Archive for January, 2010
* Looking for the best hosting provider for your business can be overwhelming in the least. Any wrong choice or hasty decision could result in lost sales and revenue leading to heart-ache in an ever competitive market. Thus, the first and most important question arises: What type of hosting do you need?
For business purposes, free hosting is usually ill-advised. It can be unreliable and slow. Many free hosts also bog down your website with advertisements which would detract from your business.
Shared hosting services, on the other hand, may be effective for some small and medium sized businesses. Even some larger enterprises can do well on a feature rich shared hosting plan. Shared hosting may be an affordable way to get your website online; but at times your website may run slower than you desire as there will be multiple websites on one server.
Collocated hosting is where the business buys its own server. The hosting provider will then maintain the network but nothing else. You will need to hire or outsource for someone to maintain the server and take care of any problems that arise. This adds an even greater expense, but the hosting experience is usually reliable and secure.
Dedicated hosting is a cheaper option. Think of it as leasing a server from a website. Your website and yours alone will be on this server. There is unmanaged dedicated hosting which comes with limited support, or managed hosting in which your hosting provider will now provide extensive technical support, maintenance and management of your server. With dedicated hosting you can depend on high levels of reliability and security.
* What is the ‘uptime’? For a business website the highest possible uptime is critical. Do not even consider a host that can not guarantee an uptime of at least 99%. Ask the host if they keep tabs on their server uptimes. A particularly good web host should do so. If they monitor their servers properly they can quickly identify and solve problems. It is also a way for you to learn how reliable their services really are. You do not want to be paying for hosting only to find that your website is often offline.
* How much bandwidth is on offer? You do not want to select a plan with too little bandwidth for your website. On the other hand, you do not want to pay for an abundance of bandwidth that you do not need or will never use.
The amount of bandwidth will essentially tell you how much data can pass through the network during the month. The more bandwidth you have with a hosting package, the more website traffic your website is able to receive and handle each and every month. It may also be worth considering an ‘additional bandwidth’ option. This will give you some leeway on months when your website has even more traffic than usual. Having some extra bandwidth will help you to avoid having to pay overage fees in any given month.
Estimate how much bandwidth you will need before you start shopping for hosting. For example, multiply your estimated number of visitors X page size X expected number of views X 30 days. If your website offers downloads, factor this in too, as well as your own uploads and emails.
* What are the additional features available? E-Commerce is perhaps the most important for an online business. By using ecommerce hosting, you can easily sell products and services online without the need for any extensive technical knowledge.
An SSL certificate is an essential ecommerce feature. It is a method of protecting your customers’ private information. You do not want the possibility of their personal data or payment information to be accessed by anyone else on the Internet. By protecting your clients and offering them a secure ordering process, customers will be much more inclined to buy from you.
Some web hosts will provide ecommerce packages that can be customized. You can select the features that you need for the website (shopping cart, website statistics, secure logins, email accounts, etc.) In doing so you can increase the productivity of your website and will hopefully be able to make even more sales. However, always distinguish between those services that are provided for free of charge and those extras which you have to pay for.
* What support is available? You should always look for a host provider offering 24/7 customer support. If you ever experience problems with your hosting, you will want them solved immediately. Should your website ever be offline this is time that you may be losing customers and revenue.
What experience does the hosting company have? Before signing up with any host, it may be a good idea to give them a bit of presales test. This is an opportunity to see how friendly their support team is and how long they take to respond to your inquiries.
Take your time to search for a host that offers you with the bandwidth, disk space and applications needed for your website. Make sure that the host has been in business for awhile and appears stable. Ask them about how many workers they employ and how many websites they are currently hosting. You do not want to host with a company that will disappear in a few weeks.
It might be a good idea to tell the host a little bit about your intended website. What is the purpose of the site and how are you looking for the site to perform? You can also ask a host some questions about their hosting equipment. Find out if they own and operate their own data center. Ask for some information on their data center and the specs on their servers. What type of software do they use? What is their operating system? Questions like these can tell you more about the hosting services and help you to see how knowledgeable the staff is about the hosting services.
It is important to realize that a hosting provider, who may be ideal for one business, may not be suitable for yours. Most people make their final decision based on cost. However, I warn you to take your time and carefully consider what is available. Always remember the adage: ‘you get what you pay for.’ Happy hunting for your business host!
Paul Buntrage
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-business-articles/web-hosting-for-your-business-5-simple-questions-69547.html
There are several instances of disturbing cases of problems when the Spyware program starts showing up its activities. If you think it is more than a danger and could infect to any extent then you are essentially right. The recent statistics say that nearly 90 % of the Systems based within the user’s homes and most of which is used for the networking business are now largely being invaded varied spyware software and other programs which are intimidating. Such launching of Spyware software programs most frequently result in disturbing and menacing occurrences like loss of files, identity thefts, account hackings and others.
With McAfee, the details of a spyware program goes like any software that clandestinely passes and crawls on any personal or company data to the third party. When such data is usually sent out, the third party could start its usage in some manner which is not legal. Furthermore, you would not be aware of such infections. There is never a determined or exact time when the spyware programs haunch one’s system as one would not be able to detect them precisely. The worst part sometimes is that, even though the system is guarded with spyware removal program, it becomes equally difficult to trace the presence of such spyware software! Indeed, many spyware programs are intrinsically damaging especially when these superfluous programs not just disrupt and pose threats into your corporate systems but also serve in opening the gateway towards the slowdown of fast and reliable internet access, exhibiting several identity thefts, sending out severe damage to both the system and network, reducing the productivity of the healthy system, and then starting up with the bunches of pop-up ads which usually bulk the computer files, interrupting them with the daily routine and work.
Even though you are not branded as some technical professional, you must still be aware of such threats. Anyone for that matter could be gravely affected by such issues. One would never know the manner and exact time when such programs could manifest its attack. One could always be prepared by getting a crash course regarding the working of a spyware program and its damaging tricks. For detailed understanding about the spyware software, you could say it is more than any hazardous beast which would record and slice every single keyboard stroke, password entries, track of visited sites along with the history of chat conversations, credit card numbers and varied other private and confidential data. As any detail is typed, the spyware software captures the same. We could rather say, every activity of the user is spied by the creator of the spyware. It would be having a director in your entire network of the system.
You could safeguard your system against such malicious programs by several means. Frequently restructured and updating anti spyware software would apparently save the user from the most annoying and worst effects brought in by the attack of spyware programs. One should be very alert during any download made. Several packs are available for free, but are accompanied with malicious programs. Always avoid suspicious sites and pop up ads as they could pose great threat than you could even imagine. Not taking risky chances and safeguarding oneself would help you in a spyware free system.
As you know more about such programs, you could take preventive steps against them and also know how to have them eliminated if ever you are infected from them. This would undoubtedly ensure a Spyware free Computer System for your use.
Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/spam-articles/spyware-software-harmful-actions-revealed-754056.html
In these changing times, learning and imparting knowledge and information has become easier with the dawn of the Internet. Business coaches are known to use the Internet to drive the management and development of a company to success. The services of the coach could be hired to assess the company and the productivity of the employees. Thee coaches are highly experienced and prove to be an indispensable resource to the company.
Business coaching is also available on the Internet. The only difference between regrlar business coaching and online business coaching is the use of the Internet facility. Group discussions and classes are carried out within the chat rooms. These discussions take place under supervision of the business coach, who participates with the employees, clients or students.
In contrast to normal coaching, online business coaching enables the individual to have a personal chat via the net, video-chat or email. Business coaching makes it easier for coaches to help the organizations to achieve their desired business goals and objectives. Organizations are known to sign up for online business coaching on a large scale.
The business coaching end results include efficiently achieving the desired goals, personally and professionally.
How to find business coaches online
You can conduct a web search to check out the various options available. Verify information with the Better Business Bureau. You should check on the authenticity of the course, the concerned company, as well as the business. You should crosscheck qualifications and references before hiring personnel.
Business coaches prove to be vital assets to the business. They are skilled and highly experienced professionals, who double up as coaches and mentors, aiding the business transactions. Make sure that you select a business coach who knows the business and the way you function. Business coaches are known to charge high fees. However, the price should not be the determining factor, since the experience of the professional is far more essential.
There is a coach available for every business area, irrespective of the business strategy followed. However, you should ensure that the personality of the coach and the business style adopted, match. The philosophies should match as well, to avoid any hassles in making important business decisions.
Initially, the business coach assesses the specific business need and accordingly formulates a methodology to operate and supervise the business transactions.
Benefits of Online Business Coaching
Business is more than merely the medium of self-employment, to earn a profit. It is a well-devised way of functioning, to ensure better productivity with minimal expenditure. Business is not limited to hiring the right people and striving towards a smooth operation. If you cannot generate the expected revenue and the desired results form the business, it is probably the best time to hire a business coach.
Online business coaching helps to reduce expenditure, in terms of the coach visiting charges and the various expenses incurred by the research and implementation of strategy, on the employees or clients. Business coaches are skilled and experienced in their respective fields and help to foster the growth of the company too. Since, the coach has an in-depth knowledge of the field, the pros and cons of the business strategy are much easier to handle.
Kris Koonar
http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/business-coaching-on-the-internet-93737.html
Microsoft offers wide range of software products for small and medium businesses in India. The products are of much importance and useful for all types of businesses. In this article, we take a look at each of the Microsoft Products in detail:
The Products that we discuss here are developer tool products.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 provides a range of tools that offers many benefits for individual developers and software development teams: Be more productive and obtain faster results, build dynamic windows, web, mobile, and office-based solutions, communicate and collaborate more effectively within your software teams, ensure quality early and often throughout the development process
Visual Studio 2005 provides a range of tools that offer many benefits for individual developers and software development teams:
- Be more productive and obtain faster results
- Build dynamic Windows, Web, mobile, and Office-based solutions
- Communicate and collaborate more effectively within your software teams
- Ensure quality early and often throughout the development process
Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering next-generation media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports JavaScript, Visual C#, Visual Basic, and other languages.
- Deliver media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web that incorporates video, animation, interactivity, and stunning user interfaces.
- Seamless, fast installation for users, thanks to a small, on-demand, easy-to-install plug-in that is under 2 megabytes (MB) in size and works with all leading browsers.
- Consistent experiences between Windows-based and Macintosh computers without any additional installation requirements.
- Create richer, more compelling Web experiences that take greater advantage of the client for increased performance.
- Enhance existing standards/AJAX-based applications with richer graphics and media, and improve their performance and capabilities by using Silverlight.
Currently, there are two runtimes available for users to experience Silverlight content.
Microsoft Silverlight 1.0
Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 Alpha September Refresh
Both runtimes support rich media capabilities and enable fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality audio and video to all major browsers including Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer running on the Mac or on Windows. The designer experience remains largely the same for both runtimes as well. The main difference resides in the developer experience. The Silverlight 1.1 Alpha runtime introduces support for.NET languages such as Visual Basic and Visual C#.
GT Kimberly
http://www.articlesbase.com/software-articles/small-and-medium-business-centre-microsoft-software-products-review-694596.html
“I applaud you in creating and maintaining this value added site. I am certain your visitors find it very helpful when they are researching web conferencing options.” (Leslie Spoke, Premiere Global)
“Well done on a very informative and independent view on Web Conferencing. There are lots of competitors and it is difficult to find one’s needs exactly…” (David Martin)
It is a compliment like these that reinforces our service’s niche: objectively reviewing web conferencing solutions so that some of the ambiguity is taken out of a potentially complicated decision. Most small and mid-sized business owners don’t have the funds to consult with tech gurus in regards to their business practices overall, much less solicit advice specifically geared to online meeting tools. But we know too well that little things, like the right software, can make a huge difference in a business’ overall success.
But the market for web conferencing solutions is still not mature, and the vendor landscape is not transparent. Our website (www.webconferencing-test.com) attempts to overcome these challenges and provide orientation for the masses searching for a cost-effective way to keep up with business trends afforded by larger companies.
Web conferencing solutions could be the only realistic way for many small and mid-sized companies to expand their businesses geographically and to drive revenue by facilitating meetings with customers and prospects. We have calculated that by eliminating business travel, taking into account all monetary and physical costs, online meetings save money and an immeasurable amount of quality time, which ultimately leads to increased productivity. See our website for a full analysis of annual savings potential of online meetings compared with meetings-in-person.
More than 21 web conferencing solutions have been reviewed including Adobe Connect, Citrix GoToMeeting, Digital Meeting, Elluminate vRoom, IBM Sametime Unyte Meeting, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, Microsoft NetMeeting, Netviewer one2meet, WebEx MeetMeNow, Yugma Professional, we:presenter and many others.
The reviews and comparisons are based on the number and scope of functions, user friendliness, speed of meeting setup, ease of installation, cost transparency, security, and system requirements. The most important criteria for SMB companies included “ease-of-use/user friendliness” and “speed of setting up a meeting”, so these two categories have been given a higher weighting compared to the other categories.
Once you have implemented one of these solutions in your own business, we would love some feedback.
Robert Harnischmacher
http://www.articlesbase.com/software-articles/review-of-web-conferencing-software-for-small-and-midsized-companies-745875.html
I am constantly amazed at the state of computer systems found in
most small businesses networks. Spyware, adware, malware, poor
security, you name it! Why is this so?
Small business owners often find themselves in a situation where
they need to do everything. They are their own IT person, writer
or even delivery person. Sometimes they have had their next-door
neighbor setup up their peer-to-peer network. Maybe they had a
computer person set things up then tried to maintain the network
on their own. There are many reasons.
What it all adds up to is you have a network with many security
problems and poor performance.
Poor performance can lead to lost productivity due to lost data
or hardware and software problems. If every time you start MS
Word it takes five minutes to open up, and you open it four
times per day, you could loose as much as twenty minutes per
day. That is over 120 hours per year for just one application!
A system heavily infected with adware and spyware can easily
take this long to startup or shutdown programs, if it does not
crash frequently. Since adware and spyware authors do not care
if your PC crashes, they tend to write sloppy programs that
cause problems when they interact with legitimate applications.
The security side can be even more problematic. Do you maintain
customer data on your network? If you do, you may have a legal
responsibility to safeguard that data. Failure to do so could
open your business up to litigation. We all know how lawsuit
happy Americans have become.
So what do you do?
Do what the big companies do, turn the problem over to your IT
department and make them solve the problem.
You do not have an IT department. Well you could call George,
the guy who setup your network in the first place. George is the
“computer technician” who failed to setup your network security,
when he created your network.
I like George; he gives me a lot of business fixing problems he
leaves behind.
One of the advantages of having your own IT department is they
become familiar with your operations and can quickly resolve any
problems that pop up.
How can you take advantage of having your own IT staff? Hire an
IT support company for the service. I know “outsourcing” is a
dirty word these days, but if you think about it small
businesses have always benefited from outsourcing.
Why contract for your IT support? One reason is you may not have
a need for a fulltime onsite technician. If you only have a need
for a technician ten hours a week, do you want to pay for a full
forty hours?
To protect yourself and maintain a professional relationship
with your support company always insist on a service contract.
This contract defines the responsibilities of both parties.
Your service contract should cover the following aspects:
Service Level Agreement
This is the performance standard you use to measure the response
you receive from your support company. For instance, my company
typically offers three levels of service level agreements. Each
level costs a different amount based on the timeliness of
service. If you contract for a four-hour response, you are
guaranteed a technician on-site in less than four hours. A
twelve-hour SLA would have a technician on-site in less than
twelve hours. Naturally, the quicker the response the more the
costs. This can work in your favor if you can afford to wait a
little while for support.
On-site Support
This is when a technician is dispatched to your location and
should be considered the minimum level of service.
Telephone Support
Telephone support offers your business two big incentives,
quicker resolution and lower costs. Phone support can return
your employees to a productive state faster than On-site
support.
This should be included in the contract. Some companies consider
it an add-on and charge an additional fee.
Additional Services
Since the goal of contracting for your IT support is to provide
your business with the maximum benefit, for the least cost,
consider including these additional services
Acceptable Use Policies Project Management Network Security
Network Design and Development Remote Office Support
The more complete the services provided by your support company,
the better off your company will be.
Here is a sample package that is popular with my customers. A
yearly mutually renewable contract that may be terminated on
sixty days written notice by either party. Stipulating a
twelve-hour SLA and limited phone support.
Included in the project initiation package is an Acceptable Use
Agreement that has to be signed by all employees. This is a
precondition to finalization of the service contract. An
acceptable use policy defines the actions that may and may not
be taken on your network. This helps protect you from wrongdoing
by your employees.
The way my technicians service our contracts is to attempt to
give the customer a four-hour or better response regardless of
the contracted SLA. Our phone support goal is to contact the
customer in less then 30 minutes.
Since this is a service contract, my technicians, as a minimum,
spend one entire day per month at the client’s office
maintaining the network environment.
This means ensuring all PCs have all the required security
patches and hot fixes applied, updated virus definition files
and that all spyware/adware has been removed. These actions
ensure your network runs smoothly, reducing employee downtime
and the support required to maintain the network.
In addition to the monthly maintenance, the contract allows for
up to five hours free on-site labor per month. Any work carried
out beyond this time frame is billed at fifty percent of the
current billing rate.
The client is responsible for all hardware and software costs.
Special projects are billed at a reduce rate also.
Initially, a large amount of work is required to get the
client’s network setup efficiently, after this; few clients need
services outside of the contracted hours. When they do, it is
mostly for special unanticipated projects.
Now you can give your business a “corporate” IT department even
if you are not a big corporation. I have seen real estate agents
who make high six figure incomes spending their time fixing
computer problems. Ask yourself, is my time better spent fixing
this computer or should I call in a specialist and spend my time
making money for my business.
I vote for making money
Rick Parrott, Mcp
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/why-your-business-needs-a-desktop-support-professional-522.html
Maintaining a profitable home business is a big challenge. The idea of earning an income from the comforts of your own home is an attractive one. However many overlook the necessary discipline needed to run a profit generating home business.
The comfort and familiar settings of home make this type of business attractive but also presents obstacles. If you want to achieve success while working from home you’ll need to establish certain parameters. A distinction between leisure time activities and work related responsibilities will need to be identified.
Here are 5 tips you’ll need to apply in order for your home based business to achieve success:
Tip #1 – Establish Work Hours
When working from home you’ll immediately want to establish the time you’ll need to devote to your business and then adhere to this schedule. As easy as this may seem initially you’ll need to aware of the temptation of getting a late start and then finishing early. Remember that nothing gets done unless YOU do it. When you start to cheat on your work hours here you are really just cheating yourself by reducing your income due to a loss in productivity.
Time wasting activities you’ll want to ‘actively’ avoid during work hours are:
a) Friends visiting
b) Personal phone calls
c) Neighbors
d) Personal errands
e) Family disturbances unless they’re emergencies
Tip #2 – Clearly Define Your Work Space
Depending upon the type of work you’re doing you’ll need to set up an office or shop completely dedicated to your work. It would be best to isolate or partition the area from the normal living areas of the home. This will better enable you to maintain a ‘working frame of mind’ while also minimizing any instances of disruptions or disturbances.
A dedicated work space will also help you stay better organized.
Tip #3 – Avoid Any Type of Home Entertainment
Like most homes I’m sure yours is equipped with TV’s, stereos, and other such entertainment devices. Well when you’re working battle the temptation to take periodic breaks to view the tube or listening to some ‘relaxing’ music. These will just siphon your time away from work either increasing your workload later or perhaps keeping you from finishing a task at all.
Tip #4 – No Surfing
Many home based businesses entail the use of a computer. High technology like this enables a home business to be more efficient and productive. On the downside however with the ability to surf the internet right there at your fingertips lays the potential for lost time and productivity. Unless the need arises to do some work related research your computer should only be used to increase and not decrease your productiveness during your normal working hours.
Tip #5 – Your Email Can Wait
Again like we’ve mentioned about surfing (above) your only need to access this during work hours should be limited to work related issues. In fact it is recommended you establish a separate work related email address and develop the habit of checking your email just twice a day to better manage your time.
As you can see managing a profitable home business does require discipline on your part. The temptation of the surrounding comforts of home are the main attraction of any home based business. Although we need to recognize these attractions can easily turn into non-productive distractions if we are not careful. With the proper restraint however there is no reason the riches and rewards of a successful home based business can’t be yours!
TJ Philpott
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/tips-to-insure-a-profitable-home-business-705748.html
Business Process Automation is the practice of analyzing, documenting, optimizing and automating business processes. The business process is the flow of information, modified by value-added tasks, that begins with the first contact with a prospective client and continues through delivery of a finished product. Well-developed business processes can create a seamless link from initial client interface through the supply chain. Automation of those processes improves the accuracy of the information transferred and ensures the repeatability of the value-added tasks performed.
Manufacturing Journalist Thomas R. Cutler Profiled Business Process Automation by ETO (engineer to order) manufacturers in the current issue of Industrial Market Trends. The article can be read in its entirety at http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2006/11/engineer_to_order_automation_transforms_business_process_contributed.html?WT.mc_t=nlimt_Eng&WT.mc_n=703_E.
According to Stephen Carson, executive vice president of Visibility Corporation, “The decision to invest in business process automation is significant and often part of a project-based manufacturer’s lean initiative. ETO companies must consider the value of significantly reducing bidding, engineering and manufacturing cycle times; reducing product rework; and improving customer service and internal communication. There is additional value to the clients of ETO manufacturers when their product is designed precisely to meet customer requirements and is achieved with high quality and delivered on time and within budget.”
Because of the potential risk in underbidding projects with thin margins, knowledge capture and reuse of historical information to fulfill customer-specific orders more accurately and efficiently. Technology solutions for the ETO market must address sales, engineering and manufacturing to bring the automation process to the point of sale.
Carson noted, “In addition to engineering automation, effective ETO technology solutions drive engineering innovation as well as integration with the entire enterprise, allowing manufacturers to develop new features and add to their product offerings.”
Visibility Corporation (www.visibility.com) is a leading developer and supplier of business software solutions designed for the unique needs of project-based, engineer-to-order and to-order manufacturers. Visibility’s Enterprise Application solutions help midsize manufacturers of complex products operate their businesses effectively. Visibility has an extensive customer base throughout North America and Europe and has the strongest representation of ERP among complex manufacturers.
VISIBILITY.net is an integrated ERP solution and more. Offering unparalleled functionality and integrated workflow, this browser-based solution cost effectively delivers the power of .NET-based Web services for use with either a Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle® database. Conducting business any place, any time, any where is a reality, deployable with unprecedented flexibility.
Thomas Cutler
http://www.articlesbase.com/technology-articles/visibility-eto-business-process-automation-profiled-in-industrial-market-trends-75573.html
I am in the process of taking over a established check cashing business. The system we are using now is a old system called Chek Com, I would like to invest in one of the better ones that is suppose to help prevent accepting bad checks, but I cannot find any information online. I know at some time in the near future, I will be receiving magazines for the business which will show me some of the systems available, but I don’t really want to take the chance on waiting that long for the new software!
Chick the web
http://www.orbitbusinessloans.com/
http://www.orbitmerchantsolutions.com/
Question in the title.
Repairpersons who show up when they say they will rather than four days afterward while I sit here on Y!A waiting to begin clearing out the backlog of work that’s accumulating. @#$%!
An assistant to watch the office while I go out on calls or a sales rep to do them for me.
Better lighting.
Noise barriers (we have some very loud machinery here).