3 Reasons 2 Screens are Better than 1

Increasing your employees’ online workspace by expanding it across two or more monitors can significantly improve productivity with minimal cost investment.

In the past, multiple monitors have been the domain of programmers. Visit Google headquarters, for example, and you’ll see awe-inspiring configurations of screens: two, four, even six monitors, stacked side-by-side or one on top of the other. However, multiple monitors can also benefit just about any type of office worker.

Increased Multitasking

According to a number of studies by specialists in human-computer interaction, the bigger your employees’ screen space, the more work they can see and therefore the more work they can do. For example, employees can keep their email and chat screens open on one monitor while working on a Word or Excel document on the other. They no longer have to spend time switching between one or the other, and can respond to each more quickly.

Higher Productivity

In a study commissioned by the electronics company NEC and conducted by researchers at the University of Utah, office workers were asked to perform several basic tasks using various monitor configurations. The workers using two 20-inch monitors were 44% more productive than the workers using a single 18-inch monitor.

Minimal Cost

Multiple monitors may not have been feasible in the past due to cost, but the price of LCD panels fell by almost a third in 2008, and the trend is likely to continue through much of 2009, according to market research firm iSuppli.

Ready to enable your employees to get more done in less time? To upgrade to two monitors, in addition to the extra monitor you’ll need two video cards or an upgraded card with two outputs. Read more here, then contact us to help make it happen.

It’s All in the ‘How’

Have you ever wondered how to fix a leaking pipe or a broken light? Or how to check your car’s coolant or radiator fluid? How about maintaining a lawn, or tying a Windsor, or cooking a tasty meal for you or your kids in less than 30 minutes?

The answers to these questions and more can be found in self-help sites such as eHow and WikiHow. These sites are databases of how-to articles presented in a clear, concise, and simple manner that anyone can easily understand.

Unlike other guides that drown you (albeit unintentionally) in so much technical jargon that you end up completely lost, these sites make it a point to keep things uncomplicated – it’s all about helping you get something done right, and done fast. You can always learn the mechanics of why or how it works after you’ve gotten it done. Here, results are the primary consideration.

Both websites offer a variety of subjects to browse through. If you’re looking for a specific topic, simply enter the inquiry in the search box. Certain topics even have video tutorials and/or illustrated guides that make the learning process even easier. However, if you don’t have anything particular in mind, then you can browse through topics that are classified by category. Navigation is intuitive and user-friendly.

Another good thing about these websites is that the information is absolutely free – you don’t even have to register an account to gain access to them. And with WikiHow, if you feel like sharing a bit of your own knowledge, you can contribute your own how-to articles and become part of the WikiHow community. eHow also accepts entries that, depending on how you play your cards, can even help you earn a bit of extra money (there’s an eHow article to help you get started).

So the next time you find yourself in a spot with anything from a stubborn stain to treating a bee sting, try visiting these sites since they just might have the simple and straightforward solution you’re looking for.

Are you avoiding instant messaging (IM) for fear that it will distract your employees and cut productivity? In fact, the opposite may be true.

What is IM?

IM is software that allows you to communicate in real time with other people who have the same software. It’s like email, but instantaneous.

IM was originally considered a way to stay in touch with friends and family, but lately it’s taken off in the workplace. That’s because IM offers a fast, convenient way for employees to interact with colleagues or clients in real time. In fact, many cutting-edge employers now encourage their employees to use IM instead of phone calls or e-mails.

Benefits include:

• Increased productivity: Workers can remain at their workstations instead of walking across the office or picking up the phone to obtain information, and the need for time-consuming meetings is reduced.
• Real-time communication with vendors and customers.
• Connection of traveling employees through mobile devices.

Where can you get it?

While there are many free IM services available such as AOL, Yahoo!, Skype, and MSN, many companies now offer solutions specifically designed for business. We can work with you to determine the best solution for your specific needs

How to get started:

1. Select a single provider.
2. Expand services as needed. While basic IM may be adequate for some small businesses, others may benefit from expanded offerings, such as text conferencing, pop-up messaging, and email integration.
3. Make sure your information is protected from external threats such as hackers and viruses.
4. Create a usage policy to avoid internal misuse.
5. Ensure that all employees know the rules and have installed the software on their systems.

To be effective, your IM application should be carefully integrated with your existing IT system and workflow. Give us a call today and we’ll help you through these steps to implement a secure and productive IM solution.

Instant Messaging, or IM, can be a boon for any business because it saves time, improves efficiency, and even enables greater employee/customer intimacy. IM allows real-time communication and interaction between two or more people via the Internet, and its use is growing steadily. IM provides users with instant feedback about the presence of online “buddies” or users you know – for instance, whether they are online, busy, or currently offline, what they are currently doing, and whether they are able to successfully receive your communication. Even when one party is not currently connected to the Internet, you can leave offline messages for later viewing. Information sent can be in the form of text, media, and recently even voice and video.

While IM has traditionally been used for quick and instant personal interaction such as chatting between friends and family, people are now finding that it can be effective in business as well. But before diving in and using IM in your organization, be aware that there can be significant risks. For instance, it can expose the company to outside threats such as hackers and viruses, or from problems from within such as employees sharing secret or sensitive information to outside or unauthorized parties. Finally, if not monitored properly, it can be a huge timewaster if employees spend their time chatting with colleagues, family, and friends instead of working.

Here are some tips to get the most out of IM safely and effectively within your organization:

1. Create guidelines for use. Let employees know of the dangers and risks in using IM. Create policies to allow the use of IM only for certain people within the organization (such as sales) and only during certain times of the day. Ask your IT consultant to configure your network to enact the restrictions you want.
2. Standardize. Choose one piece of IM software (such as Google Talk, AIM or MSN) and try using it internally first. You won’t be able to prevent some employees from adding buddies outside of work, so make sure to ask them to separate buddies inside the company from those outside. IM software allows you to easily create “buddy lists” to do this.
3. Know when to use it. IM is a tool that can complement e-mail on one end and voice calls on the other. Consider using e-mail for detailed information sharing or communications such as memos, requests, letters, and proposals that readers need to refer to repeatedly. Consider using voice calls for more intimate interaction, clarifying communication, or in cases when you need to build rapport with the recipient. IM can be something in between the two, such as when you need to ask a quick question, send a short update, or get presence information.
4. Keep it short. Keep IMs short and direct. In IM, unlike in voice conversations, you don’t need to do go through pleasantries. Unlike email, because of their real-time nature, IMs can be intrusive so be conscious of what the other party is dong and to make it brief and to the point when necessary.
5. Use your status to your advantage. IM software allow you to set your status (i.e., Busy or Away) to let others know if you are free to take their messages. You can also set your status to Invisible so that you can be aware of others’ presence but be invisible to others.
6. Set your preferences. Most IM software allow you to control certain behaviors, such as window pop-ups, whether to archive messages or not, whether to startup automatically when you log in, and much more. Explore the features of your software and use them to your advantage.

Research conducted by SIS International Research and sponsored by Siemens found that small and midsized businesses (SMBs) with 100 employees could be leaking a staggering $524,569 annually as a result of communications barriers and latency. The study identifies these top five pain points, in order of estimated cost:

• inefficient coordination
• waiting for information
• unwanted communications;
• customer complaints
• barriers to communication

In addition, researchers determined that the time spent per week dealing with communications issues was more than 50 percent higher in companies with more than 20 workers. In hard costs, your company could be losing up to half a million dollars each year by not addressing employees’ most painful communications issues!
The good news:  we can help you implement applications and services to greatly improve your inter-company communications, including collaboration tools such as email and shared calendards and address books, social media technologies such as blogs and wikis, and IP-based communication tools such as instant messaging (IM) and Voice-over-IP (VoIP). Call us today and let us help you stop this expensive leak.Related articles:

• Report: SMBs Expected to Spend More Online (searchenginewatch.com)
• How Collaboration Tools Bring Cost Savings, Business Alignment (searchcio-midmarket.com)
• Inefficient Communications Costs SMBs $5000 per Employee (SMBnow.com)

Online fax services are becoming extremely popular with business owners. There are several reasons why Internet or online faxing has found favor with the business sector. Mainly because it’s easy, fast, available 24/7, truly mobile and perhaps most of all, online faxing is very convenient to use.

No wonder, Internet fax providers like MyFax have reported they’re getting over 15,000 new costumers signing up each month. Many companies, large and small, are switching over to this new way of faxing; while others are adding an online fax service to compliment their traditional office fax machine.

• Read more at SB Informer…

For the past few months I’ve been using a variety of wireless, blue tooth headsets, with my cell phone. The latest head set I’m using does not have clear reception. Often times I can hear the person fine, but they can’t hear me so well.

I love technology, and in fact, the particular blue tooth headset I’m using is made by one of the premier brands.

• Read more at Small Biz IT…

Many small and medium businesses that I come across that have employed their own internal IT staff are never happy. Neither are the IT staff employed there.

I’m generally talking about businesses with upwards of 30 users who thought it wise to employ one or two internal IT staff – often because they saw no value, yet lots of bills, from their previous external IT support partner.

The reason I believe this is a lose/lose situation for the business owner and the IT worker is simple: Misunderstanding and a lack of a technology strategy in SMBs.

The Usual SMB IT Staff Scenario

So the small business IT manager is brought on-board and tasked with “making everything run better and making us more efficient” or similar. The IT guy is upbeat in his first week, dreaming of all the projects he can implement to make the place work like clockwork and improve the business.

But the business owner wants the IT guy to sort out “all the slow computers”. He tells all the staff to call the IT guy if they have any issues with their computers. Before long, the IT guy is spending 80% of his time fighting spot fires and performing mundane tasks like removing Fred from sales’ spyware infestation (for the 3rd time that week).

The IT guy is given no budget nor time to actually look at the situation holistically and develop long term plans to reduce problems and improve capabilities in the business through technology. Before long, the IT guy wants to leave and the business owner wonders why he ever employed him!

Dare to be Different

My advice for SMB owners is this: Only hire a permanent IT staff member if you have a clear strategy about the capabilities you are looking for from technology to achieve your business goals. Only ever let you internal IT staff work on projects that contribute to the company’s core business. Outsource any function that is more about supporting your internal resources and processes rather than a function of contributing to your core business.

Believe it or not, but many businesses are better off investing the $60,000 it might cost in salary for the internal IT guy, and then perhaps another $30,000 in outsourcing IT functions to a managed service provider. Why? Because that $30,000 investment actually frees up your $60,000 investment to become a revenue generating asset.

Ha? Basically, you might spend $30k to free up 80% of your IT managers time, allowing him to work on core business functions that ultimately generate revenue. With all that time, perhaps the IT Manager can implement a CRM system that sees repeat business double. Perhaps the IT Manager can develop a mobile sales system for your sales force, allowing them to spend less time in the office, more time on site and make 10% more sales pre month as a result. Perhaps the IT Manager streamlines you internal ordering process system, allowing you to expand your business without adding additional administrative employees. The point is, more often than not as far as I have seen, the business will generate a huge ROI on their cost of outsourcing, and generate it fast!

The end result is this: You as the business owner are happy because you can see quantifiable changes implemented as a result of hiring your IT guy. Your IT Manager is happy because he’s working on interesting projects that develop real results for his employer – and hopefully he’s being rewarded for it!

During the current economic climate, companies making the most of their existing resources to drive their core business goals and outsourcing non-core business functions will be the ones to prosper and thrive.

When you first opened your Smartphone and took it right from the fresh, “new smelling” box (or from the plastic sandwich bag from the friend you bought it used from) it was a tool for speaking, basic scheduling and contacts.

However, over time, some of you have found that you could do so much more with the device as you found good software to make it a powerful productivity tool. Some software you might want to consider, to enhance the mobile warrior within you.

• Read more at Small Biz IT…

There comes a point when gadgets detract from meetings. Or does there? Companies are coming up with different strategies to manage technology in the meeting room.

• Read more at Entrepreneur…