Tag Archives: Yugma.com

About 1968 days ago Business Software

Test the Waters: Migrate to Open Source

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Loading your laptop with some version of Linux used to be the private domain of hardcore geeks, certainly not something anyone running a business would ever think of doing. But no more. “I’m using Ubuntu Linux on my laptop, and I can say it’s a lot more stable than Windows ever was,” says Mario Pommier, vice president of business development at Webjogger Internet Service, in New York’s Hudson Valley. “I don’t have the old Windows problem of memory being used up when running five or six programs simultaneously, and I love the mutliple desktops Linux gives me.” “It still took a little tweaking, but I can use it for all my business needs now, both on the road and in the office,” Pommier says.  Spurred by Web apps and virtualization A growing number of small and mid-size businesses — some put off by Microsoft’s latest operating system (OS) upgrade, Vista — are testing the waters by migrating some staff or certain functions to open source-based products. The trend is also being fueled by two other factors: the rise of Web-based applications and virtualization. The increasing availability of Internet-based collaboration tools negates the need to use any particular OS. The growth of collaboration software like Zoho, Yugma, Google Documents, and many other Web applications makes it far easier to do much of the same work on any OS, without any of the compatibility issues that comes with using PC-based software. The other factor is the advent of dependable virtualization technology, making it possible to run several OS’s on one PC. This neatly eliminates the potentially high cost of replacing software that will only run on XP, or 2000, or Vista. With virtualization, all things at least seem possible. At the LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco last August, Dell CTO Kevin Kettler predicted in his keynote speech that desktop virtualization will provide the missing link for Linux to shine on the corporate desktop. “A lot of people are predicting that next year could be the year where we really see an explosive growth of Linux on the desktop in business applications, ” Kettler said at the time. How to start your migration If you find that Linux does indeed fit into your company needs, and you feel it’s time to consider changing, then make sure you first acquaint your office workers with the Windows version of OpenOffice before making the final move to the new OS. A full migration to Linux might be a bit daunting, but if your workers are at least comfortable with the open source alternative to MS Office, then it’s not insurmountable. Considering how different the Vista version of Office is from previous versions, the learning curve to swap over to OpenOffice is likely easier than trying to learn the newest MS Office anyway, some experts say. Certainly, the idea of being able to use an operating system that’s free of licensing fees as well as a more stable, robust platform, can be tempting to small business owners. If you have workers who aren’t dependent on proprietary software, it might make sense to let a few give a Linux desktop a trial run, and see if it’s a viable alternative. Using a virtual machine software, like VMware, you can easily load any Linux version on an existing Windows installation without losing your Windows system. It’s even more stable to do the reverse — have a computer with Linux installed running a virtual instance of Windows. Alternatively, Linux makes it quite easy to dip your company’s toes in and test the open source waters with a “live CD.” Many distributions, like Ubuntu, Knoppix, Mepis, and many other desktop oriented distributions offer this option. Simply boot your computer from the CD, and it will load with a fully functional Linux system, complete with tons of software. Once you’re done testing, simply remove the CD and reboot, and you’ll be back to whatever you have installed, with no changes. If you find Linux works for some of your company needs, then you’ve saved money, not to mention gaining a potentially stronger desktop OS. If, however, you find it doesn’t work for your needs, then at least you know, and won’t have that nagging “what if” hanging in the back of your head. Either way, exploring all your options is good business.

About 1999 days ago Telecom and Wireless

Low-Cost — and Free — Collaboration Tools

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Working with others real-time via the Internet brings remote staff, contractors, and clients into the fold, making it almost like being right there in the office with whoever you’re working with. However, until recently, access to software and networking capabilities that make this possible was an expense limited to larger companies. The new crop of collaboration tools now on the Internet include some low cost offerings, as well as some completely free alternatives, bringing collaboration tools within reach of the smallest businesses, even solo contractors.  ”It makes the job of working with designers a much easier prospect,” says Evan Skopp, vice president of sales and marketing for Seymour Duncan, a maker of electric guitar pickups and accessories, “not to mention reducing the time involved from first sketch to finished design.” Speeding up productivity While Seymour Duncan doesn’t use collaboration tools internally, but the designers and contractors he deals with use them, such as Greg Chambers of Chambers Design Group in Santa Barbara, Calif. Chambers tool of choice is GoToMeeting. “The cost is negligible compared to the benefits,” says Chambers. “At $350 for a one year license, GoToMeeting is worth every penny.” GoToMeeting is one of a number of fee-based collaboration services. Others offered as a for-pay solution include Octopz, and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. The new Apple OSX 10.5, Leopard, offers desktop sharing through the Internet. Using collaboration tools can save significant amounts of money and increase production. While many business products are fee based, some of the best ones are free. When you’re trying to make ends meet as a solo or very small business, you can’t easily spring for extras, so free is a very welcome word. While most offer the ability to pay a fee to eliminate ads or gives expanded capabilities, you can get a ton of good work done just by using the basic free versions. Here are some of the free options: Zoho offers the most complete and comprehensive collection of online office applications and collaboration features. Besides the usual word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation tools, it also includes the ability to create a wiki, whiteboard, planner, Web and voice conferencing, chat, and even database creation and management — all for free. Zoho also offers, for a fee, a complete customer relationship management (CRM) package as well as projects management software, both of which you can try out on a limited basis free of charge. But, being free, is it a secure solution? “Privacy protection is our number one concern,” says Ian Wenig, Zoho Director of Business Development. “We’re presently focusing on individuals and [small business] needs, and later we’ll be adding even more security options, like user generated remote backup of all their Zoho data.” Wenig said Zoho keeps the security of their users’ data as a top priority, using top level Tier 4 data center for their data, the same as Google and Microsoft. With multiple levels of redundancy, they do daily backups of all data, and run full firewall, anti-spam, anti-hacking, and anti-virus applications. For transferring data to and from the users, Zoho uses HTTPS encryption, making data transfers secure. Another new collaboration system is Yugma, which offers the ability to do full desktop sharing, no matter what the application, software, or operating system being used. You can set up a completely free Web conference with up to 10 users, share graphics, documents, even video, in a real-time meeting environment. Google is one of the top collaboration offerings, with it’s Google Documents & Spreadsheets. The smooth integration with Google’s other applications makes it an attractive choice for small and mid-sized business collaborators. Other companies offering collaborative tools include Vyew, which allows a user to host live conferences with whiteboard, webcam, and push-to-talk VoIP capabilities; Collanos, calling itself a “shared workplace,” providing documents-oriented collaboration; and ScribLink, a free digital whiteboard with the ability to upload graphics. Another aspect of Internet based collaboration tools is their cross-platform capabilities. Any document you work on in all these collaboration tool sets is saved in their respective company servers, and can be accessed from any computer connected to the Internet. You can start a conference or even a document on one operating system — say, an Apple computer — and invite others in with a PC or Linux computer. The document will look the same, with most of the same functionality as commercial software. This is a big consideration.

About 1999 days ago Telecom and Wireless

Collaboration 101: Why You Need These Tools

Steve Karakas needs to stay in constant touch with his clients. Karakas is strategic branding consultant and partner at marketing firm Nonbox.com. The work they do is very visual, and changes to the design work happen all through the process — from concept to final proof. However, many of Nonbox’s clients are thousands of miles away, from Miami to France and Finland. In fact, his partners’ offices are also spread out. While Karakas is based in Portland, Ore., his Nonbox colleagues are in places as diverse as Wisconsin and Florida. “Often, the ability to meet physically is minimal, if not impossible,” says Karakas. Nonbox has found that the key to managing collective work over long distances is collaboration tools. Almost anything that’s possible in face-to-face meetings can now be done virtually through the various components of a collaboration tool suite. Long-distance communication is made more efficient and effective with the ability for long term teams as well as short-term project groups and outside contractors to work together in real-time. New collaboration tools from vendors Depending on the task at hand, collaborative teams need a matrix of communication tools, including e-mail, IM, forums, wikis, communal whiteboards, video, desktop sharing, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) combined with conferencing, among others. The trick is to find a vendor that offers a suite of tools that fits your business — and your employees’ — needs. “We tried other collaboration systems before we found the one we felt comfortable with, and being an all-Apple company, our choices were more limited,” Karakas says. “We don’t mind the price as long as it does the job.” Karakas expects to lower or even eliminate the cost of their collaboration needs once they upgrade to the newest Apple OS X.5, Leopard, which includes a number of collaborative tools like screen-sharing, video, and slideshows. Apple is not unique. More and more major technology providers, such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Adobe, are joining a number of startups — like Zoho, Vyew, and Yugma — in offering suites of tools meant to increase collaboration between workers. In fact, there seems to be an all-out race happening in the last year or so to create the next great collaboration platform that will juggernaut over the rest of the pack. With the numerous entries available, how can you decide if collaboration tools would benefit your company, and how to choose exactly the right one that will further your business, without draining your available revenue? How to pick collaboration tools for business All too often, companies will choose a collaboration tool based on how easy it is to implement, how much it costs, if it’s compatible with what they already use, and other technical criteria, instead of the actual needs or requirements of the job at hand, and how the end users — the employees — tend to work. If the workers aren’t going to adapt easily and really use the tools to advantage, then all the technical reasoning is meaningless. Better to understand just how your workers tend to collaborate first, and then find the tool that’s right for them. How your workers collaborate in person can provide a clue: Do your in-house brainstorming sessions involve visual work, using whiteboards or printed graphics? Then make sure your team has that ability built into their tools for online collaboration. Do you have documents being worked on by a group? Then perhaps using a sharable online word processor, or even a wiki, will streamline their tasks. Many teams are unofficially using some form of instant messaging, even if their company hasn’t implemented that tool yet. Find out if your workers are, and make sure that’s in the package as well. Does your business tend to use e-mail as the primary means of textual collaboration, through attached files and memos? E-mail was never created to replace face-to-face meetings, and in the rapidly shrinking world of telecommuting and outsourcing, it’s simply not the right tool for the job. Collaboration tools place e-mail in its rightful place as a messaging platform, just one component of successful group-think. For Greg Chambers, of Chambers Product Design, Inc., it took a couple tries with different collaboration tools to find the right fit. Some worked well in one or two aspects, but fell down in others. But through trial and error, he found the right choice for his needs. While his final choice isn’t the cheapest, Chambers has happily used the same collaboration tool suite for three years now. “We needed that ‘in the same room’ feeling on a daily basis, no matter how far away, in order to create just what the customer wants to see,” says Chambers. “It’s worth every penny to make sure I’m going in exactly the right direction for my clients.”