is fully certified and up to date on the latest frameworks and methodologies to ensure that our solutions are built on proven technologies and following industry best practices.
read moreYou may have setup your Cloud tenant internally and followed many of the default settings at the time or you may have had the assistance of an outside consultant to configure these settings.
read moreI recently spoke with a former employee of 3M who approved RFPs and MSAs with tech companies. The discussion turned to price, and he surprised me when he said that in nearly all cases, they chose more expensive quotes than the cheapest one. Why? Because 3M understands the real cost of cheap software.
read moreThe modern workplace is evolving at lightning speed, with distributed teams, brand-new business models, and complex security issues. The right digital tools connect and support employees, wherever they are, to encourage productivity, engagement, and collaboration.
read moreBuild is Microsoft’s annual developer conference and is probably one of the biggest developers’ conferences around; this year’s Build has been a truly remarkable one. Microsoft has made a ton of announcements and released a great deal of interesting updates and preview products.
read moreCrypto currency or more specifically Bitcoin, is a new type of currency that is making waves around the world, but few understand what it is and how it works.
read moreIt’s not a good moment when you see your database has been flagged as “Suspect”. Panic often sets in and questions run through your head – Do we have a good backup? How recent is that backup? How much data will be lost?
read moreThe other day I received a text from one of our customers, “thanks so much for all your help – I can’t believe how easy it is to do everything from any device.” It was rewarding to get this feedback.
read moreCompanies around the world are increasingly relying upon and adopting the Microsoft Office 365 program into their everyday communications. Office 365 provides your business with an efficient and powerful collaboration platform so your team can effectively connect and communicate anytime, anywhere.
read moreMicrosoft Office 365 is a subscription-based cloud service that provides popular Office apps (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, etc.) and other related services for businesses such as Exchange, SharePoint, Teams and Skype for Business.
read moreTransitioning from IBM Lotus Notes and Domino to a new technology platform reduces costs and complexity and enables companies to better leverage existing technology investments.
read moreSharePoint 2019 has been announced to be released later this year, which means the server version is still here to stay for the foreseeable future.
read moreMicrosoft has released a new version of SQL Server this year, just 15 months after Microsoft SQL Server 2016. We saw quite a few advances in SQL Server 2016 including significant new features in Reporting Services and Predictive Analytics.
read moreVirtualization adoption is on the rise. The ability to replace 3 to 6 physical servers with only one has proven to be beneficial and extremely valuable. Data centers are changing for the better due to virtualization platforms such as VMWare ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, and Redhat RHV.
read moreREST API’s are everywhere these days. As a developer you will certainly be required to interface with one sooner than later. Thankfully, when working in the .NET Framework, there are tools which can make interfacing with these APIs fairly easily compared to the past.
read moreAs the world evolves every day, so does technology. What was considered new yesterday will essentially be old news today. Not surprisingly, adapting to changing technology can be challenging, however staying on top of it can reap tremendous benefits.
read moreThere have been very few advances with SQL Server Reporting Services in the past few versions but 2016 looks like a significant jump in features making SSRS a competitive option for desktop and mobile users alike.
read moreYour modern web browser is fabulous for consuming data: text, audio, and video; all natively. However, for the web’s promise of real-time audio/video communication with others, you will need a browser plugin (e.g. Flash) or a different application altogether (e.g. Skype).
read moreFor a number of years the software development industry has struggled to find a solution to a rather old idea: write once, run everywhere. First, there was Java, which for a little while seemed to be the answer, however for numerous reasons it didn’t live up to the dream.
read moreSo often the user experience is ignored or its importance is marginalized. A bad user experience is no different than a bad customer experience; a bad experience means that person is not likely to return or recommend your product or service.
read moreMicrosoft SQL Server 2014 was released April 1st 2014. There are many organizations who are only now considering rolling out SQL Server 2012. The effort involved in planning and testing commercial products and custom line of business applications with a new database server version is often one of the largest barriers to upgrading.
read moreThroughout my career I’ve been fortunate enough to have great managers (and not so great ones) from which I’ve, equally, learned something: from the great ones what true leadership means and what it takes to be a good leader; from the not so great ones I’ve learned what mistakes to avoid.
read moreMost modern applications use databases to store data in what’s known as a Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS). RDBMS have evolved significantly since they were introduced in the 1970’s. They do have some drawbacks with certain types of applications.
read moreIn early 2001 I embarked on a project to build a centralized line of business application for a customer. The customer had numerous decentralized applications of varying technologies across their divisions globally.
read moreAs web developers we need tools to test our web applications across all browsers. If you asked the majority of developers which browser causes more issues on debugging, they would say Internet Explorer (No offense Microsoft).
read moreThe amount of style sheets and JavaScript files included with a website these days is staggering. As you develop solutions, it is becoming important to be aware of the amount of different style sheets and JavaScript files you are forcing the user to download on each request.
read moreFor many organizations, SharePoint has become the de facto successor to the Windows File System for managing documents. It offers many features beyond the Windows File System, including the capacity to manage documents through the entire lifecycle from draft, to approval, publication, archival, and finally, disposal.
read moreFrom sending a satellite into space to creating the next mobile app, every extreme goal or dream requires great teams and great teamwork. Without teams that have great chemistry, a sense of responsibility and accountability, no project will be a success.
read moreCrypto currency or more specifically Bitcoin, is a new type of currency that is making waves around the world, but few understand what it is and how it works.
read moreBuild is Microsoft’s annual developer conference and is probably one of the biggest developers’ conferences around; this year’s Build has been a truly remarkable one. Microsoft has made a ton of announcements and released a great deal of interesting updates and preview products.
read moreConsulting has been a career choice for me since 1990. I had no idea what I was getting into when I made that choice. I was fresh from university studying business and working at an incentive marketing firm when I met the owners of the consulting firm I started my career with.
read moreIn the beginning, JavaScript was mainly used to validate user input without doing a round trip to the server. As web browsers matured, so did JavaScript.
read moreA recent IDC forecast of shipments of tablets and smartphones predicts that by 2017, 87% of connected device sales will be tablets and smartphones. More specifically, the forecast predicts that 5-inch devices will take the lead, followed by 7 and 9-inch tablets.
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