Sure there are free alternatives to Microsoft Office products, but Microsoft Office dominates in the business world. It is very beneficial for a college student to learn how to use Microsoft Office products. If you have an aspiring college student or are one yourself you should take advantage of this offer.

Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2010

Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2010 (USD$79.95): Perpetual license, which includes the following applications:

• Access® 2010
• Excel® 2010
• OneNote® 2010
• Outlook® 2010
• PowerPoint® 2010
• Publisher 2010
• Word 2010

Other Microsoft Products Offered at a Discount

Microsoft also offers other products at a discount to college students including Microsoft Windows 7 Professional upgrade and the Microsoft Office Language Pack.

Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2010 Eligibility

You must have a valid e-mail address at an educational institution ending with the domain suffix .EDU (i.e., leina@contoso.edu) OR have a valid email address at one of the educational institutions listed. You must be a student at a U.S. educational institution and must be actively enrolled in at least 0.5 course credit and be able to provide proof of enrollment upon request.

How Do I Get It?

For more information visit the Microsoft Academic Office Professional 2010 website and follow the instructions.

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The guide starts with the basics of troubleshooting networks, then steps into troubleshooting the physical layer, troubleshooting the network layer and troubleshooting switches.

Be sure and look around the rest of their web site as they offer a wealth of information on a lot of network related topics. You will find whitepapers, on-demand webcasts, featured topics and a helpful “Learn About” section. Sign up for their “Eye On Networks” monthly E-Newsletter for find out about new products and technologies, expert technical advice and industry updates.

The Fluke Networks Solutions Center

They have a great  “Solutions Center” for nine types of network specialties.

• Network Engineer
• Cabling Designers and Consultants
• Cable Installation Technician
• Network Technicians
• Service Provider Technicians
• Managing Service Provider Networks
• Designing and Implementing Application Services
• Industrial Ethernet
• LAN System Integrators

Fluke makes great network tools for testing, monitoring and analysis of enterprise and telecommunications networks. Their Etherscope Series II Network Assistant is an excellent example for quickly troubleshooting LAN and Wi-Fi installations. They even offer a free 5-day evaluation of the product.

When you purchase the Etherscope Network Assistant and the DTX Cable Analyzer you get 25% off. Two very useful tools for a network technicians toolkit.

The Free Frontline LAN Troubleshooting Guide

This 115 page, comprehensive guide provides frontline network troubleshooters with practical advice on how to maintain LANs and solve common layer 1 and 2 problems. This guide outlines eight key steps every technician should know to aid in successful troubleshooting. Learn how to troubleshoot physical layer problems, quickly resolve common network user complaints – “can’t connect, connection drops and network is slow” and get an in-depth overview on troubleshooting switches.

Visit the Fluke Networks web site to download the free E-Book “Frontline LAN Troubleshooting Guide”

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Remember Steve Jobs uses a lot of visuals in his presentations. See “Learn to Give Better Presentations From Steve Jobs”.

If you use Microsoft Power Point to create presentations Microsoft has released a series of eight downloads totally over 150 professionally  designed Power Point templates for Power Point 2007. With each set you will also find tips and instructions for using these templates and for making better presentations.

Free Microsoft Power Point Templates

Each link shows you the set of templates so you can preview them before you download.

• Free 3-D shapes and objects template for PowerPoint 2007
• Free animated organizational charts with SmartArt graphics for PowerPoint 2007 presentations
• Free animated picture effects template for PowerPoint 2007
• Free animated text effects template for PowerPoint 2007
• Free background templates for PowerPoint 2007
• Free picture and text effects template for PowerPoint 2007
• Free picture effects template for PowerPoint 2007
• Free text effects template for PowerPoint 2007

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The best way to ensure your department is producing quality software is end-to-end management of the testing lifecycle. A comprehensive test management system gives you the tools to manage every aspect of the testing lifecycle.

Zephyr v2.5 Software Test Management

Zephyr v2.5, the latest from the Zephyr family comes armed with new capabilities to meet the requirements of the global Test and Quality Assurance departments. Zephyr’s dynamic platform enables organizations to manage their test departments more efficiently while boosting productivity and visibility into the quality cycle.

Zephyr Dashboard (click to enlarge)

It provides end-to-end management of the testing lifecycle in a test department while focusing on all aspects of real time reporting and metrics via live dashboards. It’s an indispensable tool for the QA test management team.

Take a quick look at its most exceptional features:

• Only Zephyr allows customers to brand the product with their own information thereby making it a lot more professional.
• True windowing capabilities within a browser window allows the Test Leads and Testers  to juggle multiple projects, releases and tasks very easily without losing context.
• Improved productivity via improved tester efficiency in requirements creation and mapping, test case management, authoring and maintenance, rapid large scale executions and defect lifecycle tracking.
• Zephyr provides the highest level of management visibility into every aspect of the quality lifecycle.
• Multi lingual support besides English
• Enhanced personalization to improve productivity with increased UI accessibility
• Integration to API to auto-update automation execution results

Zephyr is cost effective and its optimized qualities make this cloud based test management system faster, affordable and has advanced test management capabilities compared to on-premise models. Also, customers across all industry sectors can now avail of the benefits of its flexibly deployable Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform.

For more information visit the Zephyr web site.

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“We have developed a more comprehensive, flexible, scalable BlackBerry Technical Support Services program that can help small-to-mid-sized businesses and large enterprises keep pace with their evolving mobility needs,” said Alan Panezic, vice president, platform product management at RIM. “The new program includes new levels of support and a range of add-on services, allowing customers to select the right mix of technical support resources to meet the specific needs of their organization.”

The enhanced program features:

• New levels of support – designed to provide the right level of service at the right price for both small-medium businesses and large enterprises. Three support levels are available for each BlackBerry Technical Support Services program, including Basic, Enhanced and Advantage Support for small-medium businesses; and Standard, Premium and Elite Support for enterprise customers.
• Comprehensive programs – extending beyond standard customer support to include access to support professionals for planning, management and preventative maintenance, as well as web-based training, instructor-led webinars, certification, online newsletter, and access to the BlackBerry® Expert Support Center for informational resources, self-service tools, and account monitoring and management.
• Direct access to advanced support professionals – available with select service levels or purchased as add-on services, with options for direct access to Support Service Specialists, Direct to Level Two Support Resources, designated Support Account Managers, the Direct Advanced Response Team (DART) or full-time, on-site technical assistance.
• Preventative maintenance services – including Health Check Services and Change Management Planning Services, as well as optional Performance and Load Testing Tools to help maximize uptime.
  Application development support – included with select service levels or as an add-on service, providing assistance with custom application development, application coding and the use of application development tools.
• Add-on support options* – offering customers who selected lower-tier support service levels the option to purchase advanced support services incrementally, including Direct to Level Two Support Resources, Health Check Services, Change Management Planning Services, Tech-to-Site Assistance, and Application Development Support.
• Access to customer support 24 hours per day, 7 days per week – available with all service levels.

BlackBerry Technical Support Services programs are available on an annual subscription basis, with the option to upgrade to the next support level at any time as customer needs evolve. For more information about BlackBerry Technical Support Services, visit www.blackberry.com/btss.

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“Providing Exchange ActiveSync support via the Lotus Notes Traveler software is part of IBM’s pledge to provide enterprises the choice and flexibility to select the mobile devices and carriers that best suit their needs,” said Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president, Messaging and Collaboration. “This will allow employees ‘on the go’ to work smarter.”

“I look forward to Exchange ActiveSync support. Johnson Controls health care and education industry customers use Apple platforms, and we’ve begun to officially provide application support on those. Mobile messaging is considered a critical application,” said Jim Marshall, Director of Global Architecture for Johnson Controls, Inc., a Lotus Notes customer.

Push to iPhone

Although iPhone users can already access Notes e-mail via IBM Lotus iNotes ultra-light mode, today’s Exchange ActiveSync support will mean push access to the popular software including the ability to view Notes mail, calendar and contacts data when not connected on the iPhone. “I look forward to Exchange ActiveSync support because it will allow me to use my iPhone for (Notes) contacts and calendar without having to be on-line,” according to Professor Ludwig Nastansky at University of Padeborn in Germany.

• IBM Lotus Notes Traveler software enables wireless push replication of Lotus Notes e-mail, calendaring, and personal information management (PIM) data on select smart phones.
• This capability will expand the reach of Lotus Notes and Domino software significantly because it will be make it easier to use on a wider variety of devices.

“Cardiff University supports a diverse user base across multiple operating systems. Many of our academic staff use Apple Macintosh products extensively and we already have a significant and growing number of iPhone users. Exchange ActiveSync support will allow us to deploy Notes to these iPhone users, allowing us to cater for the diverse mobile needs of our staff and students,” Dr. R.K. Morgan, applications team leader, Information Services, Cardiff University in the UK.

IBM designed Lotus Notes with agile development practices using social media such as blogs and Twitter to collect and make hundreds of refinements suggested by people who want to work smarter. They include enhancements to the way people edit messages, work with widgets and calendars, and new options for customizing search. These enhancements allow people to work smarter by spending more time on finding, creating and sharing valuable information and less time modifying the way that it is presented.

In addition, this version also incorporates the new IBM Lotus Symphony document, spreadsheet, and presentation software, and brings IBM XPages developer technology to the Lotus Notes client for off-line use. To download Lotus Symphony at no charge visit http://symphony.lotus.com

IBM Business partners who make IT products that work with Notes are also looking forward to the new technology. “BE Systems is very excited to get its hands on the latest beta version of Lotus Notes Traveler. With new features like Exchange ActiveSync support, mobile device compatibility is opened up like never before. This benefits our business and the business of the mobile user,” said Paul Mooney, a senior executive at IBM Business Partner BE Systems.

In recent months, leading mobile device producers Nokia and Samsung announced support for IBM Lotus Notes Traveler software enabling more than a billion smart phone customers around the world to manage their Lotus Notes e-mail, calendars and address books anytime, anywhere. In addition, IBM has announced engagement with wireless carriers such as AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and Orange in order to drive towards meeting the needs of an increasing wireless workforce. IBM Lotus Notes and Domino will be required to support this capability.

For more information visit www.ibm.com/software/lotus/notesanddomino. IBM Lotus software supports BlackBerry Enterprise Server version 5.0 which was announced last week.

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BlackBerry MVS, through integration with Cisco Unified Communications Manager, supports a rich set of BlackBerry smartphone features, including:

• One “reach me anywhere” corporate phone number, one caller ID and one voice mailbox for both a Cisco Unified IP phone and BlackBerry smartphone
• Simultaneous or sequential ringing of up to four devices, including BlackBerry smartphones and Cisco Unified IP Phones
• Easy access to Cisco Unified Communications Manager telephony services such as call transfer and extension dialing via a seamless, intuitive user experience on BlackBerry smartphones
• Flexibility to make calls from either the BlackBerry phone number or enterprise line
• Ability to transition an in-session call from a BlackBerry smartphone to the user’s Cisco Unified IP Phone

BlackBerry MVS Server for Cisco Unified Communications Manager can make employees more accessible and productive by phone both in and out of the office and empower organizations to manage and control corporate voice services on BlackBerry smartphones.

The enhanced solution, developed by RIM as part of Cisco’s Technology Developer Program, features deeper integration with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server and direct SIP integration between Cisco Unified Communications Manager and BlackBerry MVS for improved manageability, scalability and ease of deployment.

With BlackBerry MVS Server for Cisco Unified Communications Manager, the BlackBerry MVS Server automatically directs all outbound calls from BlackBerry smartphones through the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and Cisco Unified Communications Manager for added security, management and control of voice services on BlackBerry smartphones, including:

• BlackBerry smartphone authentication: Ensures that only authorized users are accessing Cisco Unified Communications Manager to make calls.
• Flexibility in IT policies and controls for fixed and mobile voice services: The capabilities of MVS are governed by IT policies. Policies and controls can be applied to individuals or groups of users to prevent incoming or outgoing international or long-distance calling, 411 calls, or calls based on specified area codes to control usage costs. These policies can be the same as those applied to calls made from the desktop, or different, as dictated by business and IT needs.
• Call logging: IT administrators can set policies that require all inbound and outbound calls to be logged for auditing or to meet regulatory requirements.
• Least cost call routing: Enables IT administrators to route MVS-based calls via the existing Cisco network which can help minimize long distance calling charges.
• Centralized management with BlackBerry Enterprise Server includes the ability for IT administrators to set up and support BlackBerry MVS services for smartphone users and manage voice activities from a central console.
• Turn phone numbers into corporate assets: Companies can assign enterprise phone numbers to BlackBerry smartphones. When a person leaves the company, the phone number is reassigned to the replacement. For example, in the case of a sales representative, customers are still calling the company, not the sales representative’s personal cellular number.

“We are extending Cisco Unified Communications Manager to BlackBerry smartphones to satisfy the demands of an increasingly mobile workforce,” said Alan Panezic, vice president, Platform Product Management at RIM.

“Deep integration between BlackBerry MVS, BlackBerry Enterprise Server and Cisco unified communications will provide mobile workers with a complete mobile office with secure email, applications and enterprise voice capabilities on their BlackBerry smartphones.”

“BlackBerry Mobile Voice System and Cisco Unified Communications Manager together with BlackBerry Enterprise Server are a powerful combination for unified communications,” said Laurent Philonenko, vice president and general manager, Cisco Unified Communications business unit.

“The integrated solution now enables IT professionals to manage mobile costs by extending corporate voice policy to their mobile devices, while offering BlackBerry users a rich set of familiar enterprise features through the same elegant, user interface of the BlackBerry Smartphone.”

BlackBerry MVS Server for Cisco® Unified Communications Manager will be available in North America in the third quarter of this year. It requires BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1.5 or later, Cisco® Unified Communications Manager 6.1 or later, and a BlackBerry MVS Client installed on BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry Device Software 4.5 or later.

RIM continues to offer BlackBerry MVS for a variety of telecommunications environments, including support for mixed TDM and IP PBX environments. For more information about BlackBerry MVS Server for Cisco Unified Communications Manager and other PBX systems, visit www.blackberry.com/go/mvs.

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The solutions, which include support for BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 5.0, are focused on increasing service levels, reducing operations costs and improving productivity for customers.

HP and RIM plan to design and launch offerings to increase the productivity levels of the growing number of global mobile employees, enabling businesses to extend the return on their investments in mobility.

“As businesses look for new ways to increase service levels, reduce operational costs and improve productivity, they can meet these challenges by transforming how they manage the infrastructure that powers their mobile workforces,” said Ann Livermore, executive vice president, Technology Solutions Group, HP. “Emerging models of communications and collaboration have created an opportunity for RIM and HP to provide service-based mobile solutions that deliver value to customers.”

“RIM and HP are working together to deliver solutions to customers that weave mobility into their daily operations – from innovative new services in the cloud to managed mobile services for the enterprise,” said Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive officer, Research In Motion. “Through our collaboration with HP, businesses will have access to an expanded set of applications and services for their BlackBerry smartphone deployments.”

At this year’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium in Orlando, Fla., HP will be demonstrating two new solutions – HP CloudPrint for BlackBerry® smartphones and HP Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

HP CloudPrint for BlackBerry Smartphones

HP CloudPrint for BlackBerry smartphones is a web services based solution that allows users to print emails, documents, photos and web pages using a BlackBerry smartphone, wherever they are – in the office, at home or on the road.

The CloudPrint service enables mobile users to easily print to the nearest printer. The service is printer-agnostic and driverless and requires simple Internet access. HP and RIM plan to make CloudPrint available to BlackBerry Internet Service subscribers as well as BlackBerry Enterprise Server customers.

The CloudPrint technology was invented by HP Labs, the company’s central research arm.

HP Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server

HP also is introducing software to centrally monitor and manage the extended BlackBerry solution ecosystem, whether it is virtual or physical. This ecosystem includes the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software, mail servers, databases, Microsoft® Active Directory and server operating systems such as Windows® Server. Plans also include extending the capabilities of the monitoring solution to provide an end-to-end view of enterprise applications running on the BlackBerry platform.

HP Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server correlates events from each part of the mobile ecosystem to help customers pinpoint potential issues and take corrective actions to remediate them. This single console reduces costs associated with monitoring multiple consoles and provides customers with a consolidated view into events, enabling them to manage performance and deliver optimal service levels for BlackBerry messaging services.

In addition, HP delivers services and products to optimize customers’ mobility infrastructures:

Managed BlackBerry Services

Managed BlackBerry® Services, part of EDS Mobile Workplace Services, allow organizations to outsource the management of their BlackBerry smartphone deployments so they can focus on their core businesses. The services are designed to integrate the mobility ecosystems for large enterprises, whether they are hosted in EDS’ data centers or in a client’s own environment.

Currently, EDS manages close to 500,000 BlackBerry smartphones for clients.

HP ProLiant servers trusted to run BlackBerry Enterprise Server

HP’s enterprise customers can use HP ProLiant servers to run BlackBerry Enterprise Server software. The latest generation of HP ProLiant G6 servers brings together the best HP innovations in energy efficiency, virtualization and services to enable large and small customers to do more with less. HP redefines server economics to deliver double the performance of previous generations, enabling customers to get more value out of every IT dollar.

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For years, IT managers have supported the goal of BSM (mapping infrastructure components to the business services they support), but the expensive software — and even more expensive, months-long implementations and staff trainings — left many feeling BSM was out of reach.

ManageEngine IT360 is designed to offer the benefits of BSM — starting with the business centric views illustrating the way in which business services are affected when IT resources are underperforming or unavailable — without the cost or the headaches.

Working through ManageEngine IT360′s web-based console, IT administrators can make better decisions and prioritize problem resolution for network, systems and applications based on the affected business operation.

For example, with an understanding of a network segment’s support for customer-facing applications, that segment might be assigned greater bandwidth to ensure an optimal customer experience; or a problem with a mission-critical application could be automatically flagged to the service desk with a higher-priority. ManageEngine IT360 also helps manage the end user experience and helps application administrators meet their Service Level Agreements.

ManageEngine IT360 includes an integrated ITIL ready Service Desk, which features automated trouble ticketing, complete with incident management, problem management, change management, a knowledge base, and more, reducing the complexity of workflows in production and making it easier for IT administrators to run effective operations.

“The reality on the ground today is that most IT teams have their hands full managing the technology side of the business,” said Girish Mathrubootham, vice president, ManageEngine. “Realizing this, we designed IT360 using a bottom-up approach, starting with a foundation of in-depth monitoring capabilities, then added the ability to map those IT infrastructure components to the underlying business service they support. Most competing systems have only business level dashboards, and try to integrate into other monitoring systems using connectors and interfaces, making the whole solution complex and expensive.”

According to Paul Burns, research director for Enterprise Management Associates, “Research I’ve done over the last few months on BSM solution requirements shows that customers want three things relative to existing BSM solutions: lower cost, reduced complexity, and faster time to value. ManageEngine IT360 directly delivers on those needs. It also goes further by including capabilities like a service desk that are not typically bundled even in far more expensive solutions.”

Designed to provide CIOs, directors, IT managers and administrators an easy-to-use BSM solution; ManageEngine IT360 is equally valuable to IT consultants who are looking to provide a better solution to their customers who are in need of the same. For more information, please visit: www.manageengine.com/it360.

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Leveraging Lenovo’s extensive global R&D capabilities and engineering prowess in laptop computers together with RIM’s expertise in smartphones and wireless solutions, Lenovo plans to develop and deliver a range of industry-leading solutions and technologies that can help professionals conduct business more effectively on the go.

“With more and more mobile professionals relying on both their BlackBerry Smartphone and ThinkPad laptop PC, we view better integration between the two devices as a necessity. This integration of technology is the first step in delivering a more useful and powerful mobile work experience,” said Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing.

Lenovo Constant Connect, the first solution developed by Lenovo, will leverage the strengths of the BlackBerry® solution and Lenovo ThinkPad laptops to deliver an unparalleled user experience for flexible, real-time access to enterprise-based email.  Lenovo Constant Connect will allow enterprise email received on a user’s BlackBerry Smartphone to be automatically synchronized via Bluetooth® onto the user’s ThinkPad laptop – even if the ThinkPad laptop is off – without the user having to take any additional steps.

This level of integration and availability dramatically improves access to email on the Lenovo ThinkPad laptop from wherever a BlackBerry Smartphone can access a connection. In addition to greater flexibility and convenience, it can also reduce the need to use the laptop with fee-based Wi-Fi® networks. Lenovo Constant Connect is expected to be available from Lenovo and its business partners in the second quarter of 2009 in the U.S, and to be rolled out in markets around the world later in 2009.

“Lenovo is adding significant value for our mutual customers by developing tighter and more seamless integration between Lenovo ThinkPad laptops and BlackBerry smartphones,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO, Research In Motion. “By leveraging the industry-leading, push-based connectivity of the BlackBerry solution, Lenovo Constant Connect will simplify email synchronization on the laptop and provide mobile professionals with greater flexibility to manage their email on the move.”

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