Years ago the term Road Warrior was coined to describe a high tech, always on the road – always connected – business person.

These days that term could probably be used to describe almost any small business owner who uses a smartphone or other device to keep a finger on the pulse of their business, no matter where he or she happens to be.

The big difference between then and now of course is the the cost of staying in touch – fierce competition has driven mobile phone, mobile broadband and mobile data rates downwards – and a plethora of newer, more affordable devices now occupy the market place which was once the sole province of high end PDA’s and palmtop computers.

Among those cheap devices, none comes cheaper than the ZTE F102 a tiny mobile phone offering from the THREE network – now priced at a staggering £19.99 and available from SAVERS chemist stores all over the country!

Yes you did read that last sentence correctly, a sub £20 smartphone available from your local chemist! Talk about something for the weekend!

Having seen a poster for this phone in my local chemist window, it was clear that I needed one! [for need, read want] A ten pound credit voucher tops the phone up for three months on the three network – so having parted with the princely sum of thirty quid I took it home and tried to break it!

I figured that  right  out of the box you wouldn’t get much for the money, after all £30 hardly buys a decent lunch these days! But I must say the performance of this little black Mars bar has impressed me.

I’m a great advocate of two communication tools Gmail and Skype and this little baby handles both applications in its stride.

Loading up the gmail application produced the familiar mobile email interface, together with all my contacts – all my emails available in my hand in a device that weighs in at an anorexic 80 grams!

And here’s a bonus, by scrolling to the contacts window I could not only view contacts but could click their phone numbers and call them direct from the phone – effectively giving the user  a single address book, usable from any location – the road warriors dream!

Calling via the phone of course meant eating into that £10 credit, so Skype was the next application to go on!

Skype works really well on this device, calling Skype to Skype was as clear as a bell and an international call made to a mobile phone in America was crystal clear too.

Skype to Skype calls are of course FREE, and the international call cost just 1.4p per minute using my Skype credit.

My only reservation with the device would be its small size, the screen is pretty clear – but the small keys produced a bit of fumbling about for my sausage sized fingers – that apart, this device is a great low cost way to use Gmail on the move with the added bonus of Skype for long distance calling.

Oh and did I mention you can even view Word Documents sent as attachments in the email interface?

Oh I forgot to mention, you can also use the f102 as a broadband modem, it connects to your laptop via the usb cable – perfect for every emergency!

This little device offers a ton of functionality for a few pounds of cost!

As I become more familiar with the features and settings of Googlemail [or gmail as it should now be known in the UK], I begin to realise just what an advance it represents over traditional email clients like Outlook – especially for the small business user.

Business owners have changed their dependencies drastically in the last few years – in the past folks relied heavily on paper filing systems, a telephone and a diary or Filofax system – these days if you were to ask a business owner ‘what are the most important business tools you use daily?’ he or she would probably say, Email and Mobile Phone!

When it comes to email, we’re all used to using the trail of sent and received messages on our computers as a source of easy reference, and the email address book is taken for granted – it’s the first place we look to find a contact. But what happens when your hard disk drive fails?

Notice I use the phrase ‘WHEN’ your hard disk fails, it isn’t ever a case of ‘if ever’ – its always when! Hard drives are mechanical and as such they will all fail eventually – despite having great reliability rates – Don’t forget that your most critical information is stored on a 3.5 inch wide, metal box that’s  full of whirring bits and pieces!

Gmail solves this issue – and many more – all your emails and all your contacts are safely stored on the Google servers, with fully redundant back up servers – not only can you take your email with you wherever you go, you never have to worry about backing up your messages or your address book again.

Gmail is available as apersonal email account for single users or as part of the Google Apps package for business users:
One point that is often overlooked, and is the only downside to Gmail as far as I can see – there is no simple way to upgrade from a personal Gmail account to a Google Apps account – Imports and Transfers can be done but they are time consuming and rely on a fair amount of human intervention.
Life is much easier if you decide which system suits you from the outset!

Gmail for an indivdual user is a fantastic step up from traditional email clients – but Google apps offers many more features to the business user – including the ability to send all your mail via your own domain name in the style of me@mydomain.com

If you’re seriously looking at Gmail and are in business at any level, I suggest taking the Google Apps option right from the start, it’s not expensive and will repay the inital investment many times over. it’s  somewhat trickier to get set up,  but is full of potential for the future – with new add ons and applications being developed every day. Accounting, CRM and project management modules are available that integrate seamlessly with the dat already stored in your Google account and there are thousands of new applications being developed.

When it comes to choosing which software tools to use for the day to day running of a small business – the choices are bewildering. My advice is keep it simple and keep it cheap!

Provided the system you go for today  can export it’s data into another format later on – you can always change / upgrade later on.

And if you’re already thinking cheap – how about thinking FREE?

Many small businesses want the convenience of sophisticated software but can’t justify the expense for a firm that may have only one or two employees or limited amounts of data to manage.

Thats where Google comes into it’s own  – With a vengeance!

Once you have become used to using Googlemail for receiving, storing, archiving and sending your emails – you’ll want to use this add on for the Firefox browser to boost your productivity and make you feel good about yourself!

The addon is called integratedgmail and it provides a great ’single page view’ of your email – your diary – your task list and any other google apps and gadgets you use every day.

It meets my 2 criteria perfectly: It’s simple and it’s free! But best of all, it works like a dream – you’ll be amazed at how a simple thing like having all your stuff in one place can increase your efficiency! Really!

I gave up using the task list and the calendar in Google, because I was always having to open and close more tabs and windows than you could point a stick at it was just too laborious.

With everything in one place, daily stuff is a breeze – I use it all the time and just love the clean interface and simplicity of use!

Downsides: Well you do need to be using Firefox as your default browser but that’s no problem – also I’ve noticed that when working on a slow connection such as a mobile broadband dongle, things can be slowed down a little – but not enough to outweigh the massive advantages gained by using this wonderful add on!

Get it here: http://integratedgmail.com/

Integrated GMail

This is an amazingly useful FREE plugin for the Firefox browser – allowing  ‘one page access’  to all your google apps.

This means you can have your calendar, task list and email clients all open on the same page simultaneously – a real time and energy saver.

I hate all that swapping from page to page and opening new tabs – this free software makes that a thing of the past!

Highly Recommended

What Is Integrated Gmail?

A Firefox Addon that allows you to make the Inbox Collapsible and load your choice of Google Calendar, Reader, Notebook, Groups, Maps, Picasa, Sites, News and Portfolio seamlessly into the gmail interface with the inbox (rather than a separate tab or in the sidebar) using a collapsible box.

It even supports custom URLs (with navigation buttons) and Google Gadgets (including Remember the Milk.) If your are inbox minimalist, you can enable minimalist mode to clean up the inbox even more. Works with Google App Accounts and Gmail Themes.

What people are saying about Integrated Gmail?

• “I love this add-on! It saves me tons of time when I can add info from an email to my calendar without switching tabs, or look up a phone number in google voice to send to a friend in a wave. Freakin’ awesome!”
• “Probably the best add-on for Gmail. Saves me from always having the calendar open on another tab and now I read my blogs! Support is great…had a problem, Michael emailed immediately and voila…all is good again!!!”
• “This is a fantastic add-on that saves me tons of time every day. Our corporate e-mail is hosted on Google Apps and I can’t imagine having to work without this plugin. On top of that, the developer is incredibly helpful and responsive. This is definitely a “must-have” add-on for Gmail users.”

http://integratedgmail.com/

As you are no doubt aware, I offer to install and set up both Google Apps and MyOffice.net:

Both offer Internet bbased email and file sharing facilities for work groups.

Both software options seem at first sight to offer remarkably similar functions, but is that really the case?

Actually each suite has distinct advantages for particular groups of users, and that’s where the differences lie – not so much in the packages themselves so much as the way that people use them on a day to day basis

It’s not about one particular set of utilites having more or less functionality than the other – it’s more to do with the way you work, either as an individual or a team. Personally I find Google Apps works well for me – I like the email interface and the ability to share documents and spreadsheets, rather than just email attachments – A Google Apps strong point!

But that’s just me, I work pretty much alone and the collaboration features are adequate for my needs.

If however you are working in a sales based environment, and need access to CRM style facilities, then MyOffice offers far more flexibility, sharing the contacts and the contact history is a valuable feature in that sort of environment.

In terms of cost – there’s no difference worth mentioning – Google apps is around $50 per annum per user and MyOffice works out at £52 per user – miniscule sums when compared to the big price tags associated with heavyweight  CRM applications like the newer version of ACT and Salesforce.

No matter what system you plump for – you should be basing your decision around  the way you work, rather than the shiny bells and whistles  offered by various new packages. If a system doesn’t fit in with the way you work, it may not be universally adaopted – and that could mean a wasted software investment.

No Matter what business you are in,  you’ll almost certainly be relying on computers to a greater or lesser degree. Whether you ‘live on the Internet’ and generate all your income via e-commerce or you have a local shop and use email to place orders with suppliers – you need it! and you sure miss it when it goes down!

What’s more, if the unthinkable happens – and your PC fries it’s hard drive (the major cause of all serious data losses) -  how the hell will you retrieve all the email history that you’ve come to rely on? Here’s where Google Apps comes to the rescue! For ‘low or no cost’ per month you can have a robust, secure email solution that’s pretty much bomb proof . AND you get the benefits of the other great online software tools too!

Read what they have to say about Google Apps  in the excerpt below and view the videos.

Guess what? I can help  implement Google Apps into your business – So give me a call if you want to sleep a little easier at nights!

Software-as-a-service for business email, information sharing and security

Whether your business is moving everything to the cloud, just wants an affordable email solution or struggles to give employees access to critical information, Google Apps will help you stretch resources and work smarter.

Messaging
Google Mail and Google Calendar keep employees connected and save your company time and money. Estimate your savings.

Collaboration
Google Docs, Google Video and Google Sites complement traditional office software to make teamwork easier. Companies or departments can use these apps on their own to be more productive.

Video – Click here to see how Googlemail compares to other Email Clients

Get in touch for a chat and some free advice!

To prevent spam, please use the form below or call me on 07950 232926

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Using the combination of a spreadsheet and forms published on the Internet proves to be a  ‘killer application’  for me in Google Docs!

I use this combination wherever I can  – it saves endless time, headaches and hassle.

For Example
I  regularly organise the meeting for a charity concern – the potential 100 or so attendees are spread all across the North East of England. Trying to get an RSVP or any kind of  response to a phone call or email enquiry is like drawing teeth! Doing things the old-fashioned way just takes so long and is tedium personified!

These days I set up a new spreadsheet for each event,  create a form using the tools in Google Docs and then take the code provided to embed into an easy to remember web page. I then circulate the URL via the email newsletter and wait for responses. I issue reminders at relevant times and gradually the sheet starts filling itself in!

One day before the event I export the data into Excel and use it to print attendance badges – Bingo!

No need for folks to even register or sign in at the event, they just collect their badge and walk straight in.

Think about using the same system for all kinds of tasks where you have a ‘one to many’ relationship and need to gather information from the ‘many’ – quickly, easily and accurately.

How about timesheets for remote workers or requisition of parts or consumables from out of town locations?

Signing up for courses and events is an obvious fit for this application, and the video on this page gives a great demo of how easy it is!

Want to know more? Do you have an IT problem I can help you with?

Get in touch today for friendly help and advice.
To prevent spam, please use the form below or call me on 07950 232926

[wpcf]

This Excerpt from the Google Apps website explains the advantages of using Gmail for your business.
If you want to know more about how Google Apps could help your business or you need advice or help implementing Google Apps – contact me today!
Click the article title above to view a video presentation:

Why businesses use Google Mail for professional email accounts

1. Get control of spam – Advanced filters keep spam from your inbox so you can focus on messages that matter.
2. Keep all your important email – 25 GB of storage per user lets you keep just about anything you think may be important down the road.
3. Unified communications – Email, instant message and make high-quality voice and video communication without launching a separate application.
   Voice and video chat from your inbox
   IM from your inbox
4. Find old messages instantly – Google search technology is built in, so you can find emails and instant message conversations quickly.
   Find emails fast
5. Prevent data leaks – Create custom inbound and outbound policies to keep sensitive information safe with Email Security.
6. Interoperability – Sync your Microsoft Outlook email and contacts with Google Mail