50 Simple IT Ideas For Increasing Your Business Competitiveness & Productivity

By Jamie | November 16, 2006

What IT services and technologies can a small or medium sized business use to increase productivity and give them a competitive edge?

Well without an IT guru knowing your business it is very difficult to give the right set of answers. So instead I hope this list will provide you with some ideas for you to think about, and maybe next time ask your IT person…

”Hey Mr IT person do I need a company blog site, can we communicate using Skype or could I use Open Office instead of MS office?”

I’ve tried to keep this list

For people who run a businesses, not people in an IT department or technology focused businesses
Quick and easy to implement
Inexpensive or free
Quick return on investment
Suitable for small businesses (easy to administrate)

Two Monitors On Your Desktop (Extending your Desktop Space)
Did you know that having a dual screens (two flat screen or monitors) can increase you work productivity by up to 30%? Have your Microsoft Outlook open on one screen and have an important spreadsheet on the other. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can’t do without two screens, or even three!
http://digg.com/tech_news/Dual_Monitors_Increase_P…
Company Blog Site (Weblog)
I could write an entire post and then some on this subject so the three key points to this topic are..
Web Site or New Web Site (Judging a Book by it’s cover)
Some businesses still don’t have a web site and feel their business belongs to an industry that doesn’t require one. The other day I booked a window cleaner to clean the large roof windows we have in our Edinburgh office. I typed “Edinburgh Windows Cleaners” clicked on the first listing in Google, used the contact form and next day the windows were clean. I asked them to come back in three months. This time next year I’ve probably spent just under £100 (very large windows on the roof!) for just visiting one simple web page. It doesn’t need to be anymore than one page with contact information and quick explanation on what your business does.
Why Small Businesses Need A Web Presence
Okay businesses that use the web for a large percentage of communication to customers, but the site was either designed in the 1990’s or has dated feel. When personally I see a dated or home made web site I usually assume (rightly or wrongly) that the business behind it isn’t very professional and would typically choose another business web site. It doesn’t need to be all singing and dancing web site, infact today a lot of these web sites look dated. Keeping it simple and functional will mean your site will date less quickly and customers will find what they want quicker
Check out http://www.oswd.com for free and professional looking web templates.
Also see “Do You Even Need A Website?
Networked Hard Drive (Share your files & docs in your office)
You may already share your documents and files with colleagues on your business network. The one issue with this is the need to have the files in a centralised location, i.e on one computer and for the designated computer to be turned on. Alternatively you can have a dedicated machine (a server) but this can be expensive to buy, administration, more noise in most cases and increased power consumption. Where as a NAS (Network Attached Storage) is quiter, small, easy to setup, cheaper to buy and run.
NAS Drive Can Save You Over £100 Per Year!
Online Backup (Backup your documents over the internet)
A NAS drive might be an expensive outlay and not suitable if you spend more time out the office than in? Our accountant for example spends a third of her working time at home, round at clients and at her office. So the ideal backup solution for her laptop is an online backup system that automatically runs in the background uploading new and modified files and documents on to the secure server whenever she is connected to the internet. Remember if you over complicate a backup solution then it will fail over time. Always keep your backup solution easy to maintain and simple. A couple of online backup solutions worth checking out…
https://mozy.com (Well worth checking out!)
http://www.carbonite.com/
PC World - Online Backups
The Carbonite Solution to Online Backups
Introduction to 90 online file storage services
List of Backup Utilities, Online and Desktop
Open Source Products (free software for your business)
The term open source is used to describe software which have been developed by the open community, the public. What this basically means is any software developed under an open source licence is free for both personal and business usage. Over the last five years open source increased in popular in both the home and in business, you may already be using an open source product on your computer.

Some open source products worth checking out are…Firefox (A browser like Internet Explorer - Highly Recommended), Open Office (MS Office), 7zip (Winzip), Thunderbird (Outlook), GIMP (Photoshop). For more information on open source see good old wikipedia and for software check out Open Source Windows.
Open Office (Free Office Suite)
Do you really need to spend £300 on Microsoft Office for a word processor and spreadsheet that you won’t use half the features? Open Office has a Word Processor (Word), Spreadsheet (Excel), Presentation (PowerPoint) applications that can even open documents created in Microsoft Office and what’s more it’s free (Open Source, see above).
http://www.openoffice.org
Wi Fi & Hotspots (Wireless Internet on the road)
If you frequently travel with your laptop you should look out for wireless hotspots that will allow you to connect to the internet for free.
http://www.wi-here.com/hotspot_index.php
http://anchorfree.com/stats/free-wifi-listing-by-city.php
Also see http://digg.com/security/10_Top_Tips_For_Protecting_Yourself_At_Hot_Spots
Always on Internet (Fast Internet Access)
You’d be surprised how much more you’d use the internet with an always on, fast internet connection. Further on in this post I mention a couple of these in more detail. A good starting point is broadband.co.uk.
http://www.broadband.co.uk/
Group Bookmarking (Social Bookmarking / Delicious)
If you regularly share favourites or bookmarks (web addresses) between your colleagues then http://Del.icio.us could be prefect answer.
VoIP or Skype (Talking over the internet for free)
If you have more than one office, work on the road or work closely with other businesses on a daily basis that require constant communication. A service such as Skype (Voice over IP) which allows you to talk using your broadband connection is ideal. You can also send files and text chat with Skype. I would recommend buying a Skype phone (£12 to £60) as it makes it easier to use the service for voice connections.
http://www.skype.com
11 Reasons to use Skype for Business
Virtual Number (Skype Telephone Number)
If your business can’t afford a dedicated telephone number or don’t want to give out your personal number then Skype again maybe the answer. People who don’t have a Skype account can ring you on your virtual number using their traditional based phone. See http://www.skype.com
Web Camera (Video Conferencing )
Why not take the Skype concept (mentioned above) a step further and give it a visual feel by being able to video conference with other people. A couple of web cameras won’t cost any more than £40 or so. You don’t need to use it all the time but some times it can assist to get your message across.
Quality PC (Buying a decent PC)

This is your business, so you don’t want to cobble together a PC you picked up at a jumbo sale. Only buy a laptop if you need the mobility. Get a minimum of 512 MB of RAM (1 GB is better) and at least an 80 GB hard drive. Processors and their speeds in newer PCs are nearly all powerful enough for 99 percent of small business needs.
Instant Messenger (Chatting on line)
The great thing about using instant messenger applications is it fits nicely inbetween email and voice. Do you ever find you need a instant answer to your question from colleagues (in an other building, not next door!) but don’t have time for general chit chat, then instant messenger is an excellent tool! Skype also comes with this feature along with other services such as MSN and Google Talk etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype
Company Email (Company Email Address)
You’d be surprised by the number companies that still use a free Hotmail and Yahoo! emails accounts as there primary company email address. For around £20 per year you could have hello@mycompany.co.uk or sales@mybusiness.com for example. Most people view companies that use these free types of email accounts as rather fly-by-night types of companies, whereas companies with their own domain names are regarded as more professional and stable.
Online Web Apps (Word, Spread Sheets, Invoicing)
Instead of installing the software on your local machine the application runs from the web browser, i.e. Firefox or Internet Explorer. Typically the files are saved on the company web site providing the service meaning you can use any PC anywhere in the world. This concept is still in infancy but will start to gather pace in the next 5 years or so. Google Apps allow you to create Spread Sheets, Documents, Email, Calendars Functions http://docs.google.com. Create diagrams like you can in PowerPoint or MS Visio with http://www.gliffy.com. Virtual Whiteboard which you can share with other users see http://www.imaginationcubed.com.
Firefox Web Browser (Ditch Internet Explorer)
If I could recommend one thing in this list it would be to ditch Internet Explorer and install Mozilla Firefox. I find using Internet Explorer actually decreases my productivity. Remember when you see that Internet explorer has now got tabbed browsing that people have been enjoying this has been in Firefox for over two years.
http://www.getfirefox.com
Networked Printer (Sharing a Printer without a host computer)
Surprisingly enough a networked printer can connect directly to your home or business network. This can be a physical wire (Ethernet Cable) or wireless connection. This means your printer can be shared easily between multiple computers without depending one computer being turned on all the, saving power too! The cost of these printers have drastically reduced in cost over the years are well worth paying little extra for the flexibility they give.
http://www.hp.com/sbso/productivity/howto/it_networkprintserver/networking.html
Digital Camera (Digital SLR and Digital Photo Tips)
A decent digital camera for your office can be used for photographing company events and post them to your blog or company web site. Uploading a professional looking pictures of your products or producing your own marketing photographs.
Terinea - Better Photos For Your Web Site
25 things you must know before buying digital camera
Live Web Chat (Offer Live Chat Via Your Web Site)
Would you like to chat with your customer in real time when they visit your web site? Well one of the many companies offering such technology for free is Interaction Chat. No additional software is required on the potential customers PC.
http://www.interactionchat.com/
Safe Internet (Firewalls, Spam and Spyware Protection)
To make your Internet service safe and protect you from hackers, viruses, spyware and adware, you’re going to need a software or hardware (router) firewall, and virus protection software.
I recommend: CNET.com’s Networking and Wi-Fi site covers routers, and PCMag.com has a good All-in-One Security Suite software review section.
External Email Account (Free Email Account)
You never know when your company email system may crash and leave you without electronic communication from your clients. Why not setup a company email account for example mycompany@gmail.com the import all your business contacts and check it on a regular basis so the account doesn’t get close due to user interactivity. Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, Lycos Mail and Mail.com are the main big providers. With Gmail from Google you can easily use this on your mobile.
Backup ISP (Second Internet Connection)
If your business depends on the internet to do business with other branches or customers then a second way to connect to the internet may give you peace of mind. It could be as simple as your old dial-up to backup your ADSL or an ADSL connection to backup your cable broadband. You could even combine the two to give you greater bandwidth! Save money by buying retail (home) rather than a business version for your second internet connection.
Modern Mobile Phone with Camera
With a modern camera enabled mobile phone you could
1. Upload photo/video of your product being used in public to your web site / flickr account
2. Check for new emails on the train. Is it worth turning on your laptop when you get back to the office?
3. Blog on the bus about your new company product range
4. Read latest industry news on line
5. Record an important phone call
Linux the alternative to Microsoft Windows
Your could save considerable saving by using Linux in your business. For further information on Linux see Moving to Linux aimed at small businesses.
I personally recommend spending $50 on SuSE Linux Enterprise Edition which give you a years support.
Podcasting or Video Casting
If you miss your favourite radio show you quite often download it as a podcast and listen to it at a later date on your MP3 player or iPod. Most of the BBC Radio channels provide there most popular shows as a podcast. Podcasts don’t need to be records of live radio. Videocasts are the same as podcasts but with video. You could use podcasts in the same way that blogs can be used to create and capture an audience.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-11293_7-6246557-1.html - How to create a podcast in a Weekend.
MySpace (Social Networking Site)
A couple of my clients have asked wether they should get a MySpace account? From reading various blogs on this subject the feeling seems to be no, unless your business deals with teenage or music market. This may change in the future and there are other social network sites such as LinkedIn which are more tailored for businesses.
http://www.terinea.co.uk/blogs/terineatechtips/2006/10/12/do-i-need-myspace-page-for-my-business/
Online photo gallery (Flickr Account)
Increase the expose of your products and company by uploading your photos to Flickr. See the $100 dollar laptop charity
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/100laptop/
Digg / Delicious / Readit / (Stay ontop of industry news)
Instead of relying on search engines and traditional based news media companies to provide you with the latest information on your industry try checking a social networking sites such as Digg.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digg
Alternatives to Microsoft Exchange
If your business is expanding and you’d like all your email and business contacts in one central location then you would need Microsoft Exchange. Your business maybe be able to make considerable savings by checking out the alternatives.
Stock.hu (Free marketing images)
If you need images for your marketing promotions or web site you should sign up for a free Stock.hu account.
http://www.sxc.hu
Bit Torrent (Distributing Large Files)
If you need to transfer files to a group of clients without occurring large bandwidth bills then bit torrent technology could be the answer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_torrent
I recommend Azureus for your Bit Torrent client http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azureus
Open Source Applications
Open source applications are not too be feared. The vast majority of these programs are written by professional programmers who are very enthusiastic about a particular subject and have collaborated with other like minded people in order to produce a great piece of software. Depending on the licence model they have used then there is likely to be no charge for the software and you have the source code for the product and so you are able to have it modified if required to meet any extra demands you might have.
Ground Work / Nagios - Network Monitoring Systems
Are you running critical applications on your network like email, do you need to monitor disk usage and your internet connectivity, do you want to be sure that your anti-virus software is still running? A commercial program that can do all of this could make a large whole in your bank account. But with a program like Nagios, which is Open Source, then you can monitor all of your business critical systems and programs from a single computer and at a fraction of the cost.
Password Manager (Storing all your user details in one location)
If you have an increasing number of passwords and user settings for your business you should consider a program like KeePass to manage them. Use a line from your favourite song or film to create an extremely strong password key to protect all your passwords.
http://keepass.sourceforge.net/
Desktop Search Engine (Desktop/Personal Search Engines)
Desktop search applications are a powerful search tool which indexes all your documents,emails, pictures, chat history, music and files on your computer. Instead of wait a couple of minutes for windows to search for a file a desktop search tool does it in seconds. The next version of Windows called Windows Vista will have this feature installed by default.
http://www.copernic.com/
http://desktop.google.com/
http://desktop.yahoo.com/
Customer Relationship Management (The Business Platform) ACT!
Do you need to keep in contact with your customers, are there too many squares of yellow paper stuck to your computer screen telling you to ring somebody back? The chances are that you need a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application like ACT! (Commercial) or Vtiger (Open Source) to help you manage your the dealings you have with your customers. These systems can keep track of all previous conversations you, or your colleagues, have had with each customer and when the next contact needs to be made.
Windows Laptop Synchronistation
If you use a laptop out of the office why not store your files on your office PC and then synchronise whenever connect or disconnect from your office network. That way your files are safely backed up on the office PC and available of use on your laptop while out on the road. Any changes you make will synchronise back next time your in the office.
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1646
External Hard Drive For Backup (External Storage)
Never, ever underestimate the need for a backup of your files. The only time you really know that you needed a backup is when your computer fails and you haven’t got one. The most important thing in your business is likely to be all of the information you have got on your computer and therefore you need to look after it. If you do not have a backup device, then invest in an external hard drive, there relatively inexpensive nowadays and you can use these to backup all of the files from your computer.
USB Key
Remember those floppy disks that you had to use to transfer information from one computer to another, then we were blessed with CD’s. But a USB key is a fantastic bit of equipment and really inexpensive and it’s much quicker to transfer some files onto a USB key than it is onto a CD.
Log me in / VNC (Remote IT Support)
If you have a professional IT company looking after your computers and you have an internet connection then make sure you have a solution like ‘Log me in’ or ‘VNC’, these solutions allow a support person to access your computer and take control of it. It’s like they are sitting right in front of your computer, you will see your computer appearing to be operating itself. 95% of problems can be resolved by somebody using one of these applications from a remote location to take control of your computer and fix a problem without the need to come on site. This means you get your problem resolved much. much quicker and are able to get on with your work.
Accountancy Software
Stop wasting your time using Excel to mange your company accounts and switch to dedicated accountancy package such as Sage, MYOB or Quickbooks.
Internet Banking
If you’ve made the move to accountancy software it maybe worth seeing if the package is compatible with your Online Banking,
PC Maintenance
You’ll need to clean, defragment and check for errors on your hard drive, as well as install patches or security updates.
I recommend: Microsoft’s “Put Your PC Maintenance Routine on Autopilot” article walks you through hard drive care, and Apple does the same in its Disk Utility and/or fsck guide. For security patches and updates, go to Microsoft Update for Windows Systems, or for Mac OSX, go to the Apple menu and select “Software Update” to c
Encryption and Password Protected Files (Secure Company Files)
Need to keep important files safe? If your using Office XP or above you save most of these documents with a password, see http://wordprocessing.about.com/cs/quicktips/qt/Passprotect.htm. If your not using Office you can use a program called AxCrypt, http://axcrypt.axantum.com/ to encrypt all other files.
RSI software
Make sure you and your staff get regular breaks from the computer by using program such as Break Reminder.
http://www.cheqsoft.com/break.html
KVM Switch (Two PC’s on one Keyboard, Mouse & Monitor)
If you have more than one computer you can save desk space with Keyboard Video Mouse (KVM) Switch which allows two or more computers to share one keyboard, mouse and monitor.
Asset Manager (Keeping tracking of your IT hardware & software licences)
If your a small business planning to become a medium sized one, then keeping track of your hardware and software licenses can become a great strain. This becomes increasingly important for a medium sized business.
Google Earth
Why not use Google Earth to point out your office or shop locations. For other things to do with Google Earth see
http://www.googleearthhacks.com/ten-things-with-Go…

Remember at the same time these IT technologies and services could also have an negative effect on your business if they are not planned out correctly!

That’s why…

I believe you pay for what you get in most cases
You should source face-to-face IT people that, where possible, that are local.
When choosing a IT company, ask them for history of their business, customers, up coming IT technology etc
IT people that are not only passionate about IT technologies, but about customer service, business and IT as a business enabler

Technorati tags: SME, small businesses, business, IT, ideas, skype, blog, web site, backup, 50, voip, customer relationship management, opensource, open source, vnc

Topics: Hot Posts!, Linux, UNIX & FreeBSD, Marketing & Social Media, Network and Security, Open Source, Web development & eCommerce, Windows |

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6 Things Your Business Should be Doing in 2007

6 Responses to “50 Simple IT Ideas For Increasing Your Business Competitiveness & Productivity”

Oren
June 18th, 2007 at 12:16 am
I would like to add GNUCash to the list - free, small-business accounting software.

After switching to Ubuntu (Linux) I also replaced the bloated Quickbooks with
this amazingly lean and fast application!

Here is the link:
http://www.gnucash.org/features.phtml

Jamie
June 18th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Have started using it myself recently. Maybe make our 2007 list.

Jason Slater
July 24th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Useful list with some good ideas - (but aren’t 6 and 34 the same?)

Here are a couple of suggestions for your list:

Printer Maintenance - They are hard to fix and surprisingly essential items - it’s always worth taking out a little extra cover to

Emergency Spares - Consumables, Ream of Company Headed Paper and other items - keep one of each locked away safely for emergencies - PC World and Staples may not be open at that crucial time

Electronic Faxing - for when a customer can’t get an order through

Digital Scanning - get rid of that old paper work and free up some space around the office - but keep those master CD’s secure

Offsite Storage - don’t need it but don’t want to bin it ? Offsite storage is very cheap and very very useful

Email Archiving - can be very useful to tracing old communications between customers and clients

Daily Checklist - keep on top of that disk space, ram and event logs by following a daily IT checklist

Local Supplier Relationship - Build a close relationship with a local IT Supplier - they may save your bacon one day!

Acrobat PDF - Always try and keep your outgoing documents in a common format - your customer and clients may not be running the same software as you.

Serial Number List - A list of all your equipment and their serial numbers kept safely will be invaluable in case of disaster.

Jason.
theitmanagersjournal.blogspot.com

Edinburgh Computer Support
July 24th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Wow, big thanks for that!

Thinking of updating this post in the Autumn, i.e. 2007 version.

Jamie

t coates
August 2nd, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Thanks, I hope you update this. I have been giving out the site to my 35+ clients who don’t always get the power of online. They still think webpage.

tc

Edinburgh Computer Support
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Thanks TC - I will start compiling a new 2007/8 collection.

Jamie

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50 Simple IT Ideas For Increasing Your Business Competitiveness & Productivity

6 Responses to “50 Simple IT Ideas For Increasing Your Business Competitiveness & Productivity”

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