Handling complex data so that it tells a story and allows for drill down is critical for decision-making. This chart is a job well done.  How are you handling your data?

My favorites are history2 so you can view history by day and rss subscription to join new feeds.

But, if you already have AT&T, and you are a living with a few dropped calls, do you move? Robert Scoble moved and gave this report. The best AT&T pro? You can use voice and data at the same time. Which I find myself doing quite a bit.

So will I switch? My current plan is to wait for the iPhone 5 rumored to be out in September and evaluate it then. With this new competition AT&T must respond with better network coverage. Will it be enough?

What makes a screen-sharing tool great? It has to be dead-simple to use, both for you, and for the person or people on the other end of the connection. Recently, me favorite tool has been join.me. It’s fast, it works in a browser, and it’s perfect when I only need to share with one other person.

For conferences with more that one person, try GoToMeeting. It just works. Yes, there is a download and yes, there is a separate app that opens up. It’s also a bit slow four our taste. But GoToMeeting has one killer feature – it works for almost everybody. When you’re doing conferences with a few people, nothing wastes more time, money, and goodwill then troubleshooting the one guy who can’t get WebEx working. Besides, GoToMeeting still lets you share screens, participate in conferences via audio or video, and pass control of the conference around. It’s a powerful tool that will help you get your point across. PS, there is a way to turn off the incessant beep while waiting for people to join. As you can probably tell, we’d love to know about a tool that is as compatible as GoToMeeting but has more polish. Let us know in if you’ve got one in the comments!

Screen capture is another tool in the toolkit. It’s great for demoing a wireframe, creating a how-to or help guide, and so much more. A good screen-shot tool makes you feel like you’ve printed out whatever was on your screen and then went at it with a red pen or marker. Our favorite tool here at Clevertech is Jing. It sits quietly as a little sun image at the top of the screen and when you want to capture a screenshot, it’s a quick roll over and click. It even does screencasts. Select the portion of the screen you want to capture, and then either snap an image or start recording a video. When you’re done, you can annotate it. And here is the best part:  Jing uploads the image or video to their server and stores a URL to it – in your clipboard so that you can  paste a link to the image or video directly into a chat, email or post. Instantly!

Working with screen sharing and screen capturing allows for more accurate communication and delivers business value in an attractive, tight package. GoToMeeting is $49/month and has a free 30-day trial. Jing is free, with a pro version for $14.95/year that has some enhanced functionality like instant sharing to YouTube. Have some great tools for sharing and capturing screens? Let us know in the comments!

You know the place in your office where people always end up hanging out to discuss ongoing projects? The coffee might be there, or the message board, or the file drawer everyone goes to for the information they need.

A company called 37 Signals has a product called Basecamp, which could be thought of as a virtual version of this meeting place. Basecamp is a project management tool. With it, you can store your to-do lists, project milestones, messages, files, and associated information in the cloud, so that all the people on your project have access to everything needed.

The effect is a lot like having a file drawer in a shared office, with conversations among members of the team taking place around the images, spreadsheets, and calendar.

Basecamp is central to our workflow at Clevertech. We choose the most talented people from all over the world, so it’s essential that we can work together smoothly without direct contact.

We also want our clients to be able to see what we’re doing on their projects in their own time and space. Our approach is not to create something behind the curtain and then produce it with a flourish. We work directly with businesses to make websites and applications that will mesh with their workflow and streamline their processes.

Hanging out at the Basecamp forum one day, we found that users were frustrated with an aspect of the program. They wanted to be able to move to-do lists from one project to another.

Sometimes a project enlarges and needs to be broken up into sub-projects, for example. Manually replicating the to-do list isn’t good use of time. We saw that this was a problem that needed fixing, and we have the know-how.

We built an add-on, and we call it CopyBasecamp. Try it out for yourself. Then come back and tell us what you think.

We always look for ways to make off the peg solutions work better. This particular Clever Tool is one we’ve decided to share with the world. We’d like to have your feedback.

Explore the functionality of Clever Contacts in the video. Then download Clever Contacts for Firefox or for Chrome.

Once you’ve installed it, you’ll see the Clever Contacts button on your toolbar. When you’re looking at a page with contact information you want to save, you simply select that information on the page and click the Clever Contacts button.

That’s all there is to it! Your Google Contacts list contains the information you wanted to save.

We’ve been talking with a company that’s sharing a familiar story.

This is an old, established company, with their first century anniversary not far in the future. They sell high-end goods, and they’ve been online for more than a decade. Now they’re ready to expand their e-commerce options. With a high-traffic PR5 website, they’re in a strong position.

So they’re talking about wholesale ordering, a friendlier shopping cart, and integrating with accounting (they use Peachtree) and inventory.

Right now, staff waste time entering the same data twice or even three times: in an email, in Excel, in the accounting system. Reports require multiple sources of data, and experts who can look at them and fit them all together mentally before preparing a new report that combines them all. Papers pile up. Errors are more likely to be made — and even if no errors are made, the extra stress involved in avoiding them and double checking for them can be tiring.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

The solution here is an integrated system. When point of sale and inventory management mesh with accounting and both interlock seamlessly with the e-commerce system, it means the end of the repetition, the stacks, the double checking, the stress. It’s like replacing an obstacle course with a ballet.

More work gets done without requiring more staff time. Key people are freed from repetitive tasks and empowered to take on more creative work. The workflow improves — and if it’s done right, this happens without a steep learning curve or intensive efforts at change.

Everybody knows that integrated systems are better. But they can be hard to create. It’s rarely a matter of pulling a couple of boxes off a shelf and hoping they work together. That’s like throwing a lot of vegetables together and hoping they become soup.

The story is familiar, but we’re just as excited about it every time, because we know that we can help. We specialize in integrated systems, and particularly in integrating accounting systems into the workflow. We’re not saying it’s easy — but it’s easier when you know how.

We know how.

And it’s always easier to change the environment than to change the people. There’s a lot of satisfaction for us in hearing clients say that we’ve changed not only their workflow but the atmosphere in the office.

Could integrated systems make a difference for you? Call us at 1 888 494-1260 to discuss the workings of your business.

Hearing about someone’s new brochure can be on a par with hearing about their new car or their new puppy — you’re happy for them, you’re willing to admire it, but it doesn’t really affect you.

Now, we hope it does affect you. It would be great if you’d been wondering about just what Clevertech does, or wishing you had a brochure of ours so you could show it to that friend or colleague you know would benefit from our services. If so, you can have one immediately — just call or email and we’ll send you one.

Even if you haven’t had “Get a Clevertech brochure” on your GTD list, though, we think there are some worthwhile lessons to be gained from the process we went through to create ours.

We started off with this look. This is the bridge from our website header — a symbol of how we bridge the gap between tech and business — which was developed by designer Tom Hapgood from a Creative Commons licensed photograph. After quite a few renditions by designers Marcel Sendrea and Anne Burker, we came up with this one.

In business, it makes sense to use all the resources available, and to bring in expertise from multiple areas. It also makes sense not to get emotionally attached to one solution early on. An unnecessary sense of ownership and misplaced loyalty can get in the way of discovering the best solution.

A sense of ownership, in the sense of taking responsibility, and loyalty to the company, product, and team can do marvelous things.

Another page we spent a lot of time on was our Services page. Again, we had several designers working on it — designer Jay Jaro, Marcel, and Anne all contributed to this one — but the challenge of this page was in making our services more concrete, more tangible than they often seem.

A lot of our work is about insight. It’s about taking time to talk with you, visit your place of business, and fully understand what challenges and opportunities you face. Then we develop a custom-tailored strategy that gets technology to work for you.

That’s a lot more slippery than “web design.”

We wanted to create a clear image of what we do, taking up the least space and time. A lot of what’s valuable in business is a matter of making complex things work simply, and using the fewest resources possible. Often, we automatically go for the more robust, complex, impressive option. Then we regret it.

The best solutions are simple, elegant, and effective.

We created case studies next. These involved a lot of decisions. We had to determine, out of all the myriad things we’ve done recently, which were the most informative for new and potential clients. We’ve been doing a lot of WordPress lately, yet we never plan to stray away from the high-level accounting solutions we’re known for. We needed to show both ends of the spectrum of our work without making it look scattered.

In business, it’s essential to stay focused, while also being aware of new opportunities.

We also wanted to show prospective clients all about our work, while still maintaining discretion for our current clients. Transparency and security of data are both essential elements of business in the 21st century. It took technical skill on the part of a number of team members to achieve this for the brochure. We use our technical skills to achieve it for all our projects, too.

We hope you now want a copy of the new brochure, and perhaps that you’re ready to think about how Clevertech can help your business. Call or email us today.

Websites are no longer optional for businesses. If you’re in business, you have to have a website. What’s more, you have to have an up to date website– one that shows your business in its best light. Simply put: if you don’t have a website, you have to get one; if you have an old, outdated website, you have to get a new one.

Whether you respond to this news with glee or dismay, you’re bound to be wondering what the bottom line will be.

The price of a website is a particularly difficult question, because the price ranges from practically nothing to a whole lot. However, there are some predictable factors that will affect the price.

• What exactly do you need? A simple five-page website telling the world about your company will be less expensive than a site that allows you to interact with your customers. A simple design with your logo and corporate colors is going to set you back less than an elaborate design with animation and new custom illustrations. Most of the cost of a website will always be time, so you can figure that anything that takes work will cost you. At Clevertech, we specialize in identifying the problems and opportunities precisely so that we can create a solution that does exactly what you need it to with the fewest possible resources — but not less than you need.
• Who’s doing the work? A student, a friend, or an offshore expert may be able to do the work for a lower hourly rate. A more skillful designer may be able to do it faster, and thus less expensively, even at a higher hourly rate. And a firm with high overhead has to charge you more, to get the light bill and the janitor paid. At the same time, your brother-in-law or the neighbor’s kid may not have the specific skills you need to get the job done; few individuals are equally good at content, design, and development — and those few aren’t working for peanuts. Our approach is to make careful choices from a broad range of solutions, including crowdsourcing and our own team members, so that we have the exact skills to create the site you want, at the best price possible.
• How much can you help? Do you have good content that will work well for the search engines and for your human visitors? Do you have good photos on hand? As with anything that takes work, it will cost you more to have your copy written, videos made, or photos and illustrations created. Starting from scratch increases the cost of your website — but it can also increase the quality and therefore improve your results. At Clevertech, we like to build your site with an interface that lets you make your own changes and updates. This can add up to big savings over the life of your website.

These are the elements that will determine the price of your website. At Clevertech, we have a constantly-growing library of pieces we can use to build your site. We know where to go for open source and crowd-sourced elements, and how to fine-tune them to give you a custom experience. We know how to analyze the needs of your business so we can put the available resources toward the right things.

This means that we feel confident in saying that we can provide you with the best value in the long run. Not the cheapest price, necessarily — we’re not a discount outfit, and we insist on quality. But we can help you determine the best way to use the resources you have to reach your goals.

We all want growth for our business. Sometimes fast growth gets exciting. We may have to work extra hard to keep up with changes, demand, and the exhilarating pace of the opportunity. We may need new people, processes, and systems.

Here’s what we don’t need: having to call the webmaster or the IT department every time we want to make a change at our website.

When we’ve got company news, an idea for a new service, a new product rolling out fast, new staff coming on board — we shouldn’t have to wait for months to get to the top of somebody else’s list. And we don’t really want to pay an arm and a leg every time we need changes, either.

Here’s a real-world example: MD Skincare, a company that started with one product made and sold by a dermatologist from his office.

When we met them, they were earning $40 k a year. They were accelerating, though, and it was becoming a heady experience. Errors were on the increase as the doctor tried to make his old system work with the new pace of business. Clevertech built a new ecommerce site with back-end functionality that made things work better.

Another example: Progressive Promotions, Inc.

CEO Julie Levi was recently named a 2010 WBENC Women’s Business Enterprise’s Star. She wanted to get that information onto the web site fast. And the fact that they were featured in a Bloomberg news webinar. And that picture of Marcia Cross in her PPI apron. Something’s always happening at PPI these days. Unfortunately, the cost of getting the constant updates on the website was out of line with PPI’s plans. So Clevertech gave them control over their own business website.

That’s a basic for us: empowering you to run your business the way you want. You shouldn’t feel stuck, waiting for someone else.

The secret to these two websites’ success is WordPress. If you thought WP was just for blogs, you’re behind the curve. WP has been downloaded more than 10 million times, and plenty of current WP sites are a far cry from being “just another WordPress blog.” It’s a very well-designed content management system, and that’s the key to being able to update your site on your own.

Here’s what’s so great about WordPress:

• If you know what you’re doing, you can make a WP site look any way you want, including just like your old site that you couldn’t get into without special permission from the IT department. Clevertech likes to  convert sites to WP, specifically so that our clients have power over their sites. It’s not a design decision; it’s a content management system that works for you.
• If you don’t know what you’re doing yet, you soon will. We train our clients to use their new sites, so we know they’re not putting hours into the changeover or suffering with a steep learning curve. If you can handle Facebook, you can handle a WP site.
• WordPress sites do what you want with the greatest possible efficiency. There’s a huge community of WP developers. That means that there are lots of plug-ins and widgets and ideas out there to work with. This allows us to build your site at a fraction of the time and cost of building a custom site. With no loss of functionality. We just don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
• WP works intelligently. The content is separate from the design and display. That means that you can change things in the database without disturbing the theme. You can serve your site to different people with different themes. You can play around all you want without committing yourself — and without losing any information. In addition, daily automatic backups — plus the option of saving your folder at any point — keep things up to date and safe.

There’s much more to this idea than we’ve been able to include in this single discussion. Call Clevertech at (888) 494-1260 to explore the ways that a WordPress conversion  or a new WordPress website could benefit your company.