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Technology Insider

News and Views from Business.com editors

04/30/2008

Mileage Logging Made Easier

Technology is finally catching up to the routine but often botched business of tracking and logging mileage for reimbursement or tax purposes. With driving costs soaring on the heels of sky-high gas prices, keeping accurate records of your business miles is more important than ever. A new web-based solution combined with a GPS-based device called Mileage Logger offers a great way to improve your tax and business records, and make sure you deduct or collect every dollar you are due. Just plug it into your vehicle and drive. Sales people, real estate agents, appraisers, financial planners, home health aids and a wide range of other professionals are finding it highly helpful.You can review and manage your travel log online, and export reports to Excel. -- Daniel Kehrer, Business.com Editor

04/25/2008

Better Tech for Counting People

Think of it as a high-tech solution to a low tech problem -- counting the number of people who visit your place of business. On the web, businesses of all sizes have become increasingly sophisticated in the ways they count and analyze website traffic a million different ways. But when it comes to counting real people, analyzing where they wander, what they look at and how they behave in person at a brick and mortar location, many businesses are still mired in technology installed 10-20 years ago. Early traffic detector systems are often unreliable and inaccurate, leaving many unused as well. St. Michael Systems (SMS), a top firm in the traffic monitoring field, is offering a free systems evaluation during May to help retailers get a better grip on data that can help drive sales in a slowing economy. Hardware and software upgrades can often be made cheaply when cabling is already in place. -- D. Kehrer, Editor

04/22/2008

New Shared-Inbox Email Solution for Small Biz

Palo Alto Software -- the folks behind the super-successful Business Plan Pro software -- are launching a new web-based email solution that solves a vexing problem: How to manage shared inboxes for easy access and response to customer emails sent to a group address such as info@yourcompany.com. Email Center Pro puts all client email in one place, and makes it simple to route and answer. It helps prevent duplicate answers, or no answers and eliminates shuffling emails from person to person and PC to PC. Email Center Pro lets you see all emails exchanged between a customer and your sales and service staff, offering a 360-degree view you probably don't have now. You can assign emails to others, add notes and comments for internal reference, tag emails into categories, and more. Five packages range from free to $149/month. Looks like a terrific solution from people with a track record of success. -- D Kehrer, Busienss.com Editor

04/21/2008

An Easy Way to Shift from Paper Forms to eForms

Does your business or organization float on forms? Here's a cheap and easy new way to move from paper forms to feature-filled, customized electronic forms that let you capture data for reporting and analysis, and can include legal signatures as well. eForm-Connect, from LimaCorp, LLC, comes in both desktop and web-based applications that include linked database, making it easy to sync up with other applications your business uses. eForm-Connect will help you migrate a paper-based forms process to your PC or online. If it takes more than one person to fill out your forms, the service can speed that process and make it easier. Printed forms are produced in high-quality PDF format. Give the free online trial a spin, and save a few trees. -- D. Kehrer, Business.com Editor

04/16/2008

AT&T Adds Turnkey Web Hosting & Design

AT&T is launching a new line of turnkey web hosting and website design services for small and midsize businesses. The new offerings provide a fairly low-cost way to launch an entirely new site, upgrade an existing one, sell products or services online, build an online community, manage business email, distribute digital content, host a gaming server or run other business applications. There are four different hosting packages to choose from that all include consultation with a design expert. Also available is support for copywriting, blog and forum integration, database development, SEO, and design integration with shopping carts. The user interface also supports banner ad creation, as well as traffic and user behavior reports. Visit the AT&T Web Hosting site for details. -- D. Kehrer, Business.com Editor

04/11/2008

Pssssst! Wanna See What Competitors are Spending Online?

Isn't the Internet great? Not only can you find any obscure scrap of data and be found by long-lost (although usually best left that way) high school friends and lovers, but you can also get instant access to all kinds of cool info on what your competitors are doing online. Want to know what keywords those "other guys" are buying, where they are advertising, how much they are spending and which terms they've optimized their website for? No sweat. And a lot of it's available free. Just go to Spyfu.com or Compete.com for a virtual smorgasbord of competitive intelligence (CI) goodies. Their blogs, newsletters and training videos are like a virtual equivalent of CIA spy school. Set up a real-time dashboard of what your competitors are doing! -- Daniel Kehrer, Editor

04/09/2008

New Online Storage, Sharing & Backup Service 'Upline'

HP just launched Upline, a new online subscription service that lets consumers and business owners easily backup, access, share and store digital content. A bare-bones version with just 1GB of storage is free. Otherwise, the service is $59 per year for single users; $149 for a family (3 users), and $299 for the "Professional" edition recommended for small business. The Pro plan includes 3 licenses ($79 each additional). The paid plans all have unlimited storage, and tools that let you share, publish and search your content. Pro and Family plans also have a user dashboard. The file publishing feature is great for bloggers and businesses. It lets you quickly generate a URL to publish content to a website or blog, and automatically refresh files published to multiple locations to keep public data current. -- Daniel Kehrer, Business.com Editor

Expert Advice

Storing and Protecting Your Business Data

By John Henshell

It pays to keep your customer data, email messages and other work safe and sound

Losing the information on your computer can bring your business to a grinding halt — stalling your marketing efforts, crippling your customer service and upsetting your accounting process. Not to mention the wear and tear on your nerves. Protecting yourself from this kind of devastating loss is relatively easy, but surprisingly, many business owners fail to invest the time or money required to keep their data safe. Computer data loss can be caused by: Power fluctuations Hard drive failure Malicious software (malware) Human error Theft of equipment...
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