Tag Archives: Microsoft PowerPoint

About 2426 days ago Computer Security

10 Ways to Make PowerPoint Presentations Powerful

Celebrating its 20-year year anniversary in 2007, Microsoft’s PowerPoint has brought two decades of engorged meetings, audio-visual hassles and bored boardrooms. It didn’t have to be this way… and it doesn’t have to in your next meeting. A few tweaks here and there can make the difference between a presentation that sings and one that sets them snoozing. 1. Create an outline. Making a list of topics you need to address and rank them into primary and secondary importance. If time is short, you’ll know what to cut out. It also clarifies your ideas. “An outline helps you focus first on your content and how it’s organized,” says PowerPoint expert Ellen Finkelstein, author of “How to Do Everything With PowerPoint 2003.” “After all, isn’t what you’re saying more important than how you say it?” 2. No star wipes. Microsoft has given users dozens of ways to transfer from one slide to the next, with each new iteration offering more bells and whistles. Avoid the temptation. “Just because PowerPoint has some really cool transitions doesn’t mean they should be used,” recommends Kevin Lerner, of the Presentation Team, a consulting firm that advises clients on making presentations. “Most of the time, a simple wipe or dissolve will suffice. Also, it’s good to make the transitions consistent throughout your entire presentation.” 3. Choose your colors wisely. Using color can help convey meanings, make phrases stand out, and influence attitudes. All of that information you learned in elementary school about primary colors and complimentary colors can be useful in PowerPoint. Microsoft has some predefined color schemes in PowerPoint and they may be a good place to start. Microsoft also suggests that certain combinations of text color on background colors work best: green on purple, violet on yellow, white on black or blue-green on red. In graphics, try to choose one or more colors from the graphic to use in text, as well. It helps tie the presentation together. Finkelstein suggests using mid-range backgrounds and avoiding white or yellow text, which can be harsh on the eyes. 4. Use bullet points. It might seem to go without saying, but aside from direct quotes, the audience shouldn’t be reading whole paragraphs on a PowerPoint slide. That would be a real yawner. 5. More charts and diagrams, please. Pictures speak 1,000 words, the old saying goes. That’s why you want to sprinkle a variety of graphics into your presentation. An organizational chart can illustrate anything from a company’s chain of command to the families, genera and species of an order of biological organisms, according to Microsoft. For charts, PowerPoint also comes with ready-made cycles, radials, pyramids, Venns or target diagrams that you can customize to fit your pitch. 6. Be careful with sound and video. Audio and visual effects, particularly video, can slow down and even crash the computer during the presentation. Generally, the simpler the presentation, the less chance of crashing. If possible, test run the presentation on the actual computer you’ll be using. 7. Practice your presentation. Presentations often don’t work because speakers don’t take them as seriously as traditional presentations. Practice it as you would a regular speech. “By stopping even twenty minutes before your [actual] deadline, or showtime, you can significantly enhance your message by taking time to practice and rehearse,” Lerner says. 8. Coming to a conference room near you. PowerPoint now allows you to drop in movies, a short animated cartoon or show using Macromedia Flash. A tutorial on animation for PowerPoint on Microsoft’s website. 9. Double check your grammar and spelling. Nothing is more of a turnoff to that English major in the room. 10. If you don’t actually need visuals, leave your PowerPoint at home. Only use PowerPoint when it’s necessary.

About 2426 days ago E-Commerce

E-Mail Etiquette for the Entrepreneur

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In just over a decade since its mainstream debut, e-mail has become one of the most important communication tools for businesses everywhere, if not the most important communication tool. In fact, the number of person-to-person worldwide e-mail messages sent on an average day in 2005 was 33.3 billion or about 8.8 trillion annually, according to IDC, the Framingham, Mass. research firm. “Person-to-person” means these numbers do not include spammed messages or any other automated e-mails. Think you know all there is to e-mail etiquette? Think again. With so much virtual communication going on, here’s how to avoid the pitfalls: To, Cc and Bcc Many business e-mail users still make the mistake of including all recipients in the “To” or “Cc” fields. Not only may that upset those who want to keep their e-mail address private, but you’re showing your naiveté about three basic rules. The “To” field should be reserved for writing an e-mail to one person.  “Cc” stands for “carbon copy” and can be used when you want to include others and it’s okay for the recipient to see the others’ e-mail addresses. A “Bcc,” on the other hand, which stands for “blind carbon copy,” is when you don’t want the recipient to see you’ve also sent the same message to others — or when you don’t want all the recipients to see each other’s e-mail address for privacy reasons. “Employees who use the ‘To’ field instead of the ‘Bcc’ field aren’t properly trained by their employer or they don’t realize the risk of e-mail viruses picking up all those addresses in the ‘To’ field,” says Andy Wibbels, a computer expert and author who has worked with hundreds of small businesses. “System administrators should also consider flagging e-mails where people put a ton of folks in the ‘To’ field.” Be cautious when clicking “Reply to All” when only the original sender needs to read your reply. You don’t know if the sender has added Bccs and it’s amazing how many business people divulge sensitive information about products, customers and/or employees to unintended recipients this way. Keep it simple Brevity and directness are the key to business correspondence. That includes e-mail. With more than 100 e-mails in a typical inbox a day, no one wants to read a novel. Keep it simple. And this applies whether you’re the boss or the lowest rung on the corporate ladder. “E-mails should be under two paragraphs with formatting and bullets to illustrate key points and needed actions,” advises Wibbels. Be sure what you’re communicating is clear and near the top as our attention span tends to drift as our eyes scan down the page. ”If you can make your point in the subject line, all the better,” Wibbels says. Be a pro Writing e-mail to colleagues, clients, and coworkers needs to be professional. Don’t gossip about someone in the office. Don’t add five exclamation marks at the end of a sentence. Spell check. Go easy on the emoticons (e.g. ). “E-mails with subject lines of ‘Hey!’ or ‘OMG!’ or ‘Re: re: re: fwd: this.’ only annoy and waste time,” adds Wibbels. “And clean up e-mails when you forward them [as] nobody likes reading all the e-mail header junk and all the indenting over and over again.” When to send and e-mail Don’t write an e-mail when you’re upset or angry at someone (or at least don’t click “Send” until you’ve read it with a leveled head). Remember, you must be professional at all times. Anything you write and send can live forever and may come back to haunt you, maybe even in court. Big Brother could be watching If you’re not the boss, your e-mail and other Internet behavior may be monitored by your employer. Preston Gralla, author of How the Internet Works, says software, such as a keystroke loggers “can record every word of every document created on the computer.” Gralla says an estimated 36 percent of employers track the content employees view as well as monitor their keystrokes and time spent at the keyboard. Attachments & threads While most of your e-mail correspondence with someone will likely be via a broadband connection, don’t attach a 10MB PowerPoint presentation. These days, they may be picking up e-mail via a cell phone or BlackBerry. Wibbels says that if you’re e-mailing inside your company, use an intranet network drive for file transfer instead. You might want to ask permission first before sending a large file to someone outside the firm. You can also use an online delivery service, such as YouSendIt.com, which allows the recipient to click a Web link to download the file outside of their e-mail program.

About 2456 days ago Data Security

What are Macroviruses?

A few years ago, macro viruses were one of the most common categories of computer predators. Instead of targeting programs, they infected documents and templates, most notably programs such as Microsoft’s Word or Excel. The most notorious macro virus was the Melissa, a combination virus and worm, unleashed in 1999 by a New Jersey man who named the virus after a lap dancer and wound up confessing in court later that he caused $80 million in damage to U.S. businesses. The virus traveled via e-mail, targeting Microsoft Outlook users, and eventually forced such companies such as Microsoft, Intel, and Lockheed Martin to shut down their e-mail gateways for a spell. At one time, macro viruses comprised an estimated 75 percent of the viruses in circulation according to Webopedia. Then they dropped from the headlines as software makers improved anti-virus programs and other computer threats became more prevalent. But anti-virus software vendor Kaspersky Lab in May revealed the discovery of a new macro virus that targets open-source applications, such as OpenOffice and StarOffice. (OpenOffice.org, the group that released the open source office program, disputes applying the label “virus” to Stardust, the exploit discovered by Kaspersky Labs.) Assuming that macros may make a comeback, here is what you should know to protect your business: What are macro viruses Macro viruses are written in the internal macro language of an application. A “macro” is a sequence of commands that allows users to customize certain tasks with a single click. Among other things, users can use macros to format text, log in, and check mail accounts, copy data between applications. and generate reports. Macro viruses infect computers by replacing the normal macros that handle these tasks with a virus. That’s why Microsoft Office products — such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint — were their most frequent targets in the past. Method of infection Macro viruses spread through e-mail attachments, CD-ROMS, networks, modems, and the Internet. When you open a file containing a macro virus, it can infect your entire system, embedding itself in other documents and templates already stored on your machine, as well future ones. If you share an infected file with someone else, it will invade their system as well if they don’t have anti-virus software installed. By this method, it can quickly spread and overwhelm a network. Signs your computer is infected While your system may function at normal levels even with a macro virus present, there are ways to detect its presence so that you can stop it before it gets too far. Consider these: Unexplainable behavior. You may be prompted for a password on a file that is not password-protected, or a document may unexpectedly be saved as a template. Strange error messages. Past examples include “Just to prove another point” or “ROBERTA, TI AMO!” or “STOP ALL FRENCH NUCLEAR TESTING IN THE PACIFIC!” Unexpected text appears in a document. The Melissa virus, for example, inserted quotes from the animated television series “The Simpsons” into Word documents. Macro viruses will run on any operating system that uses susceptible applications. If you are familiar with the macros on your machine, glance through them periodically to check for any you don’t recognize. Some examples of past macro names include AutoOpen, PayLoad, and AAAZAO. How to protect yourself Microsoft Office can be set to display a warning message whenever a document is opened that contains macros. To make sure this option is enabled, open the application’s preferences file. Under the security tab, check the “warn before opening a file that contains macros” box. Always choose “disable macros” when asked, unless you are sure of the function of the macro. You’ll still be able to open the file and read its contents. Microsoft Office won’t scan your hard disk, removable media such as CDs, or network to find and remove macro viruses. For that level of protection, you need to buy anti-virus software. Once it’s installed, check frequently for new virus definitions and scan your system on a regular basis. Microsoft Office won’t scan your hard disk, removable media such as CDs, or network to find and remove macro viruses. For that level of protection, you need to buy anti-virus software. Once it’s installed, check frequently for new virus definitions and scan your system on a regular basis.

About 2456 days ago Mobility Tips and Tricks

Why Cell Phones are Replacing the Laptop

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Ten years ago, the BlackBerry was known as a Wall Street icon or a geek organizer, far too expensive and nerdy to be used by mere mortals. Today, “BlackBerry” is the new “Kleenex,” the generic name people give to any personal digital assistant, or PDA. Treo and other companies are giving BlackBerry a run for its money, while cute devices like the T-Mobile Sidekick have made owning a PDA-like cell phone hip. When little portable computer phones get Paris Hilton endorsements, it’s safe to say that their bigger cousin, the laptop, is going the way of the dinosaur. “In a physical sense, there are many phones that now have QWERTY keyboards and scaled down Intel processors,” says Kurt Collins, business development manager at Photobucket, an online publisher of visual digital content. “Many PDA phones come with software that allows the user to not only check e-mail, but also read and write Microsoft Office documents.” Cell phones and PCs now rank as the most important devices for American consumers under 40, outranking even the TV, according to a survey by Forrester Research. The way that translates into the business market is that more and more consumer technologies are being used by workers in the office and out in the field. Laptop sales are, by some estimates, on schedule to outpace PC sales. But cell phones are already surpassing land-line phones in such locations as Europe and certain states, such as North Dakota, according to regulators. In mid-2006, the number of cellular connections in the world reached 2.5 billion, having just climbed over the 2 billion mark a year ago, according to estimates from Wireless Intelligence, a research venture that tracks the global market for mobile technology. The sharp trajectory of growth for cell phones and the growing number of PC-like features being incorporated into their design are fueling the theory that the cell phone is becoming the new laptop. Here are the reasons why: It can e-mail. The most mundane cell phone — the kind that comes free with a phone plan — has e-mail as a standard feature. It is usually carrying AOL and Yahoo!, but MSN’s Hotmail can be accessed indirectly. The low-budget phones require multiple number pad strokes to type individual letters, but several reasonably-priced phones have QWERTY keyboards, the standard computer keyboard. Some brands offer nearly full-sized keyboard attachments that connect to the phone. It can Web-browse. Every major cell service offers Web browsing for a few extra dollars a month. Many sites, such as Google and MSN, format their pages for easy cell phone reading. Cell phone companies also aggregate content, making it easy to get the latest world, business or entertainment news on the phone. It is small. Traveling with electronics is cumbersome, especially for those who are on-the-go all the time. At airports, laptops must be taken out of their bags, placed on the security conveyor belt and gathered up on the other side of the gate. A cell phone simply needs to be turned off at takeoff. It has Windows. Windows Mobile has now come into its own on portable devices. It’s getting to the point where all software — Word, Excel, perhaps even PowerPoint — will be on your cell phone. It has Bluetooth capabilities. Also becoming a standard, Bluetooth allows your cell phone to communicate with other phones and computers in a fast, efficient way. Files can be transferred quickly between your computer and your cell, turning your phone into a virtual memory stick. It is cheaper (for now). The biggest threat to the bulky laptop is price. A top-of-the-line, fancy cell phone will cost you about $600, or one-fourth the cost of a top-of-the-line, fancy laptop. Until the mythological $100 notebook is commonplace, cell phones are the cheaper and more efficient road to take.

About 2487 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Digital Cameras that Get the Job Done

Newer technology isn’t always superior to what it replaces. Microwave food in the lunchroom doesn’t taste better than what’s cooked in an oven at home; clients don’t sound half as good over cell phones as they do over wire line phones; and it could be argued that e-mail wastes more time at work than it saves. Fortunately, you don’t have to swap quality for convenience when it comes to choosing the right digital camera for your business. Not only can today’s digital still image-quality rival (or, in most cases, exceed) that of standard 35mm cameras, but “digicams” offer many advantages. Users can see the photo right after it’s taken. The digital memory card can store many more photos than regular camera film (plus it’s reusable). And there’s no need to pay and wait for someone else to process your pictures when you can choose the ones to print — and do it at the office printer. For photo needs in today’s fast-paced business world, digital provides an easy way to shoot an image, crop and touch-up photos on a computer, and then e-mail the pictures anywhere in the world, post them to a corporate Web site, or incorporate into a PowerPoint presentation. When buying a camera for business, first examine your needs, suggests Sharon A. Curia, a New Jersey-based photographer and business owner. “If you need it to produce very large files, you should purchase a digital SLR [Single Lens Reflex] camera that produces anywhere from 6 to 16 Mega pixels,” says Curia. “Also, the kind of camera you need will vary whether you’re shooting 10 frames per second for fast sports or if it will be used to photograph still objects or people under professional lighting?” Here’s what features to look for when shopping for a digital camera for business. Form Factor You first need to decide what kind of digital camera to buy for the company. Do your real estate agents need compact point-and-shoot digicams? Or should you pick up the higher-quality (but bulkier and pricier) digital SLR variety? D-SLRs, which can be found for less than $1,000, also offer interchangeable lenses, more manual options and faster shutter speeds. Resolution “Mega pixel” is an industry buzzword that means there are one million pixels (i.e. little dots) of information per image. The more mega pixels, the higher-quality the image (and, of course, the more expensive the camera will be). As a general rule of thumb, a 4- or 5-mega pixel camera or higher can print large photos (“8.5 x 11″ or higher) without looking grainy. More mega pixels also means you can zoom in on a digital photo and crop it (e.g. focus in on one car out of six in the picture) and it will look less blurry when enlarged. If you’re only posting photos to a Web site, even a 3MP digital camera is fine. But it’s better to buy more than you need. Zoom There are two kinds of zoom: optical zoom and digital zoom. Quite simply, an optical zoom is made to bring the camera-user closer to the subject without needing to physically move. Like older cameras, this is done with a retractable lens. Digital zoom gives the illusion the user is closer to the object. Thus, the optical zoom is a more important number, as it’s the “true” zoom. Generally speaking, a 3X optical zoom is more than enough for non-professionals. Memory Before transferring them to a PC, digicams save the photos on tiny memory cards inserted into the camera, such as Secure Digital, Compact Flash, Memory Stick Duo, XD, and so on. You can often use those same cards for other compatible devices, such as a PDA, camcorder or cell phone. Usually, only a 16MB or 32MB card will be included with the camera you purchase, which is fine to start. But it’s advised to buy at least a 1GB card (roughly $50 to $70) to store hundreds of photos on those long business trips (without needing to “dump” them onto a computer before erasing and starting again). Printing What the salesperson probably won’t tell you about printing off images is how costly it can be, so be sure to use your PC to choose what you want to print ahead of time. Even with a relatively inexpensive photo-quality printer, the proper ink and photo paper can burn a hole in your wallet. So keep it “digital” if you can. Alternatively, you may choose to drop off your memory cards at a photo lab or camera kiosk. Or take advantage of those online services, such as Shutterfly.com, and they’ll print off and mail the photos to you.

About 2579 days ago Computer Security

Making Your (Power) Point

The only thing worse than sitting through a boring PowerPoint presentation is delivering one. Yet death by PowerPoint may be one of the biggest risks of doing business. On any given day, some 30 million PowerPoint presentations are delivered, according to Microsoft. Of course, when it was released for Windows in 1990, the software was an exciting new way of presenting information. But that’s not always the case today. Among the most common offenses: Speakers simply read the slides to the audience; the text is too small; the color and animation are dull; the charts are too complex. Technology got us into this mess; now, technology is working hard to get us out. There are scores of new products designed to enhance, or even replace, PowerPoint. Some cost thousands, others are free. Here are six offerings that can help make your next presentation less of a snooze and more of a blockbuster. Best For… Instant feedback TurningPoint Cool Features: With TurningPoint’s instant-polling technology, each audience member gets a credit card-size response pad. Using PowerPoint, the presenter puts questions up on the screen. Audience members key in their responses, which are funneled via a wireless connection into the presenter’s computer. The results are calculated and organized into PowerPoint graphs and instantly displayed on the large screen. In Action: Architect Michael Dingeldein recently faced 200 parents, students, administrators, and neighbors–all there to see Steed Hammond Paul Architects’ long-awaited designs for a new school building. Rather than waiting for the reaction to trickle in, he distributed TurningPoint response pads and polled the audience throughout his talk. “The audience engagement was incredible,” Dingeldein says. “They were laughing and cheering as the results came up on the screen. What it does to the audience is incredible. They’re right there with you.” Price: $2,920 for a 25-user system Best For… Luddites Ovation for PowerPoint Cool Features: Rather than adding fancy graphics or animation, Ovation software lets people with limited computer skills make their run-of-the-mill PowerPoint presentations visually exciting, adding depth, motion, background, and improved resolution from more than 100 templates. Even better, it’s an out-of-the-box product, with no confusing licensing fees. In Action: Investment manager Sean Lehmann makes dozens of presentations a year–often to employees about their companies’ 401(k) plans. It’s not unusual for him to look into the audience and see the dreaded eyes-glazed-over look. “The material can get kind of dry,” he admits. Ovation injects new life into the standard PowerPoint slide show–allowing Lehmann to, say, place his slide data into a home office environment, so the bullet points move from the animated computer to the to-do list to the appointment book. At a recent presentation, Lehmann could tell the visual gymnastics were making a difference. “Instead of leaning back with their arms folded, they were all sitting up straight, looking ahead, some taking notes,” he says. “We got their attention.” Price: $99.95 Best For… Groovy graphics Keynote 3 Cool Features: In the unending battle between Macintosh and PC users, Keynote wields one of Apple’s most potent weapons–super-rich visuals. Designed by and for Mac users, Keynote presenters incorporate 3-D images, a wide variety of shapes and textures, plus sharp photography and animation. In Action: Richard Warner, CEO of What’s Up Interactive, was just starting his presentation to the Technology Association of Georgia last year when through his earpiece he could hear the chatter of the venue’s audio-visual squad. “As I was beginning my presentation, one of them said: ‘Damn, what is that? It’s beautiful.’ Another responded: ‘I’m sure it’s Keynote.’ ‘Can we get that?’ ‘No, it’s just for Macs.’ ” Audience members seemed equally impressed. Three of them are now his clients. Price: Licensing fees start at $69 per seat per year for 10 to 99 users. Best For… Staying on schedule Thermometer for PowerPoint Cool Features: Thermometer for PowerPoint is just what it says it is: a thermometer-style bar that sits in the bottom area of each slide, displaying how much of a presentation has progressed and how much remains. The tool can be customized to be seen by the presenter, the audience, or both. In Action: Most presentations go on way too long, says Geetesh Bajaj, a technology consultant and author of Cutting Edge PowerPoint for Dummies. He developed the thermometer to make sure that didn’t happen to him during his own client presentations. The gauge keeps him on schedule and ensures he gives enough time to each slide; even better, he no longer finds himself rushing through the end of his slides when time is running out. In fact, Bajaj likes the tool so much that he shares it for free on his company’s website; so far some 100,000 people have downloaded it. Price: Free Best For… Presentations on the road (or even off-road) Panasonic Toughbook CF-18 Cool Features: This laptop is built for abuse–a shock-, dust-, and spill-resistant machine designed to operate while bouncing around in trucks, at construction sites, and on factory floors. Features include an LCD screen, integrated wireless, and a tablet PC function that recognizes handwriting. In Action: To sell their computerized measurement devices, execs at Faro Technologies, based in Lake Mary, Florida, give presentations under harsh conditions. Once, while making a presentation at a St. Louis factory, a Faro rep knocked his Toughbook off its perch and it crashed five feet to the shop floor. Not only did the machine not break, says David Morse, a vice president of sales, it didn’t even stop running its application. Price: $3,000 to $5,000, depending upon configurations Best For… The “wow” factor Ontra Presenter Cool Features: In addition to the standard charts and text, Ontra allows users to easily incorporate video, audio, and animation and can make a presentation seem more like network television than the standard slide show. Ontra can work alongside PowerPoint, or replace it entirely. In Action: Sales execs at Tribune Entertainment rely on flashy presentations to help convince national advertisers to purchase time on its syndicated programming. In the past, that often required using a laptop computer, a VHS player, a DVD player, and a monitor. Ontra combines standard informational slides with digitized video clips–and the entire presentation runs off a single laptop. “Now that we’re not trying to juggle three machines and all their moving parts, we can focus on giving our pitch,” says Clark Morehouse, a senior vice president. Price: $250 per month to $10,000 per month, depending on the number of users and the range of features desired

About 2609 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Traveling Light

Never mind the festive name–there’s nothing remotely amusing about hanging around a baggage “carousel,” much less waiting (and praying) for a missing bag to show up. Frequent business fliers know that checking bags is, well, for suckers. On the other hand, travelers who kid themselves that their steamer trunks on wheels really deserve a place in increasingly crowded overhead compartments make few friends. A recent survey by Carlson Wagonlit Travel, a Minneapolis-based travel consultancy, found that “people not checking bags when they should” is one of the most common peeves among travelers worldwide–ahead of crying babies, even. And that make-or-break sprint to the gate is going to be more like a slow- motion slog if you’re lugging a too-heavy carryon. The good news is that packing light is easier than ever. Not only are high-tech gadgets getting slimmer and more versatile, but mundane must-haves such as toothbrushes, razors, and alarm clocks–even the bags themselves–are benefiting from advanced engineering and a dose of good design. These items will help you upgrade (and downsize) your travel kit, so you can avoid both the evil stares and the dreaded merry-go-round of the checked-bag masses. Etymotic Research ER-6 earphones With these high-tech noise-isolating earphones, you’ll hear only what you want to. They work with MP3 players, portable DVD players, and laptops. 0.5 oz. | $140 | www.etymotic.com Plantronics Discovery 640 Bluetooth headset Charge this lightweight wireless headset with your cell phone adapter, or, when there’s no plug in sight, use its AAA battery pocket charger for 15 hours of talk time. 0.3 oz. | $150 | www.plantronics.com Dakota travel clock Wake-up calls can be so jarring. This tiny clock has an alarm that gradually increases in frequency and volume until you turn it off. Made of stainless steel, it has a flip-open lid that doubles as a stand. 3 oz. | $35 | www.magellans.com Panasonic electric razor Go electric and leave the shaving cream behind. Just half an inch thick, this razor runs on two AAA batteries. 4.4 oz. | $60 | www.panasonic.com Victorinox Paratrooper garment bag Clothes hang slimmer than they fold and tend to stay wrinkle-free. This isn’t the lightest garment bag out there, but it’s well made, is roomy enough for a few days’ worth of clothes, and folds up small enough to slide under the seat in front of you. 5.5 lb. | $280 | www.swissarmy.com Tumi Vista computer sleeve You’ve got a slim laptop–why carry a bulky computer bag? This small sleeve is the perfect size for a compact laptop and slips easily into a carryon. 9.9 oz. | $75 | www.tumi.com Sony Vaio TX610P/B notebook This state-of-the-art laptop works with Cingular’s nationwide EDGE network, letting you log on wirelessly anywhere–hot spot or not. And it’s really little–smaller than an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper, and about an inch thick. 2.8 lb. | $1,900 | www.sonystyle.com Heys XCase carryon Sized to meet the carryon requirements of most airlines, this 20-inch-long “rolly” weighs about half what most others do and has a comfortable, sturdy handle. The polycarbonate shell comes in nine colors–but some users have complained that it scratches easily. 5.4 lb. | $80 | www.ebags.com iGo Juice70 universal notebook adapter No need for that jumble of cords and chargers. Using interchangeable plug-in tips, this adapter can charge your laptop, cell phone, MP3 player, and wireless headset from wall, auto, or airplane outlets. 8.6 oz. | $120 | www.igo.com Palm Treo 700w The 700w’s Windows Mobile operating system means you can edit Word and Excel documents, view PowerPoint presentations, and use Outlook and Internet Explorer. So you may even be able to ditch the laptop. It’s a phone, too, by the way. 6.4 oz. | $400 | www.palm.com Ipod Nano There’s just no sleeker, slimmer way to tote your tunes–up to 1,000 of them. The Nano is pencil-thin and can go up to 14 hours between charges. 1.5 oz. | $250 | www.apple.com Pop-up hair brush Don’t let a bulky brush put a bump in your otherwise streamlined toiletries kit. Folded, this one’s just 4.5 inches long. Keep it in pocket or purse for “jet head” emergencies. 1.8 oz. | $5 | www.magellans.com Pashmina shawl Made of three-ply, 100 percent pashmina cashmere, this shawl folds up thin and multitasks as a clean blanket in-flight and a versatile extra layer on the ground. 8.4 oz. | $80 | www.thepashminastore.com Pocket umbrella Let a smile be your umbrella and you could show up all wet for your meeting. Instead, pack this. Just six inches long when folded, the Teflon-coated rain shedder opens up to a standard 40-inch diameter. 7 oz. | $15 | www.sharperimage.com Eye mask This comfortable mask is invaluable on the red-eye, or when convincingly feigning sleep is the only escape from a chatty seatmate. 0.4 oz. | $5 | www.pb-travel.com OHSO toothbrush Load the hollow handle of this toothbrush with toothpaste, screw the watertight cap over the brush head, and go. When it’s time to freshen up, a turn of the end pushes toothpaste up onto the bristles. 1.4 oz. | $20 | www.go-ohso.com Nalgene travel set These durable, leakproof containers come in handy one-, two-, and four-ounce sizes so you can pack just enough of your favorite shampoo, conditioner, and moisturizer. 3.3 oz. | $10 | www.llbean.com Aluminum suit hanger In a garment bag, these are strong enough to hang a suit on, or a couple of days’ worth of pants and shirts. 3.8 oz. | $10 for three | www.containerstore.com Sierra Designs down Sleepies Perfect for a quick jaunt up and down the plane aisle or the hotel hallway, these soft slippers are warm and lightweight, and crumple up for easy packing. 3.2 oz. | $24 | www.sierradesigns.com Total weight of suitcase and travel gear: 12.2 lb.

About 3186 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Cell Phone Madness

At first glance, it seems like a bad deal, a kind of techno demotion. But Gregg Davis, CIO of Webcor Building, a San Mateo, Calif., construction company, is making the pitch anyway: You give me your notebook computer, he’s telling his employees, and I’ll give you a new cell phone. Of course, these are no ordinary phones. They’re more like hot rods, supercharged beyond recognition. Packed with 32 megabytes of memory, a 144-megahertz processor, a thumb keyboard, and a 1.8-inch color screen, the slick-looking devices come loaded with Palm organizer software and a Blazer Web browser, and can run Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, and other core business applications. Users can read and send e-mail, view PDFs, inspect and make changes to documents, review change orders, and even pull up drawings to inspect with architects at construction sites. They can also call the office to check voice mail. “I feel more connected than I did with my notebook,” says Webcor CFO Tim J. Lutz. The phone is a Treo 600, made by Handspring, and so far about 20 Webcor employees have traded in their laptops for one. Davis sweetened the deal by throwing in a new desktop computer, but each trade-in still saves Webcor money. The price of its standard notebook, about $1,800, is more than the cost of a Treo and a typical desktop combined. What’s more, support costs for notebooks run much higher than for desktops, while cellular communications costs have gone up only about $10 a month per user. Just a year ago, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to do what Webcor is doing. There were some decent handheld e-mail readers, notably the BlackBerry from Research In Motion, based in Waterloo, Ontario. But it was hard to get other applications on the screen, and the devices didn’t work very well as cell phones. As a result, most executives traveled with a PDA, a mobile phone, and a notebook computer. But so-called “smart phones” like the Treo 600, which hit the market about a year ago, are beginning to change that. In 2004, just 9% of the cell phones shipped in North America were smart phones. In 2005, the number is expected to hit nearly 18%, according to the Zelos Group in San Francisco. “People who access information and respond to it in, say, small e-mails, are going to quickly find that they don’t need their notebooks,” says Andrew M. Seybold, president of Outlook4Mobility, a consultancy in Santa Barbara, Calif. Even people who write reports and perform data entry tasks will find themselves leaving the notebook behind on trips of less than three days, Seybold says. Even people who write reports and do data entry will find themselves leaving their notebook computers behind. Laptops, of course, aren’t going away anytime soon and for some kinds of employees, never will. No smart phone is smart enough to run animated PowerPoint presentations or be used for, say, three- or four-dimensional modeling. But thanks to a confluence of technology trends — better hardware, faster cellular networks, more sophisticated software, and a new ability to make them all work together — more road warriors will be leaving the laptop behind. As these four trends gather steam, expect this year’s smart phones to become next year’s superphones. Cooler Hardware Danny Shader, CEO of Good Technology, a Sunnyvale, Calif., outfit whose Goodlink software has helped transform cell phones into smart phones, expects to see an explosion of such devices over the next year. These phones will be packed with as much as 500 megabytes of memory and come in a menagerie of shapes and sizes. Many will feature color displays, which will be brighter and easier to read. Keyboards — whether the “thumb-boards” made popular by BlackBerry or new, unusual slide-out designs — will be commonplace. Motorola’s MPX smart phone, due out later this year, is one of several phones that will open up to look like miniature notebook computers, right down to the QWERTY keyboard. Seimens, for its part, is taking the keyboard in even weirder directions: The company is developing the SX-1, a phone that uses a laser to project a virtual full-size keyboard onto a flat surface. There’s more. Nvidia, beloved by gamers for its superfast graphics chips, now makes chipsets for cell phones, which will allow videoconferencing and let you download and view video-based presentations. Intel has developed similar technology. Meanwhile, processors for phones are getting faster, headed toward the 600-megahertz range. That’s slower than many desktop and laptop computers but still fast enough to read e-mail and run many Web applications and basic documents. Also on the way: dual-mode Wi-Fi phones, which can switch between a cellular network and a company’s own computer network. Philips, for its part, is readying chipsets to turn phones into AM/FM radios, or to receive digital satellite transmissions. Such gee-whiz features are aimed primarily at consumers and signal just how much change is coming to the plain old cell phone. The price tag for such phones: between $450 and $800, with a service agreement, though prices are expected to drop in 2005. One word of caution: “Just because you can do all those things doesn’t mean you wind up with a computer,” says Seamus McAteer, senior analyst at the Zelos Group. One big problem with these new devices, McAteer points out, is the state of the wireless communications networks. As any cell phone user knows, there are still plenty of dead spots out there. What’s more, most networks transmit data at 20 to 30 kilobits per second. That’s much faster than networks were a couple of years ago, but even a slow DSL line runs at about 350 kilobits a second. Wireless providers like Verizon and Sprint are working to upgrade their networks, but until they do, viewing webpages on your superphone will take some patience. Sophisticated Software Still, software providers are hard at work, creating new platforms to make the process run more smoothly. Research In Motion and Good Technology, for example, are working on applications that will make it possible for smart phones to run heavy-duty corporate applications. And a host of other outfits, ranging from behemoths like Microsoft to tiny start-ups, are targeting the business smart-phone user. James L. Balsillie, chairman and co-CEO of RIM, predicts “astounding” changes here. “You’re going to see a 10-times increase in application diversity,” he says. Here’s a short list of what’s on the way: Orative Corp., a start-up in San Jose, Calif., makes software that treats phone calls like e-mail, giving businesses the ability to send phone messages with subject lines, urgency tags, and status alerts (such as, “Always ring if it’s the CEO”). Software by Chicago-based BridgePort Networks links cellular and corporate Ethernet networks, allowing cell phones to run on voice over Internet protocol. This will be particularly helpful if you’re in a foreign country without the right kind of cell phone — just plug the phone into your computer and use the Internet to make the call. BridgePort’s software is currently being tested at several large phone companies, and it hopes to announce its first deals this fall. Pulling It All Together Making all this technology work together can still cause migraines, particularly for smaller companies that lack in-house tech talent. Fortunately, there are outsourced services from companies like Centerbeam, based in San Jose, and LAN Logic, based in Livermore, Calif., that will handle the heavy-duty network back-end and server software, so that smaller businesses can start using superphones without having to maintain the software. This is of particular use because it’s still a challenge to get the software and hardware to work well together over cellular networks. “You can do a lot of stuff, but it’s so complex and cumbersome,” says Tony Davis, CEO of Tira Wireless, a Canadian company that publishes cell phone applications. Davis had hoped to see far more smart-phone applications available by now, but as is often the case with wireless anything, it’s taken longer than expected. Still, he’s convinced that 2005 will see the emergence of cell phones as serious business tools. Webcor’s Gregg Davis, for his part, expects to have more employees clamoring to exchange their notebook computers. It’s easy to see why. Before getting their hands on the Treo 600s, managers at job sites would generally see e-mail only at the beginning and end of each day. Now, they’re in touch throughout the day. And it’s not just e-mail messages. While traveling one day, for example, Davis needed to look at a sophisticated network topography diagram. The document was far too large and complicated to view on the Treo’s tiny screen. But rather than cursing himself for leaving his laptop behind, Davis downloaded the document, put it on a flash-memory card (a sort of portable and tiny hard drive), and then viewed it on a nearby PC with a bigger screen. Not a techno demotion, after all.

About 3278 days ago Business Software

Bill’s Excellent Adventure

Many companies talk about getting close to the customer, but Microsoft pushed this idea to the extreme when it hired Nelle Steele to show up at 5 in the morning at the Milwaukee home of Tim Tucker. The owner of Air Engineering Inc., a supplier of industrial air compressor parts, is Microsoft’s model customer. Steele’s mission was to observe Tucker at close range, arriving as soon as he stepped out of the shower, then shadowing him until his workday ended at 10:30 p.m. Steele, a cultural anthropology Ph.D. student on leave from the University of Wisconsin, is one of five anthropologist-ethnographers (and the only one focused on entrepreneurs) that Microsoft hired full-time to conduct a field study. Called “Dawn to Dusk,” the study documents the work habits and thought processes of a species the software behemoth had never before tried to understand: owners and employees of small businesses. In tailing her quarry, Steele discovered, to her surprise, that small companies kept vital information in disconnected places — what she called “data silos” — from scribbled notes on scraps of paper to files on a PC that could be accessed by only one employee. This made it harrowing to try to answer basic questions like, “How did we do in the Northeast last quarter?” “I saw the pain that data silos caused day to day,” says Steele. Her work is part of Microsoft’s $2 billion research and development effort aimed at convincing these tribes of technological primitives to join the modern world. While most of that is earmarked to improve products, a lot of it is going to spreading the word. That’s in addition to two recent acquisitions — Great Plains and Navision business management software at another $2.4 billion — to enhance its offerings for small business. Even for Microsoft, with $50 billion in cash in the bank, that’s a major investment. Microsoft has started trying to care about these customers. Why us, you might ask, and why now? Partly it’s because “enterprise” customers, those that have more than 1,000 employees and 500 PCs, aren’t spending on tech the way they used to. So the industry’s top names, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell, have started going after the littler fish. Even among this crowd, though, Microsoft’s push into small business is remarkably fervent and richly funded — and for a good reason: competition. There are two parts to the story that follows: the first is the challenge Microsoft faces and the criticism it has endured in the past. The second is what Microsoft is doing — with a degree of success — about both. Microsoft’s push into small business is remarkably fervent and richly funded — and for a good reason: competition. Today, 90% of small and midsize businesses run on the Microsoft platform, says Mika Krammer, an analyst at Gartner, a research firm. That’s a stranglehold on this enormous market of 8 million companies in the U.S. and 40 million worldwide. Globally, these companies pay almost as much for info tech — $400 billion a year — as America spends on defense. But despite its long history of dominance, Microsoft faces a looming threat from Linux and the insurgent open-source “free software” movement. Linux could do what the Justice Department couldn’t: end the era of Microsoft’s near monopoly and strip a sizable chunk of its sales and profits in the coming decade. Many industry analysts and media critics think that Linux is more secure and reliable than Windows, a prime target for hackers. Entrepreneurs have been paying close attention to the debate. Two of their biggest role models — Amazon and Google — now rely on Linux to run their websites. At a Yankee Group conference in San Francisco in March, small-business owners commiserated with one another about Microsoft’s disappointing customer support and their dislike of paying licensing and upgrade fees. They griped about how Microsoft’s new releases often seemed more like beta software — test versions with plenty of kinks — than reliable finished products, and they bemoaned the software’s vulnerability to viruses and the constant need for patches. With mighty IBM putting its clout behind Linux, some small businesses are starting to convert, often with impressive results. Satellite Records, a 35-employee music retailer in New York City, made the switch after IT director Steve Shapero found Microsoft’s software simply too high-maintenance. “It’s like American cars and Japanese cars,” says Shapero. “Do you want a Chevy Impala or a Honda Accord? It’s great that Detroit and Microsoft are finally making things that don’t suck, but we’d rather have the state of the art.” Shapero said that Microsoft server software would require a full-time person to keep it running, which the company didn’t want. “As an independent consultant I like to set up a Linux box, deploy it, and ideally never hear from my client again,” he says. Other customers were motivated by cost savings from not having licensing fees. Westport Rivers Winery, a 20-person family business in Westport, Mass., cut its annual tech budget by 60% with Linux, according to an IBM case study. Rob Meyer, Internet director for Anaconda Sports, a 200-person sporting goods distributor in Lake Katrine, N.Y., says it saves around $3,000 a year on licensing fees now. What’s more, small-business owners still feel a residue of fear from Microsoft’s long history of abusing power in its quest for total dominance. They remember how the company tried to hijack their websites in 2001 with SmartTags, an aborted Windows feature that would have turned many of their own words into links to Microsoft’s sites and advertisers’ without asking their consent. And they read about Microsoft’s vendetta against guitar-string maker Ernie Ball, based in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Four years ago, the founder’s son and CEO, Sterling Ball, was a victim of a “nail your boss” campaign by the Business Software Alliance, a trade group that Microsoft co-founded. BSA raided the operation and found that a few of its 80 computers had unpaid copies of Microsoft products. Ball said it was an accident, a case of unused programs left over on old PCs when they were passed from engineers to clerks. But he still had to pay $90,000 in fines and legal fees. Microsoft sent the news clips to other small companies as a threat. Since switching to Linux, Ball has saved more money than he lost in the contretemps. “The money that I’m not spending on new versions of Office and on fighting viruses is going into marketing and R&D,” he says. Now that it fully grasps the Linux threat, Microsoft isn’t being so heavy-handed with small businesses. Instead, the company is trying shrewdly to make its own claims of parity or superiority. Executives dispute Linux’s claims of better security and reliability and point out that “free software” isn’t actually free because you need to hire people to install, maintain, and customize it. (That’s how rivals, particularly IBM, are looking to profit.) Still, Linux is “a real threat, and we take it seriously,” says Darren Huston, the Microsoft vice president who leads U.S. initiatives for small and midsize businesses. The stakes are stunningly high — a $400 billion-a-year global market! — and this is going to be an epic battle waged over a long time. Krammer says that Microsoft will continue to dominate that market for several years because smaller customers are often slow to switch to new software and most buyers won’t really consider Linux until it becomes more mainstream. Besides, there aren’t yet many business programs based on Linux, and those that are available, such as Sun’s StarOffice, aren’t as good as Microsoft’s offerings. Microsoft remains vulnerable, however, because small-business owners resent being captive to such a powerful force and not having viable choices. A January Yankee Group survey of companies with fewer than 500 employees found that 43% of them are concerned about becoming overly reliant on Microsoft’s products and services; of those respondents, 72% were actively seeking alternative vendors. “Microsoft’s challenge,” says Krammer, “is to go from being a necessary evil to something that small businesses like to invest in.” Improvements are being made, but there is always room for more. In April Microsoft launched a revamped and much easier-to-use Web portal at www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness. Still, you might have to wait half an hour when calling customer service. Even more frustrating is how Microsoft keeps smaller customers at arm’s length by forcing them to work through intermediaries — local consultants who sell Microsoft’s software, set it up, show buyers how to use it, or write their own software to work with it. There are some 325,000 of these folks, who go by awkward acronyms and names such as “VARs” (value-added resellers), “ISVs” (independent software vendors), and “certified partners” (individuals who have passed training courses run by Microsoft). Small businesses hook up with these “partners” mainly through word of mouth, but if you’re an entrepreneur with little tech savvy, it’s hard to know whether your accountant’s sister-in-law or your lawyer’s fraternity brother is the best person to apply software to the challenges of your business. To help, Microsoft’s newly redesigned Web page has a “partner finder” to identify local consultants and their areas of training and expertise. The cottage industry of Microsoft’s partners is getting some big new players. Both HP and Dell are starting to hawk their consulting services to businesses with fewer than 500 employees. IBM is reaching out to entrepreneurs too, but rarely dips below the 500- to 1,000-employee range. While all three companies embrace Linux, they also promote Microsoft’s products as part of their overall packages for clients. Although finding the right partner and setting up a new software system can be stressful, there’s a compelling reason for sticking it out: Microsoft now offers many extremely useful products for small and midsize businesses. Microsoft divides this huge market into two parts: The 7.5 million “small” businesses with fewer than 50 employees, with no more than 25 PCs and with a maximum of $5 million in annual revenue. The 330,000 “midmarket” companies with fewer than 1,000 employees have up to 500 PCs and up to $500 million in revenue. The smallest businesses probably don’t have a PC network or even a professional info-tech employee. These start-ups can benefit from Small Business Center (formerly bCentral), a set of Web-based services hosted by Microsoft on its own computers. The pitch is that it’s like hiring Microsoft to be your info-tech department for a monthly or annual rental fee, usually after a 30-day free trial. First developed in 1999, the services — aimed at businesses with fewer than 25 employees — have quickly become popular, attracting more than 2 million users in the U.S., Microsoft says. One of them is Jack Marshall, president of Pastry Chef Central in Boca Raton, Fla. His small family business sells baking and pastry tools through pastrychef.com. “It’s supercheap,” Marshall says of Microsoft’s “shopping-cart” services, which cost only $249 a year (excluding credit card verification fees, which are billed by a third-party partner). “You can’t beat it.” And even though Microsoft can’t give the little guy all the powerful features of an Amazon, “they’re moving toward that,” he says. Marshall particularly likes the new “order status link” that sends e-mail purchase confirmations to customers with Web links so they can check on delivery without having to contact the company: “That’s been a fabulous timesaver for us.” Besides time, there’s the money: Microsoft says that the top 100 customers for Small Business Center’s e-commerce service averaged $43,000 in revenue last December. Small Business Center also offers ListBuilder, which enables companies to send mass e-mails to customers to let them know about sales or other news. Microsoft handles the mailing, then tracks who opened the messages and were inspired to visit the sender’s website. The cost: $29.95 a month or $299 a year. Microsoft surveyed 100 ListBuilder clients and found that businesses sent e-mails to an average of 30,000 customers, though some had amassed lists of more than 100,000 names. (Microsoft says it does not keep e-mail addresses for its own use.) One of Microsoft’s most useful hosted Web services is SharePoint, which allows colleagues to share information and collaborate with one another and their customers. SharePoint is sadly underused by small businesses, but it’s a smart idea. In a Microsoft case study, Jeff Williams, president and owner of Carolina’s Choice, a furniture manufacturer in Rocky Mount, N.C., says SharePoint allowed his company to make up-to-date sales information available 24 hours a day to a network of 700 furniture dealers (the cost: $19.95 introductory price, then $39.95 monthly). As fledgling companies grow, Microsoft wants to wean them from paying monthly rental fees to investing in licensed software installed on PCs (which is how Microsoft has always made most of its money). The staple of the desktop PC has long been Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint), which boasts 400 million users worldwide. “Everyone I hire out of college can use it,” says Eric Meslow, president of Timbercon, a 30-person, $4.5 million fiber optics manufacturer in Portland, Oreg. That gives Microsoft a big advantage over Linux, which often requires training. The latest twist: Last October, Microsoft introduced Office Small Business Edition 2003, which lists for $449, while earlier Office users can pay an upgrade price of $279. The prices are up to $50 higher than the standard version, but Microsoft throws in two compelling programs. First, Business Contact Manager consolidates all the information you have about a customer, a dramatic improvement over the haphazard data silos discovered by Nelle Steele that could spell lost leads or missed sales opportunities. The program can identify long-neglected sales accounts or alert you to what’s coming up in the pipeline in the next seven days. Timbercon’s Meslow says that before his salespeople had this “sales funnel” feature, it took them an hour a day to monitor their accounts. Now it takes “about two minutes,” he says. Meslow figures that saves a total of 20 hours a month for his typical salesperson, who generates an average of $150 to $200 an hour. Office’s other addition, Publisher, is a tool for creating websites, e-mail newsletters, and other marketing materials so you don’t have to hire professional design firms or printers. Timbercon saved $72,000 in the first year by designing portions of its website and product data sheets. “Publisher was one of the larger surprises of the new line for us,” Meslow says. “Five years ago you could tell if something was created in Publisher. Now it looks professionally done, and it’s relatively easy to use.” It’s also fast, he says. A project that once took three weeks for outside firms to design and print can be created in-house within a week. “Five years ago you could tell if something was created in Publisher. Now it looks professionally done.” Terry Szpak, VP of marketing and sales at Telesystems West, an 18-person, $2.5 million company in Bellevue, Wash., that sells and installs phone systems, estimates sales rose $5,000 to $10,000 a month thanks to Publisher. Over its first dozen years, Telesystems had put together a database of 5,000 customers, but employees were too busy to create or manage promotions to sell additional products. With Publisher they were able to turn out flyers and e-mails. “It’s hitting people who already trust us,” Szpak says. “Marketing to our existing customer base has been a boon.” Office and Business Center provide benefits to companies with multiple PCs hooked up only through the Internet or what’s known as the “sneaker net” — people simply walking around, a likely scenario for a start-up. But as the business grows, even greater opportunities can come from setting up a PC network with a separate machine dedicated as a server. About 7 million of America’s 8 million small businesses still don’t have a server, according to Microsoft. It charges $599 to license its Small Business Server software for five users, and Dell and HP both sell the hardware with this software already installed for under $1,000. (Customers can later expand by licensing up to 75 users before they have to switch to a more capable product.) The investment usually pays for itself quickly. A server makes it easier to back up data that might otherwise reside on isolated PCs. It lets employees look at each other’s calendars and contacts, hook up to the network remotely, and share software for business functions such as accounting and inventory. Having a server enables a company to host a SharePoint intranet, which is how the Fischer Group changed the way it did business. The 23-person, $10 million Orange, Calif., food manufacturer representative firm had relied on old-fashioned paper files for purchase orders, contracts, contact information, and memos. They were often misplaced. Worse, employees could only get to the files during business hours. “Our biggest problem was wasting time and money physically handling job documents,” says Gene Austin, the company’s general manager. “It was like putting $100 bills in a pile and setting them on fire.” Once Fischer digitized this material, finding information and responding to customers became easier and faster. Small Business Server also provides security for a company’s network, an area where many small businesses are turning to Linux, including Timbercon, which runs its firewall on an open-source software server. Even though Microsoft still relies on its partners, it’s trying much harder to make direct contact with its customers. The company now offers free seminars for small businesses in 160 cities, many of them far-flung rural outposts like Casper, Wyo. Cynthia Bates, Microsoft’s general manager for U.S. small business, says that everyone on her team has to spend one day a month working for a customer’s company to see what daily life is like. “We want to humanize Microsoft rather than be the company in the backroom,” says her boss, Darren Huston. Meanwhile, our intrepid cultural anthropologist Nelle Steele has begun a new two and a half year study called Small Business Better Together, which is applying technology to three small companies in the Seattle area. The owner of one of the three didn’t want customers to wind up with voice mail; he insisted that an employee take a message. But these employees relied on sticky notes applied to computers or chairs. When these fell off, the customer’s needs would go ignored. Microsoft responded by buying new hardware and donating software. Now, Steele reports, “people are taking messages for each other in Outlook.” The notes haven’t gone away entirely. Some things stick for a long time, and no amount of technology will change that. Sidebar: Microsoft a la carte Info-tech options for your small business Small Business Center (formerly bCentral) What It Is: Online services for hosting e-commerce websites, processing customers’ orders, developing sales leads, and launching e-mail marketing campaigns Pros And Cons: Microsoft rents many useful Web-based services on a monthly or annual basis, though the other options — especially eBay — are popular with small merchants and with customers. Alternatives: Amazon, eBay, Yahoo Office Small Business Edition 2003 What It Is: Tools for creating and editing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and marketing materials; managing e-mail and calendars; and tracking contacts and leads Pros And Cons: Everyone’s already trained on Microsoft’s excellent suite, the global standard with 400 million users, but OpenOffice is a viable option — and it’s free. Alternatives: OpenOffice, Sun’s StarOffice Small Business Server What It Does: Runs and provides security for PC networks Pros And Cons: It’s a good product. But Microsoft charges $599 for five users, while open-source rivals like Apache are free — and critics say they offer lower maintenance costs and better security. Alternatives: Apache, EmergeCore IT-100, Novell’s Small Business Suite, Red Hat Linux Alan Deutschman is a writer living in San Francisco and Roanoke, Va.

About 3370 days ago Computer Security

Reinventing the PowerPoint

Pop quiz time. Which doesn’t belong on the following list of business tools: mimeograph; overhead projector; flip chart; PowerPoint? Actually, it’s a trick question. None of the items belong–not in today’s sensory-straining world of technology-based marketing. It’s a ubiquitous piece of business software, but let’s face it: Microsoft PowerPoint, now 17 years old, is dull. Bullet points, cheesy graphics, and bland templates can’t compete with Flash animation, streaming video, and the bells and whistles used to add excitement to business presentations and sales pitches. Who hasn’t nodded off during a PowerPoint pie-chart parade? But don’t scrap your PowerPoint just yet. A slew of software products now hitting the market lets entrepreneurs jazz up their PowerPoint pitches with audio and video in just a few minutes. Best of all, these new eye-catching presentations can be shown in person, stored on your website, or e-mailed to sales prospects, generating a far bigger bang than static slides ever could. Steve Solari knows. Last year, the marketing director of edocs, based in Natick, Mass., launched a major electronic marketing campaign. Using e-mails based on edocs’ standard PowerPoint presentation, Solari sent tens of thousands of messages hawking the company’s electronic bill-paying software. The response rates weren’t bad–between 1% and 3%. But Solari was convinced he could do better. So last December, he began sending a slick, self-running PowerPoint presentation with a three- to five-minute audio track explaining the finer points of edocs’ product. Response rates hit a consistent 3% or higher, and potential customers seem more engaged when edocs sales reps call on them. “It’s that much more compelling,” Solari says. The upgrades were easy. Solari took his basic PowerPoint slides and overlaid recorded narrations, using presentation software from developer Brainshark, based in Burlington, Mass. When he was done, Solari e-mailed the audio-enhanced versions to sales prospects and linked them to edocs’ website as downloadable webinars. Brainshark is not the only company wading into the so-called “media-enhancement software” market. Others include San Francisco-based Macromedia and Anystream, based in Sterling, Va. All of the applications allow you to take ordinary PowerPoint slide presentation and, using a microphone–or, if the particular software supports it, a Web camera or digital-video recorder–add sound and/or images. Once recorded, the program syncs the audio and video with the slides and creates a searchable index, allowing viewers to skip ahead or replay a segment. The souped-up presentation can then be e-mailed or copied to a hard drive or CD. Your new presentation won’t just be prettier. It’ll be smarter, too. Brainshark and Macromedia, for example, offer Web-based features that allow you to monitor exactly how much time your target audience spends on your presentation–knowledge that can help you hone future pitches. “Before, there was no way of demonstrating the effectiveness” of a presentation, says Arthur Fox, vice president of Change Architect, a 25-person management-consulting company in Montclair, Va., who recently began souping up his presentations with Macromedia’s Breeze software. Sure, the flashy graphics are great. But Fox is even more excited about the new reporting capabilities. “We can now provide clients with reports that demonstrate who has read the material,” he says. In most cases, presentations are hosted on the publishers’ servers and accessed via the Web; clients are charged based on usage. Take Anystream’s new presentation product, Apreso Online. For $29.95 to $49.95 a month, you can upload presentations; if the presentation is viewed more than 50 times in a month, you’ll be charged extra. Brainshark charges businesses with 50 or fewer employees $8,500 for annual access to its hosted service, plus about $1.50 per view. And Macromedia, whose Breeze presentation software is popular among larger companies, typically charges some $20,000 a year, though it is developing a pricing model for smaller businesses. For some companies, that’s too much money. But for others, such new software will be a small amount to pay to ensure that PowerPoint no longer puts your clients to sleep.