Smart Box of Tricks Ltd

Reduce Billing Errors and Improve Productivity

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:56:06 +0000

Are you still typing in every finance transaction into your finance software? Do you have finance software or do you give a pile of receipts to your accountant every month? Do you end up having to re-bill because of manually typed errors?

If you had all your customers pay you online directly into your bank account, and you paid all your suppliers directly online too; then you would have an electronic record of most of your finance transactions. Most bank accounts allow you to download these transactions in a file – and with most types of Finance software you can load this file directly. This reduces errors and time spent typing.

Hope that helps!

Reduce Paper, Improve Your Cashflow

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:21:40 +0000

Did you know that instead of sending a paper invoice, you can write an invoice in Word or Excel, convert it into a PDF document and email the attachment to your customer? They then can then go online and pay you directly into your bank account via BACS. Banks have recently improved their payment systems so that instead of waiting three to four days to receive a payment, you can now receive it in three to four hours! How many days do you save? Postage? Printing? Writing addresses?

Things you can do:

Have a chat with your customers to see if there are willing to accept invoicing by email.
Because you are relying more on IT to conduct your transactions – ensure you have a backup!
There are free PDF convertors on the web that you can either use online or download, if your word processor does not support it. However, other productivity tools like Lotus Symphony include this feature free of charge.
Lawyer? Consultant? Worried about delivery of email and security? Check the features of your email client to see if they support encryption and proof of delivery. This is very possible, but you may require some technical assistance.

Hope that helps!

Keeping Your Information Secure

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:03:03 +0000

Distinct from keeping your information safe from accidents and computer failure, keeping your information secure means keeping it out of reach of criminals, the competition or even (as some reports suggest) more likely from employees past and present!

What can you do to ensure data doesn’t get into the wrong hands?

Identify which data is sensitive and store it in a separate location, which cannot be accessed by everybody. That may be something as simple as a cupboard with a lock!
Password protect your computer, your internet and email accounts using different passwords.
Use strong passwords – including capital letters, symbols and numbers and change them regularly.
Enable user management on your network or PC so that each person has a separate account. This means that each user has their own unique access and password to folders and stops unauthorised access.

Use encryption:

This is a process where data is scrambled using a password and renders the resulting file unreadable wthout the password. When someone wants to access the data, the password can then be used to unscramble the data. It is a technique that is becoming increasingly widespread – the most common example is when you do online banking – all information between you and the remote website host is scrambled (when you see the little padlock in the internet browser address bar).

You can obtain software that will encrypt your sensitive documents or even the whole hard disk. A reasonable precaution is to buy encrypted USB memory sticks. You can now fit an enormous amount of information on them, but hey are easy to lose. If they are lost and encrypted, the chances of them being accessed by the wrong person is much lower. For example PKZIP do a secure version of their popular Winzip file compression utlity. Truecrypt offer a free hark disk encryption program.

Hope that helps!

Which Brand of Computer?

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:13:43 +0000

With the resurgence of Apple and their Mac computers, people are very tempted to buy their line of products. We use both PC and Mac and from our perspective they both display advantages and disadvantages.

Apple – Advantages:

More user friendly interface and intuitive software. Its easier to install programs. The overall design and look of the software is more slick and there are generally less steps to take to get something done. The pre-installed software allows you to do anything from create websites to burn movies, however productivity software is missing.
The operating system is more stable and requires less attention than the PC (we haven’t tried Windows 7 yet). It still requires updates, though, and we noted that there is not the same sense of urgency to install Antivirus software, as with a PC.
Cutting edge design.
The new generation of computers can integrate much better with Microsoft / PC features. You can connect straight away to a standard network, a disk used by a PC, and if you wanted to use Windows based software, you can now install Windows on a Mac (!)

Apple – Disadvantages

Software on the Mac still crashes. In addition, there is still a lot less software for the Mac than for the PC (although that is improving).
You will still want to use your old PC based software as not everything can be transferred across. Also, using a Mac for the first time, you will have to learn a different way of doing things. Not difficult – and there are a lot of useful hints and tips out there.
They are definitely more expensive as you pay for the brand and design.
If you use MS Office for word processing etc, you will have to pay again for a new license for the Mac. Consider using an open office format such as Openoffice.org or Lotus Symphony. This software is becoming very mature and well established – and can be free too!
Software and document formats are tightly controlled by Apple. Itunes, for example, stores all its music in its own format that cannot be read by other music players.
You still have to watch out for attaching peripherals to Mac – not all are compatible or have the drivers.

PC / Windows – Advantages:

Huge range of devices, components, software and hardware that can come prepackaged and off the shelf ready for use. These are provided by major manufacturers such as Dell and HP right through to smaller “mom & pop” stores and niche players.
Manufacturers, software suppliers and Microsoft continue to invest massively into their product lines – so new features and functionality are always appearing.
The cost of computing continues to come down. A standard PC package over a decade ago cost £1000 – now you can get the same deal for £500 or less. This means you probably now have two or three (old) computers and a laptop too!
Most of you will now have spent a lot of time with PC / Microsoft so even if you dislike the idea of Windows and PC, you can use it and are familiar with the way that it works.

PC / Windows – Disadvantages

The operating system, which ever version you have, requires tender loving care. Be it patches, antivirus, updates, new releases; time needs to be spent maintaining your PC. Some of you will have got to know your PC’s intimately. Those of you who haven’t, risk losing your information! However, in PC / Windows’s defence, if you think of the number of things people can attach to it, the ways in which it can be set up, or the thousands of different software packages (some less reputable than others) people can install – it is no wonder you get the dreaded blue screen of death occasionally.
You need to know more about your PC and IT to get stuff done. You can’t be a simple user doing simple things on a PC. Often software requires a laborious set up process. Simple tasks like printing sometimes end up requiring a call to customer support and doing something called “updating the printer drivers” in “hardware profiles”.

Hope that helps!

How Can Technology Help?

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:09:10 +0000

IT is having more and more of an impact on the way we do business, some of the ideas we talk about now have become common themes amongst smaller businesses in the past 5 years:

Reduces order lead-time - Taking orders from customers via the internet.
Improve sales - Use Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – making sure that when people look for services you offer on the internet, your business is present and making sure that your website is effective in getting its message across.
Stay in touch – Accessing your emails whereever you are in the world.
Reduces costs and carbon emissions - Have “virtual” meetings instead of travelling.
Improving productivity and reducing costs by automation – see Reduce Printing and Improve Your Cash flow.
Share documents using collaboration software – have them all in one place so you can track versions, reduce email attachments and grant access to your customers, suppliers and partners.
Reduce costs – Use VOIP telephony so you can make internet calls.
Reduce errors and improve productivity – Integrate your online banking with your Finance software.

Don’t think this is just the domain of “Big Business”. This is now “Small Business” and technology is here to help!

Keeping your information safe

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:05:49 +0000

What happens if you lose your documents or your email? Or your computer gets a virus? Most businesses value their information far higher than the equipment they use to store it on. Yet, given the risk to the business of losing your data – how much time / money have you spent putting in measures to prevent or compensate for the loss? The impact of information loss can be devastating. Lost days can be spent trying to restore hard disks, and such events can precipitate lost business.

Many large organizations backup all their central file and email stores overnight, every 24 hours. In addition, extensive efforts are made to ensure that every PC and server has upto date virus protection installed. Having similar processes in place within the small office or home office is not out of reach, with many back up programs out in the market place.

Many vendors such as Symantec, Kaspersky produce antivirus software. AVG releases a free version of their software. For backup software, Apple Mac’s use “Time Machine” and the upgraded versions of Microsoft Vista or Windows 7 already have backup software built-in.

Many external hard disks that connect via USB to a computer already come pre-installed with backup software, so you can back up with one press of a button. Indeed some Internet Service Providers such as BT or software providers such as Symantec provide an online backup of your documents, where you send your information to a remote hosting service.

Things you can do to reduce the impact of data loss:

Ensure that you have an up to date antivirus program installed on your computer. Keep it updated.
Always make a copy of your files and keep it in a separate location from your computer. Keep it updated.

Hope that helps!

Beyond Googlemail and Hotmail

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:05:17 +0000

If you still rely on webmail (such as Hotmail or Yahoo) to email suppliers and customers, it may be time to start thinking about a more professional solution for your business. Using your hotmail account may not give the right impression as it may not relate to your brand.

In addition many of these webmail accounts, although free, do not allow you to download your email to your PC, meaning you have to log on every time you want to access your email. So what? What happens if you want to change email providers, or they decide to withdraw their free service? How do you transfer all the records of your transactions – that by now would contain a sizable chunk of your business history?

You may want to contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) (such as Sky, Virgin Media or BT, for example) about what email solutions they have and whether they can provide you email accounts as part of your internet package. However, be warned that you may end up with an email account that looks like this: fred@yourbusiness.btinternet.co.uk.

Alternatively, you may want to contact a Website hosting provider who in many cases can offer you a “domain” name such as www.yourbusinessname.co.uk , and say 10 email accounts such as fred@yourbusinessname.co.uk. to which all your future email correspondence can be directed. You can then arrange with the provider to download and send email to that address which they “host”.

At this point, you will also need to use an “email client” on your computer to edit, send and store all your downloaded email. Microsoft bundle with their operating system a basic programme called “Outlook Express”; and with their productivity suite, “Office” they include Outlook, that also includes calendar and contact functionality. Other third party email applications include “Lotus Notes”, “Opera” and “Eudora” that can be procured, and in some cases for free.

Issues around this approach are:

Spam filtering – does your ISP carry this out for you? if not you may need additional software, in many cases bundled with Anti-virus software.
Computer viruses sent via email – do you have an Antivirus programme installed that checks for this?

Hope that helps!

Sharing Information and Documents

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:02:51 +0000

As soon as you have more than one employee or computer, you start running into issues around sharing information – where do you keep shared documents, HOW do you share information? Do you use a memory stick and swap between computers, or would you email attachments – ending up with more than one copy of the same document in two different places?

Today, many Internet Service Providers bundle a “router” with the internet connection that you pay for monthly – you know, that box with flashing lights that sits near the telephone point. These often have a “switch” incorporated into the back of them (4 square holes bunched together inserting something called an “Ethernet” cable) where you can connect up to 4 different computers, creating a network. Even better, some of these routers have an inbuilt Wireless Access Point, that allows you to do exactly the same thing, but without cables.

So? If you wanted to keep your documents in one place, you can now designate one computer as the central file store and grant access via the network to the second computer . This now allows your colleague to store, retrieve and edit documents without you having to email attachments or use the memory stick! Saves you time and allows you to manage your documents more effectively!

There are also devices called Network Attached Storage. These do the same thing as your now networked computer, but use less power than a standard PC yet have huge capacity for storing documents. Your geeky friend may use them for streaming video and music to any PC they may have in the house! The great advantage is that it can be attached to the router, tucked away out of sight and allows you to switch your PC off even if your colleague still wants to access those documents.

Hope that helps!

Coping with Business Growth and Information Technology

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:01:49 +0000

What happens when you take on an employee? Do you want them to use email? How would you share information with them? Would they use the same computer as you or would you have to buy additional?

Perhaps at this point you may want to sit back and think longer term. After all, you don’t want to make impulsive purchases now and find that when another employee arrives a year later, you are back to square one again – here are some worthwhile questions-

Where will you be in three years time? How many employees will you have then?
What technologies can you use now to make life simpler?
What are your business priorities and where can IT help in those priorities?
Do you need to be doing anything about information security?

Another key question is about your approach and attitude to IT. IT has made huge advances in the past decade and the way you conduct business now has probably been affected by it in some measure – have you embraced this change or avoided dealing with it as long as possible? As technology advances, your competitors may well be getting an advantage as they invest.

Here are some simple things you can be doing now:

Read up on the blog postings for some useful hints and tips on how to deal with IT – and email jon@walloo.biz on suggestions for blog posts.
Plan ahead. Outline your business requirements and what you want to do in the next 3 years.
Work out how much you spend on IT every year with what you currently have – the questionnaire can help with that.
See what your competitors are doing with their IT – how organised is their IT?
Determine whether what you spend now is sufficient to keep pace with your competitors and the change in IT technology.

Hope that helps!