StarkContrast selected to preview new Skype for Business features

StarkContrast is what we have begun referring to as a “cloud-to-ground” business. To us, this means being born in the cloud with zero on premise infrastructure.

We believe this allows us to provide a unique perspective to existing clients wishing to migrate and new businesses also pursuing a cloud-first strategy.

Therefore, today we are thrilled to announce that StarkContrast has been selected by Microsoft to participate in the Skype for Business Preview Program featuring CloudPBX with PSTN Calling/Conferencing and Skype Meeting Broadcast supporting up to 10,000 participants!

We look forward to sharing our experiences with these exciting offerings once the preview has concluded.

Stay tuned!

Strap in for 2015

It's time to accelerate and we're ready. We're truly excited by how far we've come in just one year, but we're not the type to rest on our laurels.

We know more organizations can benefit from the StarkContrast method of delivering Microsoft-centric implementations remotely and securely.

We also know we have the capacity to assist more of you without sacrificing the quality our clients expect. 

So here's the plan:

• Q1: Rollout StarkContrast Managed Services to give our clients a per/seat pricing option for a pool of monthly or yearly hours for whatever support issues arise, deploying updates, increasing your email security after your migration. We ensure your Cloud continues to perform.
   
• Q1: Deploy a Microsoft Surface 3 to every StarkContrast Cloud Architect, allowing them to respond to your needs securely from wherever they may be. Outages are notoriously bad at scheduling themselves.
   
• Q2: Launch the StarkContrast Microsoft Azure practice. Our architects are currently studying their brains out in the lab to ensure no one does it better. We've also partnered with Saviant on the other side of the cloud to provide our clients with the very best Azure app developers.
   
• Q3: Implement our self-auditing system. Our Cloud Architects are extremely proficient at documenting their processes, working within a change management system, and informing our clients of all work they performed. But we can improve upon this by recording our remote sessions so a complete record is available to you if ever necessary. 
   
• Q4: Scale up! By this time, we're sure to need more Cloud Architects join the family. We have this crazy idea about onboarding around here which we're extremely excited to share with you. Let's just say their welcome kit might include a few unexpected things. We want to say more but you'll just have to check back on that one.

This is surely not a complete list but it gives you an idea of where we're heading in year 2 as we continue to prove that our way is the future.

- The StarkContrast Team

Our birthday, your gift!

As we celebrate a spectacular first year here at StarkContrast, we felt you deserved something better. There will be no moss on this stone!

We have and will continue to look for ways improve the way we deliver your projects remotely.  This, of course, starts with you being able to find and learn about what we do. 

We believe this new site does just that and we hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do. If you don't please let us know!

- The StarkContrast Team

Reflecting on Year One

A website is great and all, you say, but what else have you done this year?

Glad you asked:

• We started with much "dogfooding". We now run the exact systems we implement for our clients including Office 365, Windows Phone, Lync, Azure & SharePoint.
• Deployed conferencing to every desktop and device in our organization.
• Improved our partnership level with Microsoft. We expect to add 2 new gold Cloud Productivity competencies by June 30th. Stay tuned!
• Partnered with HP to provide the best support for on premise customers.
• Dramatically increased bandwidth to keep connected to you no matter what.

Want to see what we have planned for 2015? Stop by tomorrow!

- The StarkContrast Team

StarkContrast partners with HP

Today, we are pleased to announce our partnership with HP to provide enterprise-class hardware for our cloud computing and on-premise solutions.

Although much can be done in the cloud these days, we normally recommend that organizations maintain control of certain critical portions of their infrastructure to allow for more options in the future.

Given our prior work with HP's Critical Services Team on several large, highly available messaging infrastructures, it is only natural for us to continue that relationship at StarkContrast.

StarkContrast offerings now on Office 365 Marketplace

We are pleased to announce the StarkReview 2/4 day cloud analysis and our Office 365 Rich Coexistence offerings are now available on Office 365 Marketplace and Microsoft Pinpoint.

We expect to release several additional offerings within the next couple of months including some exciting Windows Azure and cloud computing professional services.

A strong business case for Microsoft Lync 2013 on-prem.

StarkContrast has been researching the latest Lync offerings for a potential client. This Lync Team Blog post by Paul Cannon makes some compelling financial arguments for implementing on-premise Lync.

We cannot help but think that Lync Online or Office 365 would improve further upon ROI, due to less required on premise hardware, support costs, and its streamlined administration.

Here's a link to the full blog post.

StarkContrast Partners with Microsoft

We look forward to a rewarding partnership with Microsoft for many years to come.

But we are even more excited to assist our clients with their Office 365, Windows Azure, and Exchange messaging needs with our innovative approach.

View the new profile.