No/Low Cost software is it right for your business - Presentation to the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerece.

1. Low/No Cost Software is it right for your Business Bill Maynard – TechCon Services www.techconsvc.com

2. Can Low/No cost software save my company money? Short answer Yes/No/Maybe There are numerous excellent software solutions out there for almost anything you can dream, or imagine, for little or no money. Many of these solutions have been created under an “open source” model. Open Source is where the developer has granted free distribution of a program and access to source code in an effort to further the software development.

3. Where do I get it? Many sites offer thousands of open source, shareware and freeware programs are sourceforge.net, osalt.com, majorgeeks.com, opensourceprograms.net, and tucows.com to name a few. Many of these solutions were created to solve a particular need or because a developer was not satisfied with existing commercial solutions Over time these programs have continued to be enhanced and have grown into excellent alternatives to commercial programs

4. Questions to ask before diving into the Low/No Cost software world? Q: How critical is the software functionality to your business? A: The more critical, the more in-depth your research on the software should be. Q: What is the source of the software? A: a single/small developer, an organization, a company providing an open source version? Software created by a single / small developer tends to have a greater risk associated with it, while companies providing an open source version tend to be more stable. Q: Is there documentation and does it make sense to you? A: If there is no documentation or help files then unless the application is very simple, you may have difficulty getting what you expect out of the product. Q: Is the software being continuously updated? A: Recent software updates and active forums are indications that the product development is continuing and that problems in the software may be resolved in the future

5. Trusted Sources Q: Does the software come from a trusted source? A: If you find that application you were looking for, make sure you try to locate a review from creditable source such as PCmag.com or cnet.com, and go check out the developer’s WEB site. If after doing these you don’t feel 100% comfortable with the source of the software then don’t install it. It could contain some form of malware (virus, spyware, etc.) which could compromise your computer and company’s data.

6. Business Software Categories Office Suites Business Diagramming Project Management Software Accounting Software Sales Force Management PDF Creation Anti Virus and Spyware Remote Desktop WEB Conferencing On-Line Storage PC virtualization Microsoft Office Add-In Utilities http://www.techconsvc.com/Chamber/TheList.htm

7. Office Suites An office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite is a collection of programs intended to be used by typical clerical workers and knowledge workers. The components are generally distributed together, have a consistent user interface and usually can interact with each other. Commercial: MS Office Alternative: Open Office, Google Docs, Koffice, Lotus Symphony

8. Business Diagramming User-generated diagrams. As computer users seek to represent visual information, such as a flowchart allow them to express the information in the form of a diagram. Such programs are usually GUI-based and feature WYSIWYG diagram editing. Commercial: Visio Alternative: Dia

9. Project Management Software Covers many types of software, including scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, collaboration software, communication, quality management and documentation or administration systems, which are used to deal with the complexity of projects. Commercial: MS Project Alternative: Open Proj, Koffice KPlato

10. Accounting Software Accounting software is application software that records and processes accounting transactions within functional modules such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, and trial balance. Commercial: Peachtree, Quickbooks, Microsoft Accounting, Alternative: Microsoft® Office Accounting Express, Intuit QuickBooks Simple Start Free Edition 2009, NolaPro Free Web Accounting 4.0.4602

11. Sales Force Management Are information systems used in marketing and management that help automate some sales and sales force management functions. They are frequently combined with a Marketing Information System, in which case they are often called Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system Commercial: SalesForce.com, Outlook Business Contact Manager Alternative: SugarCRM, Vtiger, Zoho CRM

12. PDF Creation Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system. Commercial: Adobe Acrobat Alternative: CutePDF Writer, PDFCreator, PrimoPDF

13. Anti Virus and Spyware Software Antivirus (or anti-virus) software is used to prevent, detect, and remove malware, including computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. Such programs may also prevent and remove adware, spyware, and other forms of malware. Commercial: Symantec, Trend Micro, McAfee, Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal Alternative: AntiVirPersonalEdition Classic, AVAST 4 Home Edition, and AVG Free Edition, (Microsoft Morro soon)

14. Remote Desktop Remote Desktop Control software allows the user to view desktop of remote computer and control any programs remotely via network, using keyboard and mouse. Commercial: GotomyPC, logmein Pro Alternative: logmein, Real VNC, TeamViewer

15. WEB Conferencing Web conferencing is used to conduct live meetings or presentations via the Internet. In a web conference, each participant sits at his or her own computer and is connected to other participants via the internet. Commercial: WEBex, Citrix GoToMeeting. Adobe Connect, Microsoft Office Live Meeting Alternative: Yugma, DimDim, ElluminatevRoom, showmypc

16. On-Line Storage Protect your important files from natural disasters, like fires and floods, from computer threats, like viruses, from theft, being lost or broken and other hazards. Commercial: Its everywhere (reviews) Alternative: Dropbox (2GB Free) , ADrive (50GB Free) Microsoft OfficeLive (5GB Free)

17. PC Virtulization Desktop Virtualization will allow you to run multiple operating system environments on the same system. This means that when users work from their desktops, all of the programs, applications, processes and data used by the desktop are kept and run separately. Commercial: VMware Workstation Alternative: Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

18. Microsoft Office Add-Ins Personal Folders Backup is an add-in that backs up PST files at regular intervals. Outlook stores all your mail, calendar items, contacts, and so on in a PST file. If something happens to it, you could lose all of your correspondence, tasks, appointments, and contact information. Backing up this file is a vital part of any maintenance routine Microsoft offers a free add-in for Office 2007, Microsoft 2007 Save as PDF or XPS Office Live lets you open (and save) documents in Office Live Workspace directly from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

19. Utilities FTP – Client FileZilla Password Manager: Keepass, password safe, 1password (mac) Backup – MicroSoftSyncToy , Comodo Backup Registry Cleaner – Comodo System Cleaner

20. Questions http://www.techconsvc.com/Chamber/TheList.htm