Posted by Jim Van on October 14, 2011 under entrepreneur, eOffice, mobility, portability, small business | 
Last post, I explained why I selected the iPad for use here at Logicomm for our day-to-day functions. It’s a terrific device, and while tablets don’t quite replace the full-featured laptops and 
workstations that still power our back office, as a device for use in client interactions, particularly in the field, it can’t be beat…at least not yet. Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on October 7, 2011 under entrepreneur, eOffice, mobility, portability, small business |
Since the original iPad was released in spring of 2010, many of us have discussed its potential as a business tool. Originally released as a ‘rich man’s toy’, most people considered it more of a large-screen iPhone at the beginning. But, as with most things on this platform, applications have made a difference.
The platform is the key
One of the beauties of owning an iOS (apples’ mobile device operating system) powered device is the availability of apps of every type, and the imagination of users. About a year after the iPhone was first released, for example, there were over 70,000 apps, tiny programs that enable a user to perform tasks ranging from chats, reading news, to communicating and exchanging data with computers, in its App Store. Currently, or at least at last count, there were over a quarter-million Apps, with several thousand added every day. Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on September 14, 2011 under entrepreneur, small business |
Last Monday. we held the first monthly meeting of the Providence Entrepreneurs Meetup Group for the 2011/2012 season at the Cafe at Whole Foods in University Heights, Providence. This is a monthly get together that varies in size from a handful to a couple of dozen members who get together to network and share stories. While the meetup itself was interesting, the communications I had with members who couldn’t make the meetup was even more interesting. A clear majority of them talked about strategy in this economy. Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on September 9, 2011 under business continuity, disaster recovery, entrepreneur, eOffice, small business |
In our line of business, we see a lot of systems and networks. Sadly, about 70% of them aren’t backed up regularly, including about 20% that aren’t backed up at all! But there are the 30% who do perform regular backups, and the variety of methods is astounding, ranging from backing up to a local ‘thumb’ drive, an external hard drive, CD/DVDs, and good old-fashioned tape. Some even use our recommended method of remote online backups.
Whatever method you use, effective backups require a couple of key components: Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on August 30, 2011 under entrepreneur, eOffice, small business |
A couple of posts back, I started to discuss ‘freemium’ software, software that is free to the user, in exchange for either information, advertising, or a bit of both. I’d like to run through ten really good applications that every windows user should own:
SECURITY: AVG anti-virus suite has been around almost as long as Norton and McAfee, but is not nearly as well-known, due to a less-pronounced distribution model. While Norton and/or McAfee (and now Trend) comes pre-installed on many new systems as trialware, AVG requires that you: a. find it and b. download and install it. That shouldn’t stop you from taking advantage of one of the best anti-virus applications around, for free. Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on July 26, 2011 under entrepreneur, small business |
The current (August, 2011) issue of Inc. Magazine has an article stating that Small Businesses aren’t creating jobs at the rate they used to [see article]. They quoted a recent study from the Kaufmann Foundation. Fewer jobs? I think that Inc., the Kaufmann foundation, most of our politicians and media pundits miss what’s going on… Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on July 22, 2011 under entrepreneur, small business |
Lots has been written about the Open Source ‘revolution’ (I hate the ‘r’ word, but that’s what it’s called..). It’s true that open source software has placed free and low-cost software within the reaches of the typical microbusiness, resulting many times in critical savings for typically budget-conscious companies. If LibreOffice does as good a job as MS Office, why spend the nearly $300 for a pro license, or $180 for a Small-Business edition? And SugarCRM has an excellent community edition that is great for smaller businesses and is free. So, what’s the catch? Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on July 15, 2011 under entrepreneur, eOffice, mobility, portability, small business |
Ok, one more mention about Phil Simon’s ‘The New Small’ and then I’ll give it a break. Promise.
It’s just that the book is so spot on regarding how smaller business is out there succeeding these days by leveraging technology that simply didn’t exist, or was unavailable to small business until very recently. The Five Enablers: Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on July 8, 2011 under entrepreneur, small business |
Last week I had a face-to-face meeting with a couple of summer interns at the RI Small Business Development Center. I need some help with a couple of onlne projects, and the SBDC is an excellent resource for such things…
One of the many things that impressed me, is that the students, both grad students with a focus on business and tech, asked questions. Good questions. Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on July 1, 2011 under entrepreneur, security, small business |
Last week, I talked about a great book, The New Small written by Phil Simon, a tech consultant who’s been around the track a few times and knows what he’s talking about. I was discussing his book with a client, who brought up an interesting point: “If we’re able to use free applications and do most of the computer maintenance task ourselves, then why would we pay for IT support services?” Read more of this article »
workstations that still power our back office, as a device for use in client interactions, particularly in the field, it can’t be beat…at least not yet. Read more of this article »