What is AODA?
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, or AODA, aims to identify, remove, and prevent barriers for people with disabilities.
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Custom Web Development
At 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.
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Microsoft 365 Tenant Assessment
You 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.
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The Costs of Cheap Software
I 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.
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Building a modern workplace with Microsoft 365
The 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.
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Power BI
Build 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.
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How to Spot a Hacker
Crypto 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.
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That moment when you see your SQL Server database flagged as “Suspect”
It’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?
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Realize an Exceptional Workplace - Simplify Digital Transformation
The 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.
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SharePoint Sherpa – Let us simplify your SharePoint
Companies 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.
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Uncomplicate your Microsoft 365 and Soar
Microsoft 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.
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Leaving IBM Domino?
Transitioning from IBM Lotus Notes and Domino to a new technology platform reduces costs and complexity and enables companies to better leverage existing technology investments.
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SharePoint Online Demystified
SharePoint 2019 has been announced to be released later this year, which means the server version is still here to stay for the foreseeable future.
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Microsoft SQL Server 2017 - it's not just a cross-platform expansion
Microsoft 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.
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Top 10 questions to ask before building virtual environments
Virtualization 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.
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Using RestSharp and NewtonSoft to create strongly typed objects from a REST API
REST 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.
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Staying ahead of technology - no longer an option
As 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.
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Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services 2016 - The Future Looks Bright
There 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.
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Real-Time Communications via WebRTC
Your 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).
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Write Once, Run Everywhere - Are we there yet?
For 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.
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Create a better user experience
So 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.
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SQL Server 2014 – compelling reasons for upgrading
Microsoft 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.
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Leadership vs. Management
Throughout 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.
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Exploring NoSQL database. What are they and how do they work?
Most 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.
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The internet browser challenge
In 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.
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Ease the pain on testing using modern.ie!
As 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).
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MVC Bundling
The 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.
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Preventing Data Leakage with SharePoint and Microsoft IRM
For 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.
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Teamwork, what is it good for?
From 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.
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Bitcoin and Crypto currency explained
Crypto 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.
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A glimpse into Build 2014
Build 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.
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What's to love about consulting?
Consulting 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.
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MVVM JavaScript frameworks and how they have changed Web application development
In 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.
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Mobile App Development Trends
A 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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