2007 presentation to River City Express Network on technologies that can help maximize small business productivity

1. Who's Afraid of a Little Bitty
Mouse?
Using Technology to Maximize
Business Productivity
Doug Lucy, Allegro Consultants

2. Relief from allergies….

3. Allegro – keeping I.T in tune
Al – le –gro [ uh – ley – groh ]
-adjective, adverb
Brisk or rapid in tempo

4. • Founded in 1993
• Richmond, DC, Norfolk
• 35 programmers and DBAs
• Support business and government
• Tailor software to meet the needs of
business

5. Agenda
• What is available to help
• How it can be used
• Examples here in Richmond

6. Email
• Primary communication channel
• Replaced faxes, physically-mailed
documents
• PDF creator
• Newsletters

7. Online email
• Available anywhere
• No PC

8. Email server
• Exchange server
• Outlook
• Calendar
• ActiveSync
• PDA / SmartPhone

9. Email server integration

10. Online calendars
• Reminders and Invites
• Publish and subscribe
• See “anywhere”

11. Evite and MeetUp
• Manage event invitations
• Adhoc subject meetings

12. IM or Instant messaging
• Quick typed conversation
• One-to-one or many
• Less of an interruption

13. Keener Communications

14. Instant messaging
• Multitaksing
• AIM, Yahoo, Jabber, Pidgin

15. Instant messaging and SMS
• SMS or “texting”
• Short, quick messages
• From
– Phones
– PCs
– Servers

16. Jott.com
• Free voice transcription
• And delivery

17. Conference calling
• ConferenceCall.com
• Meet without traveling
• Avoid hassles
• Cheap, easy

18. Audio and video conferencing
• Mics and webcams are cheap
• IM for audio and video easy
• Example: Lawyer’s Staffing

19. Web conferencing
• WebEx and GoToMyMeeting
• Show app or PPT
• Interaction
• Recording

20. Remote assistance
• Built into XP and Mac
• Request help
• Remote helpdesk
• Show how-to

21. Screen recording
• Camtasia and Wink
• Training, procedures

22. Wiki
• Wikipedia
• Enterprise Wiki

23. La Difference

24. Spread knowledge

25. Spread the knowledge

26. Google docs and spreadsheets
• Word processor and spreadsheet
• Available anywhere
• Sharable

27. Blogs
• Chronological list
of notes or
comments
• Explain, comment
or announce

28. Turnkey Promotions

29. Content management system
• User-updateable website
• Fresh info
• Communicate

30. Intranet CMS or portal
• Documents, policies, how-to’s

31. Customer portal
• Self-service
• Improve service, lower costs

32. Surveys
• Gather info from a group
• SurveyMonkey and Logic Depot

33. Whiteboards and Pixid
• Whiteboards are communication
• Avoid fancy solution

34. High score

35. Thanks!
Contact info:
Doug Lucy
dlucy@allegroconsultants.com
804-553-1130